NXT Thread II

[Dunthreevy]

Spoiler:

Apparently WWE signed Gunner from TNA to a NXT contract. I don't know much about him other than he's jacked. Vince will love him.

I remember thinking he had potential back when I briefly got into TNA around the time they brought in Hogan.

[tugs]

Spoiler:

Apparently WWE signed Gunner from TNA to a NXT contract. I don't know much about him other than he's jacked. Vince will love him.

I remember thinking he had potential back when I briefly got into TNA around the time they brought in Hogan.

"thinking"

What are your thoughts now?

[WRau1]

I liked Gunner. Really intense, good heel, passable on the mic and in the ring. Great look. He had a weird run in TNA, there was a month stretch that he pinned all the top guys but it led to nothing. Kind of disappeared into the midcard .

[iMoreland]

Is he good in the ring/on the mic?

[Spens1]

mic, not really, ring, he's alright i guess.

Honestly that isn't the best of signings, feels more like a signing for the sake of a signing, he really isn't that great at all.

[iMoreland]

Apparently Tommaso Ciampa has a torn ACL.

F***.

[Ruzious]

Apparently Tommaso Ciampa has a torn ACL.

F***.

Holy rotten timing, Batman. What now?

[improper]

Apparently Tommaso Ciampa has a torn ACL.

F***.

Holy rotten timing, Batman. What now?

I'd say it depends on the severity of the injury. If it's a partial tear and he's only out a couple of months, they could easily just keep Johnny off of TV for most of that time to sell the beating he got from Ciampa.

If it's more in the six month plus timeline, they could push Gargano as the face of NXT and have him have great success as a singles guy, perhaps even taking the NXT title from Roode. Then, when Ciampa comes back, he destroys Gargano again and takes everything from him, jealous over how successful he's become while Ciampa was sidelined.

Either way, pretty easy to write this feud. Of course, it always helps when both guys are incredible in the ring and have great chemistry.

[Ruzious]

Considering they've already scheduled surgery, ya gotta expect it's bad - probably more than 6 months - Dr. Ruz.

[Marcus]

Gunner will probably get paired with someone as muscle or lumped into a faction. Can't really see them doing too much with the guy to be honest. Not overly impressed with him in TNA.

[iMoreland]

Spoiler:

Per WON, Dalton Castle's contract is expiring this month and WWE has shown "great" interest.

[Spens1]

Spoiler:

Per WON, Dalton Castle's contract is expiring this month and WWE has shown "great" interest.

Spoiler:

would be a great signing. Honestly why i've been complaining about ROH recently, don't know why New Japan need to expand since ROH is essentially New Japan USA anyway with the way they book people. Anyway Castle has charisma for days, one of the most over acts on ROH tv. Should have been tv champ ages ago, should be probably the one to have taken the ROH world title off of Cole or Daniels too. If he does go to WWE i wouldn't blame him because ROH are so damn incompetent with booking nowadays its ridiculous.

For WWE he would bring something different, he would be ring a certain flamboyance, the only worry is that they'd make him a joke character. I think he has the potential to be like Breeze was in NXT, i mean i doubt he becomes NXT champion but he'll have a good run,
once he goes to the main roster though, sadly i'm thinking comedy jobber because of his character.

[Spens1]

also Tommaso's promo was fantastic. the Sicilian psychopath is back (in a few months at least). His reasoning in this about how the fans booed him and replaced him, how he took out Gargano and why he did it. It was absolutely perfect.

Oh and no way jose is back i guess (i mean he's fun i guess, but i still can't be bothered with him, he's a more tolerable Mojo Rawley).

[Ruzious]

Spoiler:

Per WON, Dalton Castle's contract is expiring this month and WWE has shown "great" interest.

Spoiler:

would be a great signing. Honestly why i've been complaining about ROH recently, don't know why New Japan need to expand since ROH is essentially New Japan USA anyway with the way they book people. Anyway Castle has charisma for days, one of the most over acts on ROH tv. Should have been tv champ ages ago, should be probably the one to have taken the ROH world title off of Cole or Daniels too. If he does go to WWE i wouldn't blame him because ROH are so damn incompetent with booking nowadays its ridiculous.

For WWE he would bring something different, he would be ring a certain flamboyance, the only worry is that they'd make him a joke character. I think he has the potential to be like Breeze was in NXT, i mean i doubt he becomes NXT champion but he'll have a good run,
once he goes to the main roster though, sadly i'm thinking comedy jobber because of his character.

Spoiler:

What's gotten him to where he is is this flamboyant over-the-top character, and he's another relatively small guy, so how else is he going to stand out enough to make it to the main roster unless he's a comedy act? He's a good wrestler, but I think he'd be better off staying in Indy's than the WWE. And how many over 30 year olds does NXT want?

[iMoreland]

Spoiler:

What's gotten him to where he is is this flamboyant over-the-top character, and he's another relatively small guy, so how else is he going to stand out enough to make it to the main roster unless he's a comedy act? He's a good wrestler, but I think he'd be better off staying in Indy's than the WWE. And how many over 30 year olds does NXT want?

Spoiler:

He just turned 31. 31 is a perfect age for new signings who have already established themselves outside of WWE. They come in already over and you can still get 10+ good years out of them.

Unlike Bobby Roode who has maybe 5.

[improper]

Yeah, not sure why the WWE would care about a guy being 31. To be honest, signing guys in their early thirties seems to be the way to go in my opinion. They've likely spent their twenties learning to work and developing their character(s) and you get to sign them right as they're hitting their prime.

For reference, the WWE signed Kevin Owens around the age of 30 (he might have been 31...don't feel like doing the math) and were able to immediately push him into the NXT main event and then, after a short stint in NXT, into a main roster feud with John Cena, the face of the company. They were able to do that precisely because Owens had been wrestling for fourteen or so years at that point and came in a finished product.

Yeah, you occasionally get prodigies like Bate and Dunne who are just elite workers at an early age, but most guys seem to hit their stride in their mid to late twenties and early thirties, which makes that the prime time to sign them.

[Spens1]

Yeah, not sure why the WWE would care about a guy being 31. To be honest, signing guys in their early thirties seems to be the way to go in my opinion. They've likely spent their twenties learning to work and developing their character(s) and you get to sign them right as they're hitting their prime.

For reference, the WWE signed Kevin Owens around the age of 30 (he might have been 31...don't feel like doing the math) and were able to immediately push him into the NXT main event and then, after a short stint in NXT, into a main roster feud with John Cena, the face of the company. They were able to do that precisely because Owens had been wrestling for fourteen or so years at that point and came in a finished product.

Yeah, you occasionally get prodigies like Bate and Dunne who are just elite workers at an early age, but most guys seem to hit their stride in their mid to late twenties and early thirties, which makes that the prime time to sign them.

yeah this, you rather get the complete product unless someone is a real prodigy.

For example Adam Cole is 26 or 27 but he's the complete package and he's done everything he could in America outside of WWE.

[improper]

Yeah, not sure why the WWE would care about a guy being 31. To be honest, signing guys in their early thirties seems to be the way to go in my opinion. They've likely spent their twenties learning to work and developing their character(s) and you get to sign them right as they're hitting their prime.

For reference, the WWE signed Kevin Owens around the age of 30 (he might have been 31...don't feel like doing the math) and were able to immediately push him into the NXT main event and then, after a short stint in NXT, into a main roster feud with John Cena, the face of the company. They were able to do that precisely because Owens had been wrestling for fourteen or so years at that point and came in a finished product.

Yeah, you occasionally get prodigies like Bate and Dunne who are just elite workers at an early age, but most guys seem to hit their stride in their mid to late twenties and early thirties, which makes that the prime time to sign them.

yeah this, you rather get the complete product unless someone is a real prodigy.

For example Adam Cole is 26 or 27 but he's the complete package and he's done everything he could in America outside of WWE.

Yup. When you're on top of the mountain and basically everyone wants to work for you anyway, might as well just sign people once they're ready instead of wasting time developing them. Let them tour the indies, earn their spot, and then bring them in when they're at a point where you can push them almost immediately. Those are the guys who are gonna be hungry and ready from day one, and they already want to prove they can stick in the WWE.

Then you take a flier on some promising guys with college/Olympic wrestling backgrounds (or guys who are just elite athletes and interested in wrestling) and develop them behind the scenes.

[Spens1]

Yeah, not sure why the WWE would care about a guy being 31. To be honest, signing guys in their early thirties seems to be the way to go in my opinion. They've likely spent their twenties learning to work and developing their character(s) and you get to sign them right as they're hitting their prime.

For reference, the WWE signed Kevin Owens around the age of 30 (he might have been 31...don't feel like doing the math) and were able to immediately push him into the NXT main event and then, after a short stint in NXT, into a main roster feud with John Cena, the face of the company. They were able to do that precisely because Owens had been wrestling for fourteen or so years at that point and came in a finished product.

Yeah, you occasionally get prodigies like Bate and Dunne who are just elite workers at an early age, but most guys seem to hit their stride in their mid to late twenties and early thirties, which makes that the prime time to sign them.

yeah this, you rather get the complete product unless someone is a real prodigy.

For example Adam Cole is 26 or 27 but he's the complete package and he's done everything he could in America outside of WWE.

Yup. When you're on top of the mountain and basically everyone wants to work for you anyway, might as well just sign people once they're ready instead of wasting time developing them. Let them tour the indies, earn their spot, and then bring them in when they're at a point where you can push them almost immediately. Those are the guys who are gonna be hungry and ready from day one, and they already want to prove they can stick in the WWE.

Then you take a flier on some promising guys with college/Olympic wrestling backgrounds (or guys who are just elite athletes and interested in wrestling) and develop them behind the scenes.

exactly. I think some guys at other companies are leaving too early and the lure of the WWE is so strong that they're leaving before they've been able to fully develop (Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate would have been better off trying to get to ROH or New Japan before heading to WWE where WWE would have basically begged them to come in as basically main eventers, i mean not that what they have isn't good, but if they waited and developed more, WWE would have given them the world by their mid-late 20's).

I'd say the people in Olympic wrestling backgrounds are great, most of the time they translate over really well. Kingston (though he did wrestled in the indies for a bit too i think), Ziggler, Swagger to an extent (good wrestler, just rubbish charisma) and Angle is the golden boy. Even now, Gable and Jordan are two of the most successful graduates from NXT out of the tag division because they have charisma and a collegate background.

I'd say getting people from an MMA background if they've done wrestling also as a major style works. I'd imagine a guy like Cain Velasquez if he wanted to and if WWE made a big time offer, would come in and adopt really easily. Riddle has been fantastic also (though idk if he did collegate wrestling, something says he didn't).

[Ruzious]

I just don't see much of a future for a guy like Castle in the WWE. He's not at the level of guys like Owens and Roode, imo. In the Indy's, he's a star with championship possibilities. That's basically why I think it'd make more sense for him to spend his prime years in the Indy's.