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Submitted by : Koriander Ake, 2/22/10
Awaiting WWE’s
NXT Top Model Pro vs. Joe Who wants to be Tough Enough.
If I close my eyes right this very moment and breathe in the ice cold February air encircling my front door, I
can taste three separate memories.
The first memory that springs to mind are the tears I cried the day Paul Heyman took the longest walk in history to the RAW commentary booth in February of 2001. I can still remember the pain in my stomach from how tightly my mother and I held each other, as we balled, knowing that the tiny little promotion from Pennsylvania, the hardcore company of oddballs and misfits that I loved so very much, was gone forever, it’s remains in the form of paperwork, sitting pretty on Vincent Kennedy McMahon’s desk.
The second memory that I recall is that of the thick smoke I smelled from the machine behind the curtain, the
day of my very first Ring of Honor show, February 26th, 2005. I can remember the exact spot on the barricade where I slapped my hand as Homicide walked to the ring with Julius Smokes trailing behind him, barking like a dog. I can even recall the feeling of my eyes widening, as I first took a gander at Homicide’s opponent for that evening. A cocky, bald-headed lil’ wrestler by the name of Bryan Danielson, who was standing on the ramp as though he owned the place.
The third thing, which currently sits upon my brow like a little gremlin of malice, is the memory of last Tuesday’s WWECW.
From the moment of conception for McMahon’s watered down ECW, I knew the result would be disastrous.
Still, the show lasted almost four years(June 13, 2006 – February 16, 2010), which is about three more than I gave it credit for.
Watching WWECW end was much akin to watching McMahon re-bury the casket of an old corpse. It was less the end of a television show, as it was more the end of WWE kicking around the ashes of the original ECW. No longer was the memory of said company to be drug through the mud, nor to be trounced upon by random
clowns whom had never actually experienced the original Extreme. A sobering thought, almost like the relief
one experiences when, at last, there is closure.
So Tuesday night, I taped the final episode. The only match announced in the pre-show commercial was then WWECW champion Christian vs. Ezekiel Jackson, so I thought that this would be the only thing that would
stick out in my mind about this taping. The last true ECW alumni had already quit many weeks prior, and there was no implication that McMahon would have given the green light to any fancy video packages, special
“guest stars” or even a finished card. In fact, nothing appeared to be very special about this taping, and certainly none of the people on screen at the arena were acting as though this was a big deal. So again I believed that Christian’s title defense would be the only thing I could take away from this cold, February night, but just after the opening contest came the announcement that for the remainder of the night, Byron Saxton and
Josh Mathews would be announcing details on WWE NXT.
The NXT format is similar to WWF Tough Enough and Spike TV’s Pros vs. Joes. Every week, a “mentor” (In the form of an established WWE Superstar) will train a “rookie” (In the form of FCW talent.) to become a
“true” WWE Superstar. Eventually, the “rookies” will face off against each other, with the winner heading to either Raw or SmackDown. Slowly, one at a time for the rest of the hour, they aired the mug shots of the eight mentors and their new protégés. As each man’s face hit the screen, I was overcome by a waive of pity. Through the magic of YouTube, I have watched each of the following wrestlers come up:
Justin Gabriel (formerly Justin Angel and PJ Black, former model, FWA and WWP standout and son of “The Pink Panther” Paul Lloyd Sr.)
Heath Slater (NWA Wildside competitor)
Skip Sheffield (Formerly Ryan Reeves, OVW wrestler and Tough Enough 4 finalist)
Wade Barrett (Formerly Stu Bennett/Sanders of NWA Hammerlock Wrestling, student of Al Snow and Jon Richie)
Darren Young (Formerly IWF and ECWA’s “Frederick Of Hollywood” Fred Sampson, #317 in PWI’s 500 of 2008)
David Otunga (Student of Norman Smiley and Tom Prichard, formerly “Punk” on I love New York 2)
Michael Tarver (Formerly Tyrone Evans of Pro Wrestling Xpress, who celebrated his 5th year as a wrestler on February 19th.)
I’ve seen them all fight not only in FCW but in many other companies as well, so it should go without saying
that the eight “rookies” need about as much training as I need an earring through my toe.
While watching ECW, I felt a drop in my stomach, and an eerie chill down my spine. The very same feeling I had just before Takeshi Morishima knocked out Bryan Danielson in their Chicago PPV fight September 15th, 2007. The same chill I experienced the day Pelle Primeau suffered his accident against Delirious in the summer of 2008, and the same creepy feeling I had just six days after my 11th birthday on November 9th, 1997, one
hour before the infamous Screwjob.
I tried to ignore this familiar feeling, hoping to God that this drop in my stomach was just hunger, or perhaps
the chill down my spine was just a sign that I needed a sweater. But alas, my fear was realized, as the mug shot
of Daniel Bryan hit the screen.
The American Dragon ~ Bryan Danielson, a man who was taught how to wrestle 10 years ago by William
Regal and the Shawn Michaels Academy. The man who escaped a cage ~ ASLEEP ~ against Samoa Joe in a
Ring of Honor title defense December 8, 2006 in Chicago Ridge. One of two ROH champions responsible for unleashing unto the world Alex Payne. One of the founding fathers of Ring of Honor, national star on ROH’s HDNet Monday night program, the same man who used to look out for me and forbid me to “play with KENTA-san” because I’m not “that” kind of girl. The very man whose facial hair and eyebrows had been compromised by the WWE style crew, Daniel Bryan had now been reduced to the status of “rookie”.
Bryan’s demotion came only after he had wrestled his third known match for FCW, and his fourth match
overall since WWE had signed him back in August of 2009. I hadn’t yet forgotten the look on referee Rod Vista’s face when he had counted to four as Bryan sat atop Kaval (Low-Ki) in a move for FCW show #71,
when suddenly both the crowd AND Kaval yelled “He has until 5 Referee!!” Nor had I even finished
processing the fact that after 6 straight months of precious NOTHING that a potential spot on WWE NXT was the only thing WWE Creative could come up with for Bryan. But before I had the chance to even process this, I saw his new “mentor” on the opposite side of the screen… Mike “The Miz” Mizanin.
Miz, a man with less than 6 years of training under his belt who probably would never have gotten a call back after his dismissal from Tough Enough 4 had it not been for his role on The Real World: New York, was now
set to retrain Bryan Danielson, and teach him how to be a “REAL star," a point driven home less than 48 hours later when on his WWE Universe blog Miz referred to The American Dragon as “ordinary and bland”.
The final thing I would take away from the last WWECW program would not be Christian’s loss to Ezekiel Jackson, who would go on to enjoy a 2:36 ECW title reign as the WWE Copyright card aired, nor would it be Caylen Croft and Trent Beretta vs. Goldust and Yoshi Tatsu, but instead the last image stuck in my head from
the final WWECW taping would be that of the bright colors and stars that flew around my head as I fell backwards out of my chair, during the conniption fit I was having at trying to process the fate of the FCW refugees.
WWE NXT would probably not have garnered as much ire out of me if the “rookies” really were rookies. If the cast consisted of average men with little to no training to their names, I would have easily written this off as yet another incarnation of the Diva Search and moved on. But to have these eight independent wrestlers reduced to the status of rookie with the very implication that their entire careers up to this point no longer amount to anything is nothing short of a slap in the face. It’s a slap to the eight men involved, their trainers, their
opponents, former tag team partners, their fans, and dare I say the world of professional wrestling on a whole.
It’s WWE, or rather Vincent Kennedy McMahon, informing the viewing audience that WWE is the “only” company out there. It’s McMahon’s way of illustrating the myth that whatever you do in any other company
but WWE, is a waste of time. And sadly, I can already hear the keyboards clicking over at the Pro Wrestling Illustrated office as the columnists begin nipping off a “kudos to you for finally getting a WWE booking”
article about the eight men.
The two biggest mouthpieces to vouch for McMahon’s sentiment appear to be Miz (or perhaps his ghostwriter) and Good Ol’ JR. Mizanin’s lack of respect for indy buffs was showcased boisterously with the statement:
“They think that if a guy can main event in front of a hundred people at a bingo hall, then he's ready to main event at Wrestlemania. Just because fans on the Internet say you’re ready doesn't mean you really are. Just because a fat guy with no teeth who sits in the front row, buys your T-shirt and says you're the king of wrestling, doesn't mean you really are.”
A sentiment Miz emphasized at Sunday’s Elimination Chamber, when he insisted that the “King of the Indies” Daniel Bryan still would not have what it takes to be anything more than (as Miz put it) “A dork in line at a Star Wars convention”, unless by “some miracle” he could force the boy to (Miz states: And he BETTER) listen to every word out of “the awesome one’s” mouth. A statement with a similar feeling was made by Jim Ross over the weekend, when he quipped on his blog:
"There are several young grapplers with potential but now is the time for them to step up and play with the big boys."
This was the exact same statement Jim Ross made when the original ECW folded in 2001, and the-then WWF scooped up the likes of Tommy Dreamer, Rob Van Dam and the rest of the misfit crew I had mentioned earlier.
In fact, on every occasion that WWE has taken in a new wrestler from an independent company, Jim Ross blogs “Now that the young and talented blue chipper (wrestler name here) has made it to Raw/SmackDown, he will have the chance to step up and play with the big boys.” The statement is just as faithful as the now standard
“We wish (wrestler name here) all the best in his future endeavors.”
As a lifelong fan of independent wrestling, I find everything about NXT purely insulting. Just what prey tell
does McMahon have to gain by demoting a top athlete in this fashion? Was the WWF more profitable
somehow when The Honky Tonk Man was demoted from “Indy slugger” to “Novelty Jobber”? Did WWE become a stock holder’s best friend when Colt Cabana, Ring of Honor sensation, was shipped to the ring after two years in development as a jobber named Scotty Goldman? My mother once told me that you can’t build yourself up by pushing someone else down, yet McMahon has tried to prove the old saying wrong with every wrestler he drags in.
Equally insulting to fans of the eight men is the knowledge that when season one of NXT wraps up in a number of weeks that the Tough Enough statistic of employment will have set in. When Tough Enough and the Diva Search were on the air respectively, the employment statistic was so very precise, you could have set your watch to it. 8-13 people are chosen. (In this case, 8.) Of the 8 newbies, two will remain employed and on screen for
the rest of the year, regardless of winners and losers. 4 will be wished the best in their future endeavors, someplace during the contest. The remaining two will flounder in developmental. One will be fired early on,
the other will be told every day that “creative doesn’t have anything” for him until either he debuts on the low cards of SmackDown, or is released. In two years’ time, WWE will call him back(We meet again Mr.
Sheffield.). Of the two who made it to television, the one who “won” the competition will be released within
two years after a demotion storyline with HHH, Shawn Michaels, Mark Henry, a random mid-carder, OR if
they REALLY hate him, The Undertaker. (Have you seen Maven lately? How about Daniel Puder? Think about it.) The one who “lost” the contest but was kept on anyway because McMahon liked him a little bit in the legs area will have a job on screen for the next 6-8 years. (Miz iz safe)
Quite possibly, the only man to survive the WWE reality show employment statistic is John Morrison, and
only because he fought the company tooth and nail for his “rock star” spot. How long do you think Ms. Layla has? If I were these two, I’d start sending out resumes now so that when the axe falls, there will be a spot
waiting for me on the indy circuit.
So in effect, the eight “rookies” can look forward to WWE dragging them from show to show like so many circus animals, placing them into innocuous reality show situations by which they will test the boys’ social
limit for one another(I’m waiting for the first pre-challenge brawl) before silently killing each man’s
momentum until one by one they fall backwards into the waiting arms of those of us who still carry the proverbial torch for the indies. One can but hope that there is not yet a rookie pad set up in a mountainous
region of Las Vegas, where the boys will have to share a few bunk beds ala their Tough Enough predecessors
and their UFC Ultimate Fighter rivals.
McMahon is trying to tell us that he is Supreme Overlord over all things wrestling and he will use WWE NXT
to drive the point home through the dissection of the legacy that exists for each new Rookie. At best, the show might stand to last two seasons with ire and resentment still building within the fans, as each new Rookie is brought to his knees by the WWE developmental system. The one thing going for McMahon is that there will
be people watching. I cannot lie and say that NXT is set to be a total failure ratings-wise, as there is already a large group of fans anticipating the show’s debut Tuesday night, with many more curious viewers who may be watching WWE television for the first time on the 23rd. In an ironic twist, the very people who despise Vincent Kennedy McMahon the most will be watching each episode without fail until the show’s end. This is not so much a testament to WWE’s strong marketing strategy as it is a testament to the “Internet Wrestling Fanbase” carefully watching the madman who is holding their beloved indy boys hostage.
One other thing going for NXT at the moment is that neither Simon Cowell nor Tyra Banks have yet signed on
to be judges for the series. However, with the continuation of the Raw Guest Hosts, it seems to be just a matter
of time before the NXT models are swamped with Hollywood’s celebrity camera hogs.
Time will tell how NXT fairs, but at the moment it seems apparent that these eight men have been set up to be dropped. Classic Vinnie at work.
If I close my eyes right this very moment and breathe in the ice cold February air encircling my front door, I
can taste three separate memories.
The first memory that springs to mind are the tears I cried the day Paul Heyman took the longest walk in history to the RAW commentary booth in February of 2001. I can still remember the pain in my stomach from how tightly my mother and I held each other, as we balled, knowing that the tiny little promotion from Pennsylvania, the hardcore company of oddballs and misfits that I loved so very much, was gone forever, it’s remains in the form of paperwork, sitting pretty on Vincent Kennedy McMahon’s desk.
The second memory that I recall is that of the thick smoke I smelled from the machine behind the curtain, the
day of my very first Ring of Honor show, February 26th, 2005. I can remember the exact spot on the barricade where I slapped my hand as Homicide walked to the ring with Julius Smokes trailing behind him, barking like a dog. I can even recall the feeling of my eyes widening, as I first took a gander at Homicide’s opponent for that evening. A cocky, bald-headed lil’ wrestler by the name of Bryan Danielson, who was standing on the ramp as though he owned the place.
The third thing, which currently sits upon my brow like a little gremlin of malice, is the memory of last Tuesday’s WWECW.
From the moment of conception for McMahon’s watered down ECW, I knew the result would be disastrous.
Still, the show lasted almost four years(June 13, 2006 – February 16, 2010), which is about three more than I gave it credit for.
Watching WWECW end was much akin to watching McMahon re-bury the casket of an old corpse. It was less the end of a television show, as it was more the end of WWE kicking around the ashes of the original ECW. No longer was the memory of said company to be drug through the mud, nor to be trounced upon by random
clowns whom had never actually experienced the original Extreme. A sobering thought, almost like the relief
one experiences when, at last, there is closure.
So Tuesday night, I taped the final episode. The only match announced in the pre-show commercial was then WWECW champion Christian vs. Ezekiel Jackson, so I thought that this would be the only thing that would
stick out in my mind about this taping. The last true ECW alumni had already quit many weeks prior, and there was no implication that McMahon would have given the green light to any fancy video packages, special
“guest stars” or even a finished card. In fact, nothing appeared to be very special about this taping, and certainly none of the people on screen at the arena were acting as though this was a big deal. So again I believed that Christian’s title defense would be the only thing I could take away from this cold, February night, but just after the opening contest came the announcement that for the remainder of the night, Byron Saxton and
Josh Mathews would be announcing details on WWE NXT.
The NXT format is similar to WWF Tough Enough and Spike TV’s Pros vs. Joes. Every week, a “mentor” (In the form of an established WWE Superstar) will train a “rookie” (In the form of FCW talent.) to become a
“true” WWE Superstar. Eventually, the “rookies” will face off against each other, with the winner heading to either Raw or SmackDown. Slowly, one at a time for the rest of the hour, they aired the mug shots of the eight mentors and their new protégés. As each man’s face hit the screen, I was overcome by a waive of pity. Through the magic of YouTube, I have watched each of the following wrestlers come up:
Justin Gabriel (formerly Justin Angel and PJ Black, former model, FWA and WWP standout and son of “The Pink Panther” Paul Lloyd Sr.)
Heath Slater (NWA Wildside competitor)
Skip Sheffield (Formerly Ryan Reeves, OVW wrestler and Tough Enough 4 finalist)
Wade Barrett (Formerly Stu Bennett/Sanders of NWA Hammerlock Wrestling, student of Al Snow and Jon Richie)
Darren Young (Formerly IWF and ECWA’s “Frederick Of Hollywood” Fred Sampson, #317 in PWI’s 500 of 2008)
David Otunga (Student of Norman Smiley and Tom Prichard, formerly “Punk” on I love New York 2)
Michael Tarver (Formerly Tyrone Evans of Pro Wrestling Xpress, who celebrated his 5th year as a wrestler on February 19th.)
I’ve seen them all fight not only in FCW but in many other companies as well, so it should go without saying
that the eight “rookies” need about as much training as I need an earring through my toe.
While watching ECW, I felt a drop in my stomach, and an eerie chill down my spine. The very same feeling I had just before Takeshi Morishima knocked out Bryan Danielson in their Chicago PPV fight September 15th, 2007. The same chill I experienced the day Pelle Primeau suffered his accident against Delirious in the summer of 2008, and the same creepy feeling I had just six days after my 11th birthday on November 9th, 1997, one
hour before the infamous Screwjob.
I tried to ignore this familiar feeling, hoping to God that this drop in my stomach was just hunger, or perhaps
the chill down my spine was just a sign that I needed a sweater. But alas, my fear was realized, as the mug shot
of Daniel Bryan hit the screen.
The American Dragon ~ Bryan Danielson, a man who was taught how to wrestle 10 years ago by William
Regal and the Shawn Michaels Academy. The man who escaped a cage ~ ASLEEP ~ against Samoa Joe in a
Ring of Honor title defense December 8, 2006 in Chicago Ridge. One of two ROH champions responsible for unleashing unto the world Alex Payne. One of the founding fathers of Ring of Honor, national star on ROH’s HDNet Monday night program, the same man who used to look out for me and forbid me to “play with KENTA-san” because I’m not “that” kind of girl. The very man whose facial hair and eyebrows had been compromised by the WWE style crew, Daniel Bryan had now been reduced to the status of “rookie”.
Bryan’s demotion came only after he had wrestled his third known match for FCW, and his fourth match
overall since WWE had signed him back in August of 2009. I hadn’t yet forgotten the look on referee Rod Vista’s face when he had counted to four as Bryan sat atop Kaval (Low-Ki) in a move for FCW show #71,
when suddenly both the crowd AND Kaval yelled “He has until 5 Referee!!” Nor had I even finished
processing the fact that after 6 straight months of precious NOTHING that a potential spot on WWE NXT was the only thing WWE Creative could come up with for Bryan. But before I had the chance to even process this, I saw his new “mentor” on the opposite side of the screen… Mike “The Miz” Mizanin.
Miz, a man with less than 6 years of training under his belt who probably would never have gotten a call back after his dismissal from Tough Enough 4 had it not been for his role on The Real World: New York, was now
set to retrain Bryan Danielson, and teach him how to be a “REAL star," a point driven home less than 48 hours later when on his WWE Universe blog Miz referred to The American Dragon as “ordinary and bland”.
The final thing I would take away from the last WWECW program would not be Christian’s loss to Ezekiel Jackson, who would go on to enjoy a 2:36 ECW title reign as the WWE Copyright card aired, nor would it be Caylen Croft and Trent Beretta vs. Goldust and Yoshi Tatsu, but instead the last image stuck in my head from
the final WWECW taping would be that of the bright colors and stars that flew around my head as I fell backwards out of my chair, during the conniption fit I was having at trying to process the fate of the FCW refugees.
WWE NXT would probably not have garnered as much ire out of me if the “rookies” really were rookies. If the cast consisted of average men with little to no training to their names, I would have easily written this off as yet another incarnation of the Diva Search and moved on. But to have these eight independent wrestlers reduced to the status of rookie with the very implication that their entire careers up to this point no longer amount to anything is nothing short of a slap in the face. It’s a slap to the eight men involved, their trainers, their
opponents, former tag team partners, their fans, and dare I say the world of professional wrestling on a whole.
It’s WWE, or rather Vincent Kennedy McMahon, informing the viewing audience that WWE is the “only” company out there. It’s McMahon’s way of illustrating the myth that whatever you do in any other company
but WWE, is a waste of time. And sadly, I can already hear the keyboards clicking over at the Pro Wrestling Illustrated office as the columnists begin nipping off a “kudos to you for finally getting a WWE booking”
article about the eight men.
The two biggest mouthpieces to vouch for McMahon’s sentiment appear to be Miz (or perhaps his ghostwriter) and Good Ol’ JR. Mizanin’s lack of respect for indy buffs was showcased boisterously with the statement:
“They think that if a guy can main event in front of a hundred people at a bingo hall, then he's ready to main event at Wrestlemania. Just because fans on the Internet say you’re ready doesn't mean you really are. Just because a fat guy with no teeth who sits in the front row, buys your T-shirt and says you're the king of wrestling, doesn't mean you really are.”
A sentiment Miz emphasized at Sunday’s Elimination Chamber, when he insisted that the “King of the Indies” Daniel Bryan still would not have what it takes to be anything more than (as Miz put it) “A dork in line at a Star Wars convention”, unless by “some miracle” he could force the boy to (Miz states: And he BETTER) listen to every word out of “the awesome one’s” mouth. A statement with a similar feeling was made by Jim Ross over the weekend, when he quipped on his blog:
"There are several young grapplers with potential but now is the time for them to step up and play with the big boys."
This was the exact same statement Jim Ross made when the original ECW folded in 2001, and the-then WWF scooped up the likes of Tommy Dreamer, Rob Van Dam and the rest of the misfit crew I had mentioned earlier.
In fact, on every occasion that WWE has taken in a new wrestler from an independent company, Jim Ross blogs “Now that the young and talented blue chipper (wrestler name here) has made it to Raw/SmackDown, he will have the chance to step up and play with the big boys.” The statement is just as faithful as the now standard
“We wish (wrestler name here) all the best in his future endeavors.”
As a lifelong fan of independent wrestling, I find everything about NXT purely insulting. Just what prey tell
does McMahon have to gain by demoting a top athlete in this fashion? Was the WWF more profitable
somehow when The Honky Tonk Man was demoted from “Indy slugger” to “Novelty Jobber”? Did WWE become a stock holder’s best friend when Colt Cabana, Ring of Honor sensation, was shipped to the ring after two years in development as a jobber named Scotty Goldman? My mother once told me that you can’t build yourself up by pushing someone else down, yet McMahon has tried to prove the old saying wrong with every wrestler he drags in.
Equally insulting to fans of the eight men is the knowledge that when season one of NXT wraps up in a number of weeks that the Tough Enough statistic of employment will have set in. When Tough Enough and the Diva Search were on the air respectively, the employment statistic was so very precise, you could have set your watch to it. 8-13 people are chosen. (In this case, 8.) Of the 8 newbies, two will remain employed and on screen for
the rest of the year, regardless of winners and losers. 4 will be wished the best in their future endeavors, someplace during the contest. The remaining two will flounder in developmental. One will be fired early on,
the other will be told every day that “creative doesn’t have anything” for him until either he debuts on the low cards of SmackDown, or is released. In two years’ time, WWE will call him back(We meet again Mr.
Sheffield.). Of the two who made it to television, the one who “won” the competition will be released within
two years after a demotion storyline with HHH, Shawn Michaels, Mark Henry, a random mid-carder, OR if
they REALLY hate him, The Undertaker. (Have you seen Maven lately? How about Daniel Puder? Think about it.) The one who “lost” the contest but was kept on anyway because McMahon liked him a little bit in the legs area will have a job on screen for the next 6-8 years. (Miz iz safe)
Quite possibly, the only man to survive the WWE reality show employment statistic is John Morrison, and
only because he fought the company tooth and nail for his “rock star” spot. How long do you think Ms. Layla has? If I were these two, I’d start sending out resumes now so that when the axe falls, there will be a spot
waiting for me on the indy circuit.
So in effect, the eight “rookies” can look forward to WWE dragging them from show to show like so many circus animals, placing them into innocuous reality show situations by which they will test the boys’ social
limit for one another(I’m waiting for the first pre-challenge brawl) before silently killing each man’s
momentum until one by one they fall backwards into the waiting arms of those of us who still carry the proverbial torch for the indies. One can but hope that there is not yet a rookie pad set up in a mountainous
region of Las Vegas, where the boys will have to share a few bunk beds ala their Tough Enough predecessors
and their UFC Ultimate Fighter rivals.
McMahon is trying to tell us that he is Supreme Overlord over all things wrestling and he will use WWE NXT
to drive the point home through the dissection of the legacy that exists for each new Rookie. At best, the show might stand to last two seasons with ire and resentment still building within the fans, as each new Rookie is brought to his knees by the WWE developmental system. The one thing going for McMahon is that there will
be people watching. I cannot lie and say that NXT is set to be a total failure ratings-wise, as there is already a large group of fans anticipating the show’s debut Tuesday night, with many more curious viewers who may be watching WWE television for the first time on the 23rd. In an ironic twist, the very people who despise Vincent Kennedy McMahon the most will be watching each episode without fail until the show’s end. This is not so much a testament to WWE’s strong marketing strategy as it is a testament to the “Internet Wrestling Fanbase” carefully watching the madman who is holding their beloved indy boys hostage.
One other thing going for NXT at the moment is that neither Simon Cowell nor Tyra Banks have yet signed on
to be judges for the series. However, with the continuation of the Raw Guest Hosts, it seems to be just a matter
of time before the NXT models are swamped with Hollywood’s celebrity camera hogs.
Time will tell how NXT fairs, but at the moment it seems apparent that these eight men have been set up to be dropped. Classic Vinnie at work.
