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| Let's be specific: this man can be the future, if they let him Screen Grab Credit: Brandon Stroud/With Leather |
Butch: Hello, Blogians! Yet again it's time for Coast to Coast, where site honcho TH (East Coast) and I, your loyally intrepid Biaser (Best Coast) will lay ruin to a distance of three thousand miles by electronically mailing back and forth through a series of tubes (as is my understanding), talking about the underserved wrestling topics of the moment.
So, boss, I put this to you: for metafans like us the Wyatt Family videos seem to have the tubes abuzz with a potentially bright future for the Southern cult on the big programs. Who on the NXT roster would you like to see get called up next doing more or less what they've been doing down at Full Sail University?
TH: Well, the obvious answer is to go with someone who's a known quantity, right? We know Kassius Ohno. We know Sami Zayn. We know Adrian Neville, Xavier Woods, and Conor O'Brien. But the most intriguing choice is also the one fraught with the most danger. We know Paige. Thanks to the relative young age she was signed and the limited dates she worked for companies on American soil, we may not know her as well as we knew Ohno as Chris Hero, for example.
However, she represents a pedigree that elevates women in wrestling to higher levels than what WWE has gone for the most part. She's been able to do her thing in FCW/NXT from the best of my knowledge. Will she be able to do it on the big roster though? I mean, Summer Rae, to the best of my knowledge, was a scion of Team LayCool. Her scowl game is on point, don't get me wrong, but doesn't it feel funny to you that she's not doing as much supplementing to Fandango as she could, and instead of the subject of creepy-ass leering from men old enough to be her father?
That's why I both love and hate myself for thinking Paige is the next one who should be called up. On one hand, maybe if they are letting NXT peeps be themselves when they hit the bigs, she can be given some kind of license, a spark if you will, to set the Divas ablaze and replace them with the term "female superstars" or even better, just as "superstars" in general. Y'know, like the men. But I've seen Nattie Neidhart be reduced to first a farting caricature and then Great Khali's arm candy. I've seen Beth Phoenix's pushes get started and stopped so jarringly that she was the first person I thought of when the transmission on my car started to go this past weekend. I've seen Kharma's screeched-to-a-halt arc not be continued because she "gained too much weight" after pregnancy, this the same company that has hired Viscera on more than two occasions. Am I wrong to be so down on the prospect of any woman ever getting a chance in Vince McMahon's Wrestle-merica?
Butch: Totally in agreement about the booking tendencies for women & for Paige, who is so awesome I'm willingly rooting for a babyface Kristen Stewart character. ME. And the booking has been so horribly Sterling, Cooper, and Partners that it made me bury my hopes of a Emmaloution to answer this question. I mean, they sort of have that with Kaitlyn, and that's getting buried under miles of irrelevancy and fupuckkery (pretty sure I just invented that word) where she needs to have a man to validate her on-camera time instead of her being a goofy, attractive nerdy girl who happens to throw a decent spear.
So I'll answer the question in the obvious way with Adrian Neville. I missed PAC's PWG run but heard scuttlebutt and buzz about him.
And then I saw it. Sometimes you just know.
The first time I saw Jessica Alba, watched Community, had a S'More with bacon on it - you just know.
Seeing him successfully pull of a corkscrew shooting star press?! I had a less visceral reaction the first time I saw an attractive woman's bare chest. Catching him in matches both tag and singles against Cesaro amongst others and seeing him be a maskless, white Rey Mysterio is enthralling. And once you see the CSSP, it's always in the back of your head. And you want to see it happen in a match instead of watching it on YouTube in a hypnotizing loop like Homer's jiggling blubber. He bumps well, his gamengiris crackle, he's subtly working a bit of a giant-killing angle as evidenced in the battle royale a few weeks ago, and since Evan Bourne's unfortunate passing there needs to be that man who comes off the top with aerial armageddon. I feel Neville can be that man. Holz, how high are you on his prospects?
TH: I saw him live a couple of times, and a few more on DVD back when he was still PAC. He's certainly got "it," whatever "it" is. I want to get excited for him in WWE, because he's the kind of guy who could set audiences ablaze the way the pyromancers in King's Landing could only dream of. If there's ever a guy whom I think could overcome the "not speaking" barrier, it's him, although who knows, just because he's rarely ever unleashed his Newcastle tones on people outside of the settings of the Art of Wrestling doesn't mean he's not a good promo.
Still, I get the feeling that he's just another Justin Gabriel. Now, I like Gabriel, but he's another non-American English speaker who doesn't (can't?) talk but has a flippy offense that should have gotten him more chances than he's been afforded to date. That being said? Those feelings are weak when I remember that, again, while I like Gabriel, there's no denying that all his non-450 splash offense makes him look like he's more stop motion animation than human being.
Neville also has size going for him, which is something that, if the shadow empire of sources that feeds the dirt sheet writers their precious information about the whims and whimsy of Vince McMahon, is a big plus. Like you, I'm unreasonably excited for him, but what about Kassius Ohno? He's a favorite of ours, and anyone who's seen him in the indies (HELLO!) knows that he's got the chops in the ring to work any style, from World of Sport to Japanese strong style even to WWE main event to go along with his obvious charisma. The question isn't whether he'll succeed; it is whether he'll do so without ever being attached to his former indie BFF Antonio Cesaro. How bullish are you on Kings Reigning Supreme, especially with the 9832783rd attempt at rebooting the WWE Tag Team Division seemingly about to take hold?
Butch: See, this is another problem the E has right now: besides the Hell Noers I'm not particularly compelled by the babyfaces, and you can't have 18 months of awesome heels trying to outheel each other for the gold (Shield/Wyatts/the KOW). As compelling as ilk like you and me would find it, it's the seventh graders bringing in the duckets.
We've seen KO go evil in NXT but now after having his alignment adjusted by his Lordship it'll be interesting to see which iteration makes the big time. I actually would be more compelled at this point for them to go against each other, since it'd give Cesaro something to do and more excuses to put on awesome matches. Of course, the Kings put on a few decent matches of their own if memory serves me correctly. Then again if you're looking for a compelling babyface, you could always trout that bouncing soul Sami Zayn out there to DDT and armdrag and shake little girls' hands and whatnot. Am I going to get to see him live myself at Summerslam, or do you think they'll slow burn him until later in the year?
TH: Who knows at this point. Ambrose and Rollins spent a good long time in developmental before they were shunted to the main roster, but Luke Harper was still doing Chikara dates in the spring of '12. It's very hard to read how long WWE brass thinks that dudes need to be housebroken in order to make a splash on the big stage. With Zayn though? I think they'd be pretty short-sighted on keeping him down for too long. The man is an elemental good guy, one who effervesces likeability to the point where it's the only thing that could make a Democrat and a Republican agree anymore. I don't know if he'll be there when you're at SummerSlam, but goddammit, I am rooting so hard for you to be able to see him live at SummerSlam, in between curses that I'll be laying on your house for getting the privilege of living in the land of sunshine, fish tacos, and eternal bikini season.
Butch: How dare. There's a rough week in January where girls walk around wearing pants. It's hell, TH. HELL.
So if you're looking for our picks on those who're going to explode on the scene and bring that Wyatt Family buzz in the weeks and months to come, we're picking Sami Zayn and Paige, though you really can't go wrong on anybody that we mentioned earlier (we hope).
From the palm trees to the Atlantic breeze, this has been Coast To Coast, and we are not the weak link!
So, boss, I put this to you: for metafans like us the Wyatt Family videos seem to have the tubes abuzz with a potentially bright future for the Southern cult on the big programs. Who on the NXT roster would you like to see get called up next doing more or less what they've been doing down at Full Sail University?
TH: Well, the obvious answer is to go with someone who's a known quantity, right? We know Kassius Ohno. We know Sami Zayn. We know Adrian Neville, Xavier Woods, and Conor O'Brien. But the most intriguing choice is also the one fraught with the most danger. We know Paige. Thanks to the relative young age she was signed and the limited dates she worked for companies on American soil, we may not know her as well as we knew Ohno as Chris Hero, for example.
However, she represents a pedigree that elevates women in wrestling to higher levels than what WWE has gone for the most part. She's been able to do her thing in FCW/NXT from the best of my knowledge. Will she be able to do it on the big roster though? I mean, Summer Rae, to the best of my knowledge, was a scion of Team LayCool. Her scowl game is on point, don't get me wrong, but doesn't it feel funny to you that she's not doing as much supplementing to Fandango as she could, and instead of the subject of creepy-ass leering from men old enough to be her father?
That's why I both love and hate myself for thinking Paige is the next one who should be called up. On one hand, maybe if they are letting NXT peeps be themselves when they hit the bigs, she can be given some kind of license, a spark if you will, to set the Divas ablaze and replace them with the term "female superstars" or even better, just as "superstars" in general. Y'know, like the men. But I've seen Nattie Neidhart be reduced to first a farting caricature and then Great Khali's arm candy. I've seen Beth Phoenix's pushes get started and stopped so jarringly that she was the first person I thought of when the transmission on my car started to go this past weekend. I've seen Kharma's screeched-to-a-halt arc not be continued because she "gained too much weight" after pregnancy, this the same company that has hired Viscera on more than two occasions. Am I wrong to be so down on the prospect of any woman ever getting a chance in Vince McMahon's Wrestle-merica?
Butch: Totally in agreement about the booking tendencies for women & for Paige, who is so awesome I'm willingly rooting for a babyface Kristen Stewart character. ME. And the booking has been so horribly Sterling, Cooper, and Partners that it made me bury my hopes of a Emmaloution to answer this question. I mean, they sort of have that with Kaitlyn, and that's getting buried under miles of irrelevancy and fupuckkery (pretty sure I just invented that word) where she needs to have a man to validate her on-camera time instead of her being a goofy, attractive nerdy girl who happens to throw a decent spear.
So I'll answer the question in the obvious way with Adrian Neville. I missed PAC's PWG run but heard scuttlebutt and buzz about him.
And then I saw it. Sometimes you just know.
The first time I saw Jessica Alba, watched Community, had a S'More with bacon on it - you just know.
Seeing him successfully pull of a corkscrew shooting star press?! I had a less visceral reaction the first time I saw an attractive woman's bare chest. Catching him in matches both tag and singles against Cesaro amongst others and seeing him be a maskless, white Rey Mysterio is enthralling. And once you see the CSSP, it's always in the back of your head. And you want to see it happen in a match instead of watching it on YouTube in a hypnotizing loop like Homer's jiggling blubber. He bumps well, his gamengiris crackle, he's subtly working a bit of a giant-killing angle as evidenced in the battle royale a few weeks ago, and since Evan Bourne's unfortunate passing there needs to be that man who comes off the top with aerial armageddon. I feel Neville can be that man. Holz, how high are you on his prospects?
TH: I saw him live a couple of times, and a few more on DVD back when he was still PAC. He's certainly got "it," whatever "it" is. I want to get excited for him in WWE, because he's the kind of guy who could set audiences ablaze the way the pyromancers in King's Landing could only dream of. If there's ever a guy whom I think could overcome the "not speaking" barrier, it's him, although who knows, just because he's rarely ever unleashed his Newcastle tones on people outside of the settings of the Art of Wrestling doesn't mean he's not a good promo.
Still, I get the feeling that he's just another Justin Gabriel. Now, I like Gabriel, but he's another non-American English speaker who doesn't (can't?) talk but has a flippy offense that should have gotten him more chances than he's been afforded to date. That being said? Those feelings are weak when I remember that, again, while I like Gabriel, there's no denying that all his non-450 splash offense makes him look like he's more stop motion animation than human being.
Neville also has size going for him, which is something that, if the shadow empire of sources that feeds the dirt sheet writers their precious information about the whims and whimsy of Vince McMahon, is a big plus. Like you, I'm unreasonably excited for him, but what about Kassius Ohno? He's a favorite of ours, and anyone who's seen him in the indies (HELLO!) knows that he's got the chops in the ring to work any style, from World of Sport to Japanese strong style even to WWE main event to go along with his obvious charisma. The question isn't whether he'll succeed; it is whether he'll do so without ever being attached to his former indie BFF Antonio Cesaro. How bullish are you on Kings Reigning Supreme, especially with the 9832783rd attempt at rebooting the WWE Tag Team Division seemingly about to take hold?
Butch: See, this is another problem the E has right now: besides the Hell Noers I'm not particularly compelled by the babyfaces, and you can't have 18 months of awesome heels trying to outheel each other for the gold (Shield/Wyatts/the KOW). As compelling as ilk like you and me would find it, it's the seventh graders bringing in the duckets.
We've seen KO go evil in NXT but now after having his alignment adjusted by his Lordship it'll be interesting to see which iteration makes the big time. I actually would be more compelled at this point for them to go against each other, since it'd give Cesaro something to do and more excuses to put on awesome matches. Of course, the Kings put on a few decent matches of their own if memory serves me correctly. Then again if you're looking for a compelling babyface, you could always trout that bouncing soul Sami Zayn out there to DDT and armdrag and shake little girls' hands and whatnot. Am I going to get to see him live myself at Summerslam, or do you think they'll slow burn him until later in the year?
TH: Who knows at this point. Ambrose and Rollins spent a good long time in developmental before they were shunted to the main roster, but Luke Harper was still doing Chikara dates in the spring of '12. It's very hard to read how long WWE brass thinks that dudes need to be housebroken in order to make a splash on the big stage. With Zayn though? I think they'd be pretty short-sighted on keeping him down for too long. The man is an elemental good guy, one who effervesces likeability to the point where it's the only thing that could make a Democrat and a Republican agree anymore. I don't know if he'll be there when you're at SummerSlam, but goddammit, I am rooting so hard for you to be able to see him live at SummerSlam, in between curses that I'll be laying on your house for getting the privilege of living in the land of sunshine, fish tacos, and eternal bikini season.
Butch: How dare. There's a rough week in January where girls walk around wearing pants. It's hell, TH. HELL.
So if you're looking for our picks on those who're going to explode on the scene and bring that Wyatt Family buzz in the weeks and months to come, we're picking Sami Zayn and Paige, though you really can't go wrong on anybody that we mentioned earlier (we hope).
From the palm trees to the Atlantic breeze, this has been Coast To Coast, and we are not the weak link!