LLJ wrote:I'd said for a while that the WWE doesn't seem to care about workrate going by some of their baffling pushes...but maybe they do? I guess especially with Nakamura since he's foreign--he's not there for his promos after all, so he basically has to deliver in the ring if he wants that push. Seeing Asuka get that rocket strapped onto her again is even more stark considering her english is noticeably worse than Nakamura's but has a very good rep when it comes to match quality.
The thing is, Nakamura kind of cooled himself off during NXT. He had that amazing first match with Zayn and then...not much else worth writing home about. He had a bunch of perfectly fine matches as champ, but perfectly fine isn't going to get you noticed in NXT when there's at least one five star match at every Takeover. By the time he got the main roster, people were already questioning if we were ever going to see the Nakamura that faced Sami Zayn again. And the answer was no. When you couple that with the fact that the crowd didn't really care, that's a recipe to get your push stopped.
I do think that, if they had had him go over Styles after turning heel, they might have had a chance to salvage him. But at this point, he's a loser. He's got that WWE sh*t booking stink on him and it's not going away any time soon.
Asuka's a different beast. When does Asuka ever loaf in matches? I feel like she's always going out there and working as hard as she possibly can to get herself over with the crowd. I've talked about this before, but I think one of the main things the main roster is lacking that NXT has in abundance is passion from the performers. Passion is contagious. When you think that the wrestler gives a sh*t, it makes you want to as well. That's why Becky got herself so over. Because she finally snapped and showed some f*cking passion, and the fans latched on because we see so many other guys and girls on the main roster just going through the motions. I also think that's why the women are the hottest thing going there right now. They are trying to earn their spot and cement themselves as main event worthy, whereas the men have been booked into oblivion for so long with so little hope for change that they just go out there, put on a decent performance, and cash their checks.
