We Could Have Made DarkSentinel Wrestling Thread Champion If We Wanted! - Part 203

[Keyser Soze]

Wow! I am SO impressed with both Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch, what a match they just had! And not just a condescending, "Oh, that was really good for a women's match," but that could legit be Match of the Night quality. They brought a big match feel to proceedings with the drama, and the crowd bought into it, they were red-hot with the duelling chants. What a difference it makes, eh? When the crowd aren't sitting silent? When the announcers are actually selling the match and the performers rather than undermining them by talking about their boobs or ignoring them completely and just talking over the match about what the men have been doing. Even something as small as them being referred to by their full names rather than just their first names makes it seem like they are being taken more serious than a typical Diva.

Not that it's just a case of presentation. Both the performers brought it. Becky Lynch seemed to really win over the crowd over the course of the match, deservedly so. But Sasha Banks is really showing herself to be something remarkable. She came into that match as a bona fide ring tactician. She's got the persona, she has the ring psychology, she has the athleticism, she's damn near a total package. I think I'm gonna come out of this first NXT special viewing Sasha Banks as one of my favourite wrestlers on the roster, male or female.

 

[Keyser Soze]

Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens has such a great story behind it, on multiple levels. I'm pumped!

 

[The Apocalypse]

Owens is going to be such a good heel once he comes up. Trips is looking out for him too. We're definitely getting a Lesnar Owens match one day.

 

[WildChild]

Wow! I am SO impressed with both Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch, what a match they just had! And not just a condescending, "Oh, that was really good for a women's match," but that could legit be Match of the Night quality. They brought a big match feel to proceedings with the drama, and the crowd bought into it, they were red-hot with the duelling chants. What a difference it makes, eh? When the crowd aren't sitting silent? When the announcers are actually selling the match and the performers rather than undermining them by talking about their boobs or ignoring them completely and just talking over the match about what the men have been doing. Even something as small as them being referred to by their full names rather than just their first names makes it seem like they are being taken more serious than a typical Diva.

Not that it's just a case of presentation. Both the performers brought it. Becky Lynch seemed to really win over the crowd over the course of the match, deservedly so. But Sasha Banks is really showing herself to be something remarkable. She came into that match as a bona fide ring tactician. She's got the persona, she has the ring psychology, she has the athleticism, she's damn near a total package. I think I'm gonna come out of this first NXT special viewing Sasha Banks as one of my favourite wrestlers on the roster, male or female.

Welcome to Team Boss.

 

[NDX]

Never thought I'd say this, but Kevin Owens has become one of my favorite wrestlers in the last 6 months.

 

[Pink Ranger]

I'm interested to see how Kevin Owens shakes out when he's in the main roster full time. He really is a fairly unique character as far as WWE goes; he's neither a pretty boy, a muscleman, speedster and he's probably not big enough to be a monster. The closest analogy from the past I can think of is Kevin Sullivan.

 

[The Apocalypse]

They better not stop the match.

 

[Pink Ranger]

Owens looks like he just crapped himself.

 

[The Apocalypse]

Oh ****

 

[Keyser Soze]

Samoa freakin' JOEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Bat Brain]

That's gonna be Scott Steiner's most hated feud.

 

[WildChild]

Banks/Lynch was match of the night easy. Great Show overall.

 

[NDX]

I missed when ROH was this good.

 

[OnTheAir]

Another home run for NXT! Sasha and Becky were incredible, and even though we knew it was coming, it was surreal seeing Samoa Joe in a WWE ring!

 

[Keyser Soze]

Obviously some might be a bit let down that Zayn/Owens II wasn't so much a match as an angle progression, though the match was going really damn well until its premature end. But sometimes the story has to come first, and this actually told a story really well of Zayn getting in Owens head as opposed to Owens getting in Zayn's head in their first encounter, even if the result still ended up pretty poorly for Zayn. Still, it sets the stage for some big hardcore-style match to be the blow-off to their rivalry.

And then... SAMOA JOE! As I said above, he was my favourite wrestler for many years, so seeing him on a WWE program was huge. I was waiting for him to appear the whole show, and just when I'd accepted he likely wouldn't show up... he appears! And right into confronting Kevin Owens, too. Kevin Owens is now in a really interesting position as champion, one that reminds me a bit of Bryan Danielson's heel run with the title in ROH, where he has multiple rivalries on the go, and several credible options for challengers who could conceivably take the belt from him: Finn Balor is number 1 contender, the Sami Zayn rivalry is unresolved, he's fighting John Cena for the US Title at Elimination Chamber, and now Samoa Joe in the mix. Very interesting!

 

[Bat Brain]

Awesome to see Samoa Joe but, man, this Zayn/Owens feud is giving me blue balls.

 

[Keyser Soze]

Another home run for NXT! Sasha and Becky were incredible, and even though we knew it was coming, it was surreal seeing Samoa Joe in a WWE ring!

I'm a bit sad thinking about how much hotter it would have been if he'd arrived in 2008 or even 2012 rather than now, but then again, I think entering into this really exciting NXT environment is likely a better option than what would have been open to him coming onto Raw or Smackdown a few years earlier, so maybe things worked out. I guess we'll see how things unfold.

 

[Pink Ranger]

Samoa Joe was one of those guys who I always felt the WWE wouldn't be interested in, not that he wasn't good, but he just didn't "fit in" with what the WWE generally looks for in a worker.

With WWE clearly invested now in Joe to some extent at least, does anyone here think AJ Styles could ever get an offer from New York?

 

[DarkSentinel]

Dear lord that place EXPLODED at the end!!!

 

[OctaviusINC]

They did it! WWE has employed a Samoan that is not the Rock's cousin!

 

[Keyser Soze]

In case it wasn't already obvious by my posts, I LOVED this NXT show tonight. I got a kick seeing some of my indie faves on WWE programming, but more than that NXT did a great job introducing new faces to me tonight. The crowd was hot, the matches were of a good quality, and there's sound storytelling at all levels of the card.

WWE have performed a masterstroke in the way they have built up NXT, in that they have essentially become their own "alternative." By bringing in guys like Zayn and Owens and Balor and now Joe, as well as building up their own homegrown talent, they're cornering that ROH "this is where we go for the real wrestling" market, while still moulding people to perform in the WWE style. And they're doing something revolutionary in the women's division that's a wonder to behold. Sasha Banks VS Becky Lynch was match of the night, and even outside of that match Charlotte Flair kicked major ass in the women's tag: they seem to have built up a rich, diverse women's division as well as an exciting men's division, and at this stage, if I was a woman serious about wrestling, I'd rather be in NXT than WWE.

And really, that 2-hour special got me excited about wrestling again in a way no mainstream WWE product has managed in a while. Well done all round!

 

[punishermax]

So Joe....AMIRITE!?

 

[Keyser Soze]

Also, I'm very pleased that - for now at least - they're calling him Samoa Joe rather than Staunton Joseph or something.

 

[The Apocalypse]

They'll call him Sloppy Joe once he hits the main roster. Or rather, JBL will just call him that.

 

[Donnie Darko]

Match of the night, by far, was Becky Lynch vs Sasha Banks. That was one of the best matches of the year. I loved it.

Most of the show was good (or at least ok, like Rhyno vs Corbin).

My big issue, once again, was Owens vs Zayn. The match was good, for what we got to see, but we got another "Owens beats Zayn to death" ending, only with the match seemingly never actually ending this time. Was the match stopped? Was Owens disqualified? Did I miss something? It's funny to me that Zayn comes out of a match against John Cena on Raw looking better than he has in his last two NXT title matches.

Glad to see Joe, since he was one of my favorite guys when I was really into TNA back in like 2005/2006.