I dunno. I have also enjoyed Almas in the ring, but his presentation has been dirt poor. I don't understand the cultural significance, if there is any, but his gigolo get-up is fucking annoying. He also reeks of smiling babyface.

Austin Aries used to be one of my favorite guys to watch in the ring. ROH had a lot of guys that kind of grated me, because they would stretch matches out for the sake of stretching them out. Aries was about the only guy who would keep me captivated an entire match. I think he's got a good gimmick too.

I'm looking forward to seeing Roderick Strong debut and how that affects Aries. I'm also looking forward to Hideo Itami vs. Austin Aries.

There were smatterings (great word) of support for Almas, it was predominantly smark bullshit.

And I'm not buying the presentation excuse. Yes, it's bad, but the NXT crowd has been mostly appreciative of in-ring work. Crews was the same vacant smile, babyface and he didn't have to put up with this shit,. And Almas actually has a little more personality and character than crews, with his showmanship in the ring.

God, really says a lot about Crews' character when a guy who can't speak english has more of a personality than him.

I understand why they did it because he has a likable face but I liked Almas as La Sombra. His mask was one of the better lucha mask I've seen. The suspenders and fedora just isn't a good look in my opinion.

He's been bringing me on his side quickly, and his superb theme helps too.

So are these 'Sanity' videos going to be for Eric Young? Seems like with the next Takeover being in Canada it would be the best time to have him make his "debut".... Hopefully they don't stick him with another Canadian in "The Perfect 10" and give him Blake or Murphy and let him keep the Piledriver.

Between Bobby Roode, Tye Dillinger and Eric Young, there are some Canadians that might be pretty over in Toronto.

If they throw in Tyson Dux, I'd be completely okay with a "Team Canada" versus a bunch of other guys Survivor Series Elimination Match with the Canadians winning.

You could even throw in Sami Zayn instead of Dux if he's not doing anything on the card.....

I'm fairly certain Almas cut a promo in English right before the Aries match.

New tapings going on, and damn son some of those new results are.. invigorating.

Like what?

Eric Young has a new weirdo stable called Insanity.

Spoilers, dude

Spoilers for the next set of tapings:

A part of me wants Nakamura to be NXT Champion until he gets called up and has to forfeit the belt. I know that doing the honors is the traditional way to do business, but I feel that Nakamura is special. I don't want to see him vulnerable or beaten. The man is a myth that should just dance through everything.

To me, this is part of the psychic problem surrounding NXT. It's unavoidable, and I know people love the product, but it's that canon/non-canon moving guys from one to the other sort of thing. You also go with these guys and gals on this journey to finding out who they really are, but when they get to the main roster, you see this final product but no one has any clue how they got there.

A big part of why The Shield worked -- besides the wonderfully consistant booking, of course -- is because you had these guys grow into those personas before your eyes. Dean Ambrose was never in NXT; Seth Rollins was the babyface champion; Roman Reigns played a cocky heel. For them to kick down the door in their black turtlenecks was...different. We didn't know where we were going with these guys.

Does anyone else feel that these guys getting this gimmicks together in NXT and then just slotting into the main roster is kind of bringing them in cold? Maybe this is another one of my "Shut up and stop thinking about wrestling, Noid" moments, but I think this is a large part of why Emma flopped, Tyler Breeze flopped, The Ascension flopped, The Vaudevillains flopped, American Alpha is in the process of flopping (they will be okay though, because Vince will want them saved), etc.

A large part of me that enjoys the storytelling element of professional wrestling wants this Sanity angle to happen on the main roster. Maybe they do need some more polish here or there in certain regards, but being rough around the edges can help some guys' charm. If the angle doesn't work, you can always repackage them down in NXT later.

I still have weird fantasies about the guys in NXT that are ready to move up to the main roster moving up, and Regal bringing in Lance Storm, Finlay, Tajiri and Nick Dinsmore to as a team of veterans to stretch out some of the newer guys. I know it would never happen and most people are kind of snarky about old guys and enjoy NXT hoarding talent, but I'd rather see Roode, Joe, Nakamura and even Dillinger contributing to the main roster. I'd maybe keep Aries down in NXT for a program with Roderick Strong while Strong tries to find something in his presentation that could help him click on the main roster. Maybe bring in James Storm as another "special attraction" guy. But Joe, Roode and Nakamura are ready to start making money.

To my last post, though, I think the timing of some talent being called up is off. They are kept in NXT when they are hot and then they're cooling off when you've got them on the main roster. If getting someone over is like baking a cake, then you're bringing up all these cakes and none of them have been baked in front of the wider audience.
"Here's a Superstar we prepared earlier."

Can you re-tell the rise of Bayley? I think you can bring them in and try the things that have already worked. Obviously not word-for-word, but Bayley -- who did beat Charlotte and Becky en route to winning the title off Sasha -- could still conceivably find herself behind Charlotte and Sasha in their current incarnations and have a long chase to the belt. But there's something about being there for the first time.

Adam Rose is the glaring hole in my theory. He was a guy that called up, but I think that was way too fast. Plus the way he was presented was...weak. I think that's just generally a main roster problem. I guess it really comes down to intuition and when certain guys need to move on and when others need to be kept back.

But seriously -- what the fuck is a Samoa Joe or a Shinsuke Nakamura learning in NXT?

Oh, to my point about never wanting to see Nakamura lose the title to anyone: There is one exception to that, and that's Cesaro.

I'd absolutely adore a frustrated Cesaro, angered that he can't get any respect from Vince McMahon on RAW, jumps to NXT to re-invent himself and prove that he can be a champion. I'm sure the promos won't be as good, but maybe you can get Paul Heyman to help agent Cesaro, and get him to do some "Extreme Superstar" like promos where he blasts the WWE for not being able to realize what a sterling wrestler they continue to marginalize.

Nakamura vs. Cesaro is my dream match at the moment, it happening in front of an NXT audience, as annoying as they can get sometimes, would be absolutely tremendous. Cesaro winning the NXT Title before Nakamura makes his way to the main roster in time for WrestleMania would be absolutely gorgeous.

Cesaro is not going to be given the chance he wants on the main roster -- and it's arguable that he doesn't have the charisma to carry a brand. But NXT -- which is the wrestling brand -- is one that he would be more than fit to run. It'd give him the chance to look good with a belt, have stellar matches, work on his promo content, his delivery, grow into those big paws he has on the personality front (it's all there, it just hasn't come together yet). Plus, he'd always be the guy that first pinned Nakamura. That could be pretty special.

That will only make sense if he is still making "WWE money" while down in NXT.... If he has to take a pay cut, he'd likely be able to make much more in the Indies.....

The nxt graduates that have prospered were all immediately put into an interesting feud and angle upon their arrival on the main roster. It gave people a reason to care about them, on more than an in-ring performance level.

All tne flops just had a few matches with no point, or at the most a barebones, cliched feud, and it's no wonder they didn't catch on.

You don't need to change the formula. You just need to have these people make an actual impact on the program when they debut.

It might be what the main roster is missing affecting my thought processes. I feel very strongly that they could use DIY, The Revival, Asuka, Shinsuke Nakamura, Samoa Joe, Bobby Roode, Sanity, Tye Dillinger and Austin Aries on their main roster tearing things up.

I'm curious to see how the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic goes. Something seems right about a Revival vs. DIY final, but are The Authors in the tournament? I could see them attacking the winners to get something started. I can see separate brackets of Revival vs. DIY and The Authors vs. TM61 leading to a DIY vs. Authors final or something too. I'd be more tempted to keep The Authors out of the tournament and have DIY, The Revival, TM61 and, fuck it, The Dudleys in the semi-final stages.

Feel like this is the third or fourth time they've repackaged Sawyer Fulton. Hope it works out for him this go around, although that necklace tattoo he has is stupid.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CtiPPEeWYAE5Z8G.jpg:large
http://67.media.tumblr.com/2b6d22a0a...bvp5o1_400.gif

Pretty interested in Dan Matha.

Me too. It's just a weird hunch, but I'm expecting him to click it all together pretty well and have a nice little career for himself.

"They put the Japanese guys together" cynicism aside, I am actually pretty stoked about the Itami/Ibushi team. If they click well together, I'd be okay with them winning the entire tournament. They can't keep bringing in Ibushi to lose tournaments, can they?

Have them not make it to the final due to miscommunication and have Ibushi V Itami at the next Takeover.

Lawdy...

He kinda has a "Nathan Jones" look to him which is awesome. Hopefully he can somewhat work.

Imagine if Nathan Jones could have worked. Wow.

Actually, that gets me thinking -- where does Austin Aries fit into all this?

12 of the 16 teams for the Dusty Rhodes Classic have now been announced.

NXT Tag Champions The Revival
Tye Dillinger & Bobby Roode
Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa
The Authors of Pain
No Way Jose & Rich Swann
Hideo Itami & Kota Ibushi
HoHo Lun & Bin Wang
Niko Bogojevic & Tucker Knight
TM-61
The Bollywood Boyz
Tino Sabbatelli & Riddick Moss
Andrade "Cien" Almas & Cedric Alexander

Jose & Swann, Bogojevic & Knight, Bollywood Boyz and Sabbatelli & Moss will hopefully be out in the first round. HoHo Lun and Bin Wang are probably going to suck, but I imagine they will get through. I'm curious to see how they book The Authors in this thing. A countout?

4 spots open. Well I'm hoping the Addiction dropped the World ROH Tag Team Championships of the World so they could be in the Dusty Rhodes Classic but its wishful thinking. I imagine Aries will team with someone that Ibushi beat in the CWC. Wanted to see him and Roode but I'll give Roode and Dillenger a chance, could be a good team.

Good theory, but that'd mean it'd have to be Sean Maluta or Brian Kendrick. Something seems off about them. Maybe he gets a completely different partner?

Maybe Roderick Strong could come in as Aries surprise partner. Aries could one up him by getting one of his old friends to tag with him.

I was thinking that, but it might seem like it'd be a quick jump for Strong to being an active character. But I suppose he is as ready as he's ever going to be, right?

He's been ready ever since he left ROH in my opinion. I don't think the guy needs a name change either. They could be saving him to refill NXT after the next wave of call ups.

DIY v. Team Aries Finals?