Tuesday, March 19, 2024
EditorialThe Buildup Is Where NXT Succeeds And WWE Fails.

The Buildup Is Where NXT Succeeds And WWE Fails.

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Once Vince McMahon noticed his developmental system, he promoted overdue wrestlers like Sami Zayn to the main roster. He now keeps calling up more and more NXT wrestlers to shakeup the stale rosters. The roster call-ups leave NXT with next to nothing at times, no real contenders for titles and divisions consisting of two or three people. With all odds stacked against them, though, NXT discovers surprising solutions to its inevitable problems.

It is hard to grasp how they keep doing it, although easy to explain. See, NXT – despite being disadvantaged by losing talent before it could really establish them – outperforms WWE because of booking. WWE has better wrestlers and bigger superstars, but NXT – regardless of their thin roster – makes fans more excited for upcoming matches and the overall product.

Sure, matches like Samoa Joe vs. Shinsuke Nakamura will get any underground wrestling fans excited in any company, but the difference between WWE and NXT, for instance, is that WWE believes dream matches are enough. In other words, it does not think it needs a dominant story – the match will instead sell itself. It believes this with wholehearted conviction in spite of its simple-mindedness, ignorant that perhaps a few people are uninterested to see Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Orton and that a compelling story could kindle interest for it. NXT believes on the other hand a dream-like match still needs a good conflict.

The Samoan Submission Machine and the King of Strong Style’s brief sit-down interview sold me more than anything did on Raw or Smackdown for the past four or so weeks. The match intrigued me before, but now I cannot wait to see it. As Jim Ross would say, you could cut the tension with a knife,as the room felt like it was scorching at a sweating level temperature.

Two men focused on dethroning the other and who hate each other because they stand in the way of both’s objectives. There was also an ultra-verisimilitude ambiance to the segment. No sophomoric jokes. No one-liners. No punchlines. This match was serious business for both wrestlers, and Joe’s reaction to Nakamura’s mocking behavior could not have been more passionately believable. Nakamura played mind-games with Joe, and it will be interesting to see if they haunt him or payoff. Will they turn Joe into an uncontrollable savage or make him too overzealous and hot headed for his own good? See, good booking creates interesting questions.

Even though on paper Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks looks better on paper, Bayley vs. Asuka is much more interesting. The story is the reason. The theme for Bayley and Asuka is revenge. Bayley is seeking revenge after Asuka embarrassed her by throwing her around like a rag doll. It is a simple story that has been told countless of time, but with the right people and storytelling, it can be as good as a complex story – if not better. Who gets tired of watching Rocky I, after all?

Conversely, WWE ran out of material for Charlotte and Banks. It seemed that Summerslam would be Banks’ defining moment: finally winning the Women’s title while giving Charlotte the comeuppance she deserved. WWE instead gave her the moment on its new era of Raw episode, which was
understandable, but what is not is that WWE failed to create an interesting story for the SummerSlam match. The match is simply two good women wrestlers wrestling for the title with an outcome that is a foregone conclusion. Knowing Sasha Banks will win is not the problem, though. The problem is that Charlotte did nothing to Sasha that vehemently makes fans want to see Banks win.

NXT even understands subtle things. Billie Kay was outraged she did not have a match at NXT Takeover. She demanded William Regal to give her a match. He gave her the debuting Ember Moon. Moon is a mystifying character who is unique and perhaps a little scary. If WWE booked this, Kay would have been scared or backtracked – rendering the moot of her overconfident character. It would have also made her look dumb, knowing that Regal would not give her easy competition after he demanding he owes her a match because she is oh-so awesome. Her reaction instead was, “okay, bring it on”, which also makes the match appear as if it will be more competitive as well.

Smartly, NXT gave Bobby Roode an ideal gimmick. It one that made him so good in TNA, but it works better in NXT. He is a prototypical wrestler, looking, talking and wrestling like a, as WWE would call it, superstar. He has the corporate and machine-made presence written all over him, which is a contrast to most of NXT’s wrestlers who do not look like a million bucks but make up that deficiency by working twice as hard in the ring. He is a narcissist who wants to walkover every NXT-like wrestler – especially the ones no one “pay to see.”

The tag team titles match is simply effective old school booking. Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano earned their title shot by working their way up the ladder. They will face the Revival, who is arguably the most dominant tag team in NXT’s history. This feud proves that title matches do not always need a thought-provoking story, just some logical booking can do the trick. Making both teams look strong and building the match up as one people need to see is sometimes all it needs.

From one egomaniac (Roode) to another, the man who claims he is the greatest man to live, Austin Aries will take on the fun-spirit, opportunistic No Way Jose. This is another fun mid-card feud. Aries came up short in a number one contenders match against Nakamura but wanted to forget about the loss by having some good old fun with No Way Jose. Or, so we thought. After dancing around for a while, Aries turned on No Way Jose by mercilessly beating him up. The beat down, though, caused No Way Jose’s character to arc, showing an unhinged intense side no one saw before. This easily could have been a throwaway match with no purpose, but it is instead an intuitive, character-driven match with abstract ramifications.

Similar to Sasha/Charlotte vs. Bayley/Asuka, SummerSlam looks better on paper but the build makes NXT Takeover more interesting. NXT Takeover is a well-put-together card with smart and effective buildup whereas SummerSlam’s build has been dubious at best with feuds lacking internal/external conflicts, feuds feeling bloated and overexposed, feuds lacking sense, or feuds just not being all that captivating. Even with its depleted roster, NXT’s show looks more compelling than WWE’s thanks to its much smarter booking.

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