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| Will there be No Mo' Bo thanks to an ex-Generico? Screen grab via ProWresBlog |
You know what's funny?
I got knocked around a few times as a kid. A couple of occassions I actually won the fight I was in, but those were rare occassions. If you asked me to remember the fights - what their origin was (besides one N-word instance), who did the beating up, where they occured - I would be sadly short on the details to put a better image in your head of what went down.
Words?
Well, in the darkest recesses of my mind the worst things others have said about me and the worst things I believe about myself haunt me to this day. Yeah, sticks and stones may break your bones, but what they forget to tell you is bones heal.
Psychological wounds, on the other hand? Yeah, good luck with those.
This was something I knew but wasn't really on the forefront of my mind until the centerpiece segment of this week's NXT. And when it did, it suddenly explained Bo Dallas perfectly. The Lovely Renee Young (™ ButchCorp) brought out Sami Zayn after a video package recapping last week's NXT Match Of The Year. And in a couple of short minutes, Sami was everything Bo wants to and has to pretend to keep being for his psyche. Before he'd even said a word the crowd was feting him with MOTY chants. The crowd respected his abilities in the ring, and shared his sadness at losing. While he didn't know if/when he'd get Cesaro again (tip: he damn well better), he was focused on one thing. Well, besides taking a moment to hit on Renee, and who's going to hate him for that? He wanted to be NXT Champion.
And Bo shows up in a white suit just under the Labor Day deadline and the crowd despises him before he gets out a word. He rightfully mentions people love stories about winners and not losers, because losing is depressing. More boos, on top of the NO MO BO chants that started his entrance into the show this week. Sami calls him delusional, and that's when he has to press. He has to keep this burgeoning monster the fans are creating down deep lest it get out; a mean, evil streak runs in the family, after all: the kind of thing that scoffs at fires and decimates monsters. He states, with only a modicum of desperation in his voice, that everybody loves him. This gets him booed. He makes a Simpsons reference to show how much of a man of the people he is, but they aren't saying Boo-urns, or Bo. It is boo. And when Jack Swagger jumps Sami Zayn from behind, Bo sees this isn't his fight and leaves quietly and calmly. He doesn't get gutwrench powerbombed or the Gadsden flag draped over him, and the next time he comes out with the NXT Championship in tow the monster inside will grow a little more and the fans will hate him a little bit more.
Even with Adrian Neville busting out a winning 450 splash in the main event, the first use of a smartphone shot to secure a victory, and a really good womens match, this week's NXT spine was built out of words. The same words Conor O'Brien should never say - even the small handful he got off in attacking Corey Graves - since he sounds like an 80s cartoon villain, which would be fine if he didn't already resemble one. It's in the way the packet of fans have taken one simple chant from Axxess and turned it into A Thing, rattling Tyler Breeze by chanting "Break his phone!" and the attractive blonde announcer holding up a finger to slightly quiet the audience followed by the announcement of his departure.
This engineers an eyebrow raise and borderline eye wink, and in those moments I swore NXT was infinit--the best wrestling show on TV this year. It's everybody in a segment dumping on Scott Dawson up to and including his own manager, and then him following it up with a victory with some assistance from Alexander Rusev. Conversely? All Enzo Amore needed was a microphone, some promos and telling Laforet & Dawson to kick rocks in order to turn himself into the latest freshly minted babyface in NXTville even while he was taking a beatdown. His delusions of grandeur aren't any worse than Bo's, his hair is just...beyond, and Regal will be asking if he's DDP's love child probably as long as he sticks on the show, but he said he wasn't S A W F T SAWFT and then proved it. Like Ghandi prophesized, first the fans laugh at you, then they cock their heads and give a begrudging "well, okay", then they get into you, then they love you, and then you win. You can almost see Tyler Breeze coming down this particular expressway even as I type this.
Unless, of course, you wear the black hat willingly. Forget willingly; if you think not only you should put it on but it makes a fetching addition to your ensemble. And that brings me to Summer Rae, pretty much the most evil woman in the history of mankind. (Note: the author is not a historian.) First, she loses to Emma cleanly. Then she loses a dance-off cleanly and jumps her from behind. Then after being disgusted that bubbles dare touch her perfect skin she taps out to Emma in the show's best match here, and what happens? She drops Emma post-match post-dance and then throws her own bubble solution right in her eyes. It's rare to see the audience in Full Sail get legitimately angry, but they did here and rightfully so. They want justice, I want justice, and this is only delaying stuff like another awesome Emma/Paige match for the title and Renee & Emma playing Dance Dance Emmalution which damn sure better happen on film, WWE. Summer's response to this?
Calling a ginger NPC backstage Carrot Top on her pout/runway walk out of the arena before informing Sasha Banks that while she was evil, at least she mattered. SUMMERslam, NXT, Raw, Smackdown, internationally known and locally disrespected. And who the eff was Sasha anyway? Well, Summer knew: she was the one who was going to face Paige in a couple of weeks and have a nice, friendly match which she'd lose because she didn't have a backbone and was going to have to grow one in order to beat that witch down. And on that note, Summer left to go back to the big pond she's made her name in since she doesn't have to swim here full-time. But Sasha does, and she's got a buzzsaw of a historic champion ahead of her, and as Summer faded into the ether the words lingered, seeping into the brain of a NXT diva who hasn't gotten her signature like Charlotte's athleticism, Paige's reservoir of fury, Emma's dance, Bayley's fandom, or...for that matter...Summer's ruthlessness.
And here swings the fulcrum: do you want to be a good nobody or an evil champion? We didn't get an answer this week, from Sasha or Bo for that matter.
But the unspoken words hang in the air and linger.
And NXT, even the week after a MOTY candidate, continues to roll on as an awesome and perfect as a Regal one-liner.
I got knocked around a few times as a kid. A couple of occassions I actually won the fight I was in, but those were rare occassions. If you asked me to remember the fights - what their origin was (besides one N-word instance), who did the beating up, where they occured - I would be sadly short on the details to put a better image in your head of what went down.
Words?
Well, in the darkest recesses of my mind the worst things others have said about me and the worst things I believe about myself haunt me to this day. Yeah, sticks and stones may break your bones, but what they forget to tell you is bones heal.
Psychological wounds, on the other hand? Yeah, good luck with those.
This was something I knew but wasn't really on the forefront of my mind until the centerpiece segment of this week's NXT. And when it did, it suddenly explained Bo Dallas perfectly. The Lovely Renee Young (™ ButchCorp) brought out Sami Zayn after a video package recapping last week's NXT Match Of The Year. And in a couple of short minutes, Sami was everything Bo wants to and has to pretend to keep being for his psyche. Before he'd even said a word the crowd was feting him with MOTY chants. The crowd respected his abilities in the ring, and shared his sadness at losing. While he didn't know if/when he'd get Cesaro again (tip: he damn well better), he was focused on one thing. Well, besides taking a moment to hit on Renee, and who's going to hate him for that? He wanted to be NXT Champion.
And Bo shows up in a white suit just under the Labor Day deadline and the crowd despises him before he gets out a word. He rightfully mentions people love stories about winners and not losers, because losing is depressing. More boos, on top of the NO MO BO chants that started his entrance into the show this week. Sami calls him delusional, and that's when he has to press. He has to keep this burgeoning monster the fans are creating down deep lest it get out; a mean, evil streak runs in the family, after all: the kind of thing that scoffs at fires and decimates monsters. He states, with only a modicum of desperation in his voice, that everybody loves him. This gets him booed. He makes a Simpsons reference to show how much of a man of the people he is, but they aren't saying Boo-urns, or Bo. It is boo. And when Jack Swagger jumps Sami Zayn from behind, Bo sees this isn't his fight and leaves quietly and calmly. He doesn't get gutwrench powerbombed or the Gadsden flag draped over him, and the next time he comes out with the NXT Championship in tow the monster inside will grow a little more and the fans will hate him a little bit more.
Even with Adrian Neville busting out a winning 450 splash in the main event, the first use of a smartphone shot to secure a victory, and a really good womens match, this week's NXT spine was built out of words. The same words Conor O'Brien should never say - even the small handful he got off in attacking Corey Graves - since he sounds like an 80s cartoon villain, which would be fine if he didn't already resemble one. It's in the way the packet of fans have taken one simple chant from Axxess and turned it into A Thing, rattling Tyler Breeze by chanting "Break his phone!" and the attractive blonde announcer holding up a finger to slightly quiet the audience followed by the announcement of his departure.
This engineers an eyebrow raise and borderline eye wink, and in those moments I swore NXT was infinit--the best wrestling show on TV this year. It's everybody in a segment dumping on Scott Dawson up to and including his own manager, and then him following it up with a victory with some assistance from Alexander Rusev. Conversely? All Enzo Amore needed was a microphone, some promos and telling Laforet & Dawson to kick rocks in order to turn himself into the latest freshly minted babyface in NXTville even while he was taking a beatdown. His delusions of grandeur aren't any worse than Bo's, his hair is just...beyond, and Regal will be asking if he's DDP's love child probably as long as he sticks on the show, but he said he wasn't S A W F T SAWFT and then proved it. Like Ghandi prophesized, first the fans laugh at you, then they cock their heads and give a begrudging "well, okay", then they get into you, then they love you, and then you win. You can almost see Tyler Breeze coming down this particular expressway even as I type this.
Unless, of course, you wear the black hat willingly. Forget willingly; if you think not only you should put it on but it makes a fetching addition to your ensemble. And that brings me to Summer Rae, pretty much the most evil woman in the history of mankind. (Note: the author is not a historian.) First, she loses to Emma cleanly. Then she loses a dance-off cleanly and jumps her from behind. Then after being disgusted that bubbles dare touch her perfect skin she taps out to Emma in the show's best match here, and what happens? She drops Emma post-match post-dance and then throws her own bubble solution right in her eyes. It's rare to see the audience in Full Sail get legitimately angry, but they did here and rightfully so. They want justice, I want justice, and this is only delaying stuff like another awesome Emma/Paige match for the title and Renee & Emma playing Dance Dance Emmalution which damn sure better happen on film, WWE. Summer's response to this?
Calling a ginger NPC backstage Carrot Top on her pout/runway walk out of the arena before informing Sasha Banks that while she was evil, at least she mattered. SUMMERslam, NXT, Raw, Smackdown, internationally known and locally disrespected. And who the eff was Sasha anyway? Well, Summer knew: she was the one who was going to face Paige in a couple of weeks and have a nice, friendly match which she'd lose because she didn't have a backbone and was going to have to grow one in order to beat that witch down. And on that note, Summer left to go back to the big pond she's made her name in since she doesn't have to swim here full-time. But Sasha does, and she's got a buzzsaw of a historic champion ahead of her, and as Summer faded into the ether the words lingered, seeping into the brain of a NXT diva who hasn't gotten her signature like Charlotte's athleticism, Paige's reservoir of fury, Emma's dance, Bayley's fandom, or...for that matter...Summer's ruthlessness.
And here swings the fulcrum: do you want to be a good nobody or an evil champion? We didn't get an answer this week, from Sasha or Bo for that matter.
But the unspoken words hang in the air and linger.
And NXT, even the week after a MOTY candidate, continues to roll on as an awesome and perfect as a Regal one-liner.