Daily Royal Ramble #5 (28th March 2014)

Welcome loyal reader to the fifth installment of the Daily Royal Ramble! Today's Ramble is going to continue yesterday's theme of looking at where I am with a number of wrestling companies. Yesterday I wrote about TNA, today I'm going to take a quick look at Ring of Honor and New Japan.

However, before that I'd like a look at last night's NXT that aired on the WWE Network. The main draw for this episode was an NXT Championship bout with Adrian Neville defending against Bo Dallas. I really enjoyed this bout, some really lovely wrestling, some awfully stiff strikes for WWE and some of the best false finishes I've seen in a while. I honestly thought Dallas had the match won after he got the knees up on Neville's Red Arrow, with Neville kicking out at the last minute I was on the edge of my seat from then on. The finish saw Neville hit a crazy 450 splash to retain his title, it was fast paced and left us with no doubt that Neville's first win wasn't just a fluke. Everything in this one worked for, there were a few sloppy moments and a few moments when it was clear the action had to be cut in post-production, but this still was a splendid NXT main event. I would expect we'll see Bo Dallas turning up on the main roster soon, as it appear like he's done all he can do in NXT, he's more ready than he was fourteen months ago when WWE first tried to bring up to the main roster and with the right storyline I can see Bo flourishing on Raw and Smackdown.

Elsewhere, there really wasn't much else of note for me, Natalya defeating Charlotte by disqualification was a decent storyline continuer, but I'm not completely sold on the Flair vs. Hart story, as it seems like Charlotte is attempting to do a David Flair and piggy back off her father's legacy, whilst Bret Hart looked extremely bored at ringside, at times even a bit lost and confused. (4/10 Bret) It would seem Corey Graves is being primed for a run opposite Neville for the strap, as he squashed Yoshi Tatsu, and will face Sami Zayn next week, in what should be another excellent contest. I'm still not sold on Mojo Rawley, I don't think the gimmick fits the in-ring work, and if Chris Hero was told to get in shape, so should Rawley, he looks pretty flabby out there, he picked up the victory over CJ Parker non-the-less. Xavier Woods continues to go nowhere since turning up on the main roster, the decision to simply give him Brodus Clay's music and gimmick has killed any momentum he had and is possibly the laziest booking decision I've ever seen. He lost to Tyler Breeze this week to close their feud in a decent outing.

Overall a decent edition of NXT, the main event was an entertaining and enjoyable watch, but most of the show didn't match up to it and it's clear there's still a lot of work to do on some of these guys both as wrestlers and characters.

Now, onto where I am with Ring of Honor and New Japan. If you read yesterday's Ramble, you'll remember I started by talking about how I feel I've become to WWE-Centric over the last few months and talked about how I would rectify this (Check it out yourself for the full explanation), so I'm continuing that today by re-considering my stance with both Ring of Honor and New Japan.

Let's kick-off with Ring of Honor. I was, at one point, a subscriber to their website and brought a handful of DVD's. I was rarely disapointed with the match quality, but due to the taping schedule, I never felt an urgent need to watch the TV product, and eventually I fell behind. I also noticed that a lot of the guys at the top in ROH had been there for some time and there was very little upward mobility in the company, with the exception of Michael Elgin and Adam Cole, ROH's main event scene had been pretty stagnant for some time, coupled with a tiring ROH vs. SCUM storyline that ended in a clusterfuck, I really wasn't feeling ROH anymore. Whilst I was always guaranteed some quality in ring action, it would likely be the same few guys, with a weak storyline, I've probably not watched ROH in about eight months or so, and when I look at the cards they put on, they're pretty much the same as when I was last watching, with what seems like the same storylines running. Don't get me wrong, I love a good long storyline, but it needs to be a good idea in the first place!

Now, recently ROH have announced they will be running two iPPV's with New Japan Pro Wrestling, in May. This has piqued my interest for sure, for the simple reason that I've been meaning to watch New Japan for an extremely long time, and this seems to me like a great way to get into the product. This month alone saw three New Japan matches make the top six of our Match of the Month, with a similar result looking possible for February. So, yes, I will be watching on May 10th and 17th and hopefully this will be the start of me following ROH again and beginning to follow New Japan, which can only be good news for the blog.

That's it for today, boys and girls, I hope you've enjoyed my rambling on this fine Friday evening. I'll be back tomorrow with some news of how Kamikaze Pro fans can win a 2 disc DVD at Sunday's Over the Top show. Keep tuned.

WWE NXT 29th May 2013 Review

This episode of NXT felt like a farewell/new beginning kind of episode, as we saw a number of Superstars final appearance for WWE as well as a number of debuts and a new number one contender.

18 Man NXT Championship Number One Contenders Battle Royal

Now I don’t know about you, but I love a good battle royal and with the amount of talent in the ring this should have been a fantastic exciting contest, and for the most part it was. With Corey Graves, Bray Wyatt, Kassius Ohno, Adrian Neville, Bo Dallas and Mason Ryan all involved in the contest it was difficult to pick a winner from this bunch, which always adds to match of this type.

The earlier stages of the match was dominated by former Nexus member Mason Ryan, who was given the hilarious nickname “Cardiff Colossus”, as he threw out over half of the competitors including Main Roster superstars Curt Hawkins and Yoshi Tatsu, as well as Briley Pierce and Sakamoto in their last appearance for WWE and the former El Generico, Sami Zayn. With the focus clearly on Mason Ryan’s power, it would seem that NXT is high on Mason Ryan, and personally though he is physically impressive, he doesn’t really offer a lot else and with Superstars like Ryback already occupying similar spots on the Main Roster I don’t really see where Ryan could figure. He was eventually eliminated by fellow Brit Adrian Neville.

With Corey Graves and Kassius Ohno teaming up to eliminate Conor O’Brian only to themselves be eliminated by Bray Wyatt, this sets up nicely for their tag team match with the Wyatt Family next week, it’s been a quick build up and I’m interested to see how Graves & Ohno play out as faces, hopefully they keep the edge that made them so great to watch in the first place. Bray then sped about the ring delivering damage to the former NXT Tag Champions, Neville and Dallas, showing why WWE has decided to move him up to the Main Roster soon, until Neville got another surprise elimination with a huge enziguri.

The final stages of the battle royal were enthralling with Neville and Dallas both hanging on to the ropes to stay in the match at various points. Neville particularly impressed me, with a number of small mannerisms which made it look like he was just about to be eliminated and raised the final moments of the contest. As the two exchanged blows it was clear who the crowd was behind, cheering Neville and booing Dallas, and I have to say I agree. Although, I believe Dallas is a talent young wrestler, I can’t see him ever progressing past a mid-card spot within WWE. Therefore it was even more surprising when Neville missed his British Airways finishing move and Dallas through him out of the contest. Big E Langston vs. Bo Dallas will be an interesting contest, but doesn’t quite have the same feel as Langston vs. Adrian Neville for me.

Best of the Rest

Langston was in action earlier in the evening against the departing Derrick Bateman. The match was quick squash match with Bateman only getting a little early offence, including a nice front kick in the corner before Big E ploughed him down and hit Bateman with the Big Ending for the win. As usual Langston went on to hit his finisher again for a count of five which the audience lapped up. With Langston appearing more and more on Raw and Smackdown it can only be a matter of time before Langston drops the title and disappears from NXT altogether.  

Elsewhere, there was a rare appearance from Stephanie McMahon, who hasn’t been seen on WWE TV since the Hall of Fame ceremony. The Billionaire Princess was there to announce the brand new NXT Women’s Championship and a tournament for the belt starting next week. It is clearly a good idea to introduce the title as it gives the younger competitors something to work for and build storylines around. It will be interesting to see who goes on to eventually win the belt with the early front runners being the likes of Paige, Summer Rae or Emma.

Speaking of Emma she was also in action against a departing Audrey Marie. Emma’s dancing gimmick seemed to get over with the Orlando faithful with plenty joining in with her strange arm movements, however it’s worth wondering if WWE really needs another dancing gimmick, with the likes Fandango, Tons of Funk and R-Truth already occupying spaces on the Main Roster. The match itself was short and messy, with a number of awkward looking moments between the two. Audrey Marie should little to prove that WWE should not have released and she would’ve added little to the Diva’s division which needs stronger performers and characters to build it back up. Emma’s new submission finish, the Emma Lock was probably the best part of the match and was executed well by the young Australian Diva.

There was also two tag team squash matches on the show, the first featuring current NXT Tag Team Champions Luke Harper and Eric Rowan, the Wyatt Family taking on rarely used talents Sawyer Fulton and Travis Tyler. The Wyatt Family dominated the match that went no longer than a minute and a half with Luke Harper pinning Travis Tyler after a Discus Clothesline. Somehow, in such a short match there was an awkward moment where Sawyer Fulton dropped off Harper’s shoulders and attempted to reach for the tag, unfortunately he was way too close to Tyler and this removed any believability to the contest. Neither Tyler nor Fulton did anything to show me that they should move further up the NXT ranks anytime soon.

The other Tag Team contest saw the debuts of Scott Dawson and Garrett Dylan, alongside their manager Sylvester LeFort. Dawson and Dylan play the classic Redneck tag team, whilst LeFort plays an over the top Frenchman in a Leopard print coat, imagine Cade & Murdoch managed by Rico and you’ve pretty much got this team. They faced the now release Brandon Traven and Vader’s son Jake Carter. Teaming up Dawson and Dylan seems like a good idea by WWE, as neither quite has that star power on their own, but as a team they seem to come into their own, producing hard hitting tag team action and could find a niche within the Main Tag Team Roster in the future. Their sit out spine buster/sit out axe handle combination finish was an impressive finish and I can see it getting over with the crowd. LeFort brought little to the team and I’m sceptical about the whole Frenchman leading Rednecks thing, as it just wasn’t done strong enough, although I’m happy to see how it plays out in the coming weeks.

Finally…

What did we learn from this week’s NXT? 

1. Bo Dallas is destined for NXT Championship match, though we’d rather see Adrian Neville get a shot 

2.  WWE won’t regret any of its recent developmental releases.

3. Brad Maddox is hilarious on commentary.

Announced for next week: Kassius Ohno & Corey Graves vs. The Wyatt Family 

WWE Main Event 10th April 2013 Review

I've enjoyed Main Event since it debuted in October last year, I originally enjoyed the concept of one big match with interviews and build up before hand, which made it feel worthwhile viewing and something different to the usual WWE programming. However within the last few months it has reverted to a usual WWE format, similiar to that used by Superstars, albeit still using Superstars higher-up the WWE totem pole. That doesn't mean there still can't be some great matches from time to time, just removes a little of the shows originally unique identity.

In this weeks Main Event, The Shield took on Tons of Funk & Kofi Kingston. As well as appearances from Jack Swagger and Big E Langston.

The Shield Vs. Tons of Funk & Kofi Kingston w/The Funkadactyls

Another solid outing from Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns. They are steadily becoming one of the best things about WWE programming constantly proving themselves in the ring against a huge variety of opponents. It's especially noticeable how far Roman Reigns has come since the formation of the group. I remember at the time wondering why WWE had put Reigns with Rollins and Ambrose after seeing the pair's previous work on the independent scene as Tyler Black and Jon Moxley respectively, but Reign's has since proved that he belongs amongst this elite group. 

It's also becoming interesting to see The Shield beginning to win their matches in a variety of way, we've seen the Triple Powerbomb, as well as The Flying Antelope, but on Main Event, Seth Rollins picked up the victory with a Leaping Knee Drop. Giving this group a variety of finishes will add to the unpredictable nature of the group that WWE has been running with.

However, we may have a case of too much of a good thing going on with The Shield, who we've already seen on Raw and NXT this week, and I believe we'll be seeing them on Smackdown as well. If WWE continue to have to group on all their programming, they may run out of steam quicker than they should do, which would be a shame after a great few months of build up.

Another point of interest is the fall of Kofi Kingston. After being a foot note in the Fandango and Chris Jericho confrontation on Raw, as well as being relegated to panelist on the Wrestlemania Pre-Show, and then another loss here to The Shield, it would appear Kofi is very out of favour with WWE at the moment, despite seemingly having a lot of support from the fans, both young and old, Kofi seems like someone who could do the rare thing of uniting the fan base, as he is both likeable and competent in the ring. However WWE obviously don't see that in Kingston as he has been stuck in the midcard for what seems like forever and now seems to have slipped even further. May we see Kofi future endeavoured very soon?

Best of The Rest

 

 

Zeb Colter continues to prove his worth to Jack Swagger, after a superb speech before Swagger's match with Yoshi Tatsu. Colter berated the Boston crowd on a number of topics including Boston playing a "Canadian Sport" which seemed to get a ton of heat (although it's difficult to tell on the pre-taped Main Event) Colter went on to bully Tatsu, by asking questions about his culture. This makes for uncomfortable watching, but I'm pretty sure that's the point, the character continues to push the fans buttons in wrestling world where real heat is difficult to come by, it's hard not to hate the Zeb Colter character and his views.

The match itself was quick and pacy, although it did not although either competitor to show much of what they could do in the ring as Swagger picked up an early victory with The Patriot Lock. It really is a shame how little WWE uses Yoshi Tatsu as he's had some of the best matches on WWE TV over the last few years, his match with Tyson Kidd (another under used talent) were completely different to anything on WWE at the time and they even managed to make an Object on a Pole Match worth watching.

There was also another outing for current NXT Champion Big E Langston who faced Zack Ryder. Before the match Langston was interviewed by Josh Matthews about his Wrestlemania match, his Raw debut and Dolph Ziggler cashing in Money in the Bank. Langston proved to be just as impressive on the mic as he is in the ring, switching between humourous and serious with expert pace. The match saw Langston dominate Ryder who barely got any offence in at all. It seems as if the Ryder Revolution truly is over (and not in the way Ryder had hoped)

Finally...

This Main Event was basically a collection of squash matches, there was no doubt who was going to win all three of these matches, something which wouldn't have happened in the earlier episodes. However there was some interesting stuff on the show, The Shield's match was solid, and their Triple Powerbomb of Tensai was impressive, Big E Langston showed us what he could do with a Microphone and Zeb Colter continue to do great work in making Jack Swagger look like a star. However for me, this Main Event was one of the under utilized star, the likes of Kofi Kingston, Yoshi Tatsu and Zack Ryder all extremely talented, but this new Post-Wrestlemania landscape and new stars like Bray Wyatt, Kassius Ohno and Adrian Neville on the horizon how long will it before these Superstars are sent packing by WWE?