The NXT Roster: I'm happy
 

From PWInsider.com

The NXT roster will be:

FCW Champion: Justin Angel
Daniel Bryan
Kaval
Skip Sheffield
Joe Hennig
Brett Dibiase
Darren Young
Heath Slater
Michael Tarver

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DOUBLE STOMP TIME

lol Daniel Bryan.

Everyones gonna call him Bryan probably, no difference

http://www.fcwwrestling.info/images/...ath_slater.jpg

HOW MANY UGLY GINGERS DOES WWE NEED???

6

Btw, DX seems to have a crush on gingers.

Pretty sexy.

Honestly I'm interested to see how NXT comes along. Decent roster at least.

Danielson better win it.

what ever happened to the story of kaval feuding with rey after mania?

Danielson and Kaval are pretty much shoe ins, since Danielson went to FCW himself to get off his "rust", and Kaval was already talked about being brought up.

Henning and Dibiase have good chances on their name alone.

I'm hoping that Danielson has enough of a following that the American Dragon name comes with him whether WWE wants it to or not.

I hope that it isn't a "competition." Maybe they can have a Champion or something crowned at the end of it, but I hope the theme of the show is that it's just those guys honing their craft, developing rivalries, telling their stories, etc. The goal for them could be that they just want to each be signed to either RAW or SmackDown!, and it can be their (kayfabe) journeys towards getting there.

That way, there's less chance of Justin Angel, Heath Slater, Darren Young or Michael Tarver to get lost in the "names," and be seen as "losers" when it does come their time to ultimately end up. In fact, I wouldn't mind it if there was a guarantee that they were going to be WWE Superstars, it's just how they get there.

I like the roster here. I predicted something very much like this, except for a few different guesses. I called eight instead of nine, and I had Curt Hawkins and Dawson Alexander in there instead of Tarver, Skip Sheffield (Ryan Reeves from Tought Enough 4, by the way) and Darren Young. I figured that Tarver and Young could be in the next season, and that Sheffield could get called up on his own, as he is pretty much a "gimmick" wrestler at this point (he plays a face happy-go-lucky Texan, I believe).

I'm actually looking forward to this show. I wish they had just kept Bryan Danielson's name as is, though. It won't ruin him or anything (I mean, if his real name was "Daniel Bryan" no one would be complaining), it's just going to take some getting used to. People are already sort of used to "Desmond Wolfe."

From Wikipedia:

Unlike the competitive format seen in Tough Enough where contestants compete for a contract with WWE, NXT will instead see each of the contestants graduating to one of WWE's brands at the end of the season.<sup id="cite_ref-Variety_1-4" class="reference"></sup>

Woot! Exactly what I want to see.

It seems more like the sort of gimmick that would walk face/heel lines if done correctly and with nuance, but I really like the idea of Heath Slater's gimmick in FCW for a while (I'm not sure if it still is or not). Basically, he started targeting second generation stars because he feels they get it "easy." Given how many second generation stars are in the WWE, this would give Slater quite a few simple feuds.

Of course, we wouldn't likely get Slater as a tweener who believes in his code and will go after anyone that fits his profile, and we'd get a heel that just went after face second-gen stars; but it could still be a great character for him. I haven't seen much of his work, and he's never been the "developmental darling" that other guys are -- but I can actually see Heath Slater doing quite well for himself in the WWE. He seems like a guy that someone in the WWE would have a hard-on for.

Holy Shit! WWE might have just pulled a rabbit of their hat here..

It's basically a scripted reality show with guys who already know how to wrestler.

I wonder if Danielson knew about this when he wanted to go down to FCW.

Danielson is smart enough to play the company man role well. This could also be exactly what the man needs. He could show some personality, elaborate on his stylings and his influences and such. Could really get him over by the time it comes for him to debut on either RAW or SmackDown!.

So this is going to be a season ? Basicly when its over do we wait for another season to begin or will it be a show every week ?

i'm more interested in who the veterans on the show are going to be. Finlay and Regal are obvious choices.

Finlay and Regal are who I have suggested in the past. It would make a lot of sense, given that Finlay has been written out of storylines, and Regal has sort of taken on more of a mentor role. They also have that history together. Although, it could help Chavo Guerrero if he was also there. He did Tough Enough for the WWE one season, and even though he's been a joke character, it might remind people that he is a third generation veteran Superstar.

I think Chavo would be great. The wwe owes him this after everything hes been doing for them. It would be a nice way to show him that they apreciate what he does.

It'd be kind of cool if they all sort of got a veteran "sponsor." As a high-flier, Justin Angel could get Rey Mysterio or Matt Hardy, or something. I don't know, the idea needs some developing, but it would give each guy a "connection" when they debut.

Justin Angel: Matt Hardy
Daniel Bryan: Shawn Michaels (he has time now that his career is "over") :shifty:
Kaval: William Regal
Skip Sheffield: Chavo Guerrero
Joe Hennig: Dean Malenko
Brett DiBiase: Dusty Rhodes
Darren Young: Shelton Benjamin
Heath Slater: Finlay
Michael Tarver: Charlie Haas

I don't think there will be veterans. All the ECW guys get drafted away and all the new guys come in. It's an entirely new show/concept. Think of The Office but with wrestling.

I guess they could also do "themed episodes," for example "Tag Team Wrestling" where the WWE's tag teams can come down and inform them how they work as a team. And maybe even some former teams like The Blue Bloods and The World's Greatest Tag Team.

An episode on "aerial maneuvers" could feature Matt Hardy, Rey Mysterio, Evan Bourne and John Morrison all offering insight into their strategies and movesets.

I think the idea of veterans being involved comes from a few news bits here and there saying that the WWE wants some more experienced names to be involved. It's probably most likely we'll get some sort of "guest starring" appearances. A backstage conversation between Shawn Michaels and Daniel Bryan, for example.

From the main page...

Each rookie will be paired up with a veteran WWE superstar as their mentor, “with egos often getting in the way, as they learn the ropes of competing in the ring in front of live audiences, creating characters and speaking on camera.”

So yeah, it's official. Each one paired up with a veteran. Could be interesting.

Interesting.

Sounding so much better than Tough Enough.

more legacy?

Switching American Dragon's name around is the best they could come up with? Wow.

9 man roster ain't much. I know there will be multiple combinations, and we're eager to see how the farm boys are coming along down in FCW. Surely there has to be a few women with talent that can join the party, right?

Still think the name Daniel Bryan sounds terrible.

Wow. Surprised they did this, actually. Sounds really fucking good. Will it be an active Superstar on the WWE roster, or maybe a figure from the past? I think this works out well, because it allows the WWE to develop 18 guys instead of just 9. You can also set up a tag team, or even give a guy a rivarly when they get called up to RAW or SmackDown!.

Of course, since these guys are done "training," this will most likely be done from a storyline perspective. One guy I definitely see being involved is Finlay. He's been written out of active storylines, has got some kayfabe credibility, and is quite over, etc. I also Matt Hardy there, as he hasn't being doing too much recently. This would also be an ideal thing for Charlie Haas to be involved in, as he has sort of disappeared, but he may not be "credible" enough.

Regal + American Dragon= Great tag team. Put him with Regal because Regal actually trained him. Michaels didn't it was just Michaels' school not him personally.

Kane would be a great mentor

lol, wonder if anyone will get paired up with Goldust. Would love to see that, actually.

I'm really excited for this show now. I already was before, but now I'm getting giddy.

Now that we know the format and the young guys, we should start listing who we'd want for the "mentors". How many "odd couple" mentor/mentee pairings do you anticipate?

If they actually do matches and whatnot, I'd like to see them do a sort of tournament for a spot in the MITB.

I'm still not exactly sure how this is supposed to work, but I think I love it.

His momma named him Bryan, Imma call him Bryan.

So is this starting next week, or is there a break between the end of ecw and this.

I definitely hope they pair Danielson with Michaels, as it would go a long way in getting him crazy over. I don't think that's entirely realistic, but I can hope.

Sounds interesting, to say the least. Hopefully this isn't another idea that sounds good but is lacking in execution.

Justin Angel
Daniel Bryan
Skip Sheffield
Wade Barrett
Michael Tarver
Dave Otunga
Heath Slater
Darren Young
------------------

Updated roster, WHERE IS MY KI!?!?!?! FUCK

Anyways, the coaches will be Matt Hardy, CM Punk, Chris Jericho, R Truth, The Miz, Carlito, MVP and John Morrison.

Christian, not Morrison

WWE throwing PWInsider curveballs

Dammit, I wanted my fucking double stomps

Got this from a local page...

The following pairings for the WWE NXT show were announced on the final ECW on SyFy show this evening…

* Chris Jericho will be mentoring Wade Barrett
* Matt Hardy will be mentoring Justin Gabriel
* MVP will be mentoring Skip Sheffield
* Carlito will be mentoring Michael Tarver
* The Miz will be mentoring Daniel Bryan
* Christian will be mentoring Heath Slater
* CM Punk will be mentoring Darren Young
* R-Truth will be mentoring David Otunga

As previously reported, the show will feature teams of eight (4 rookies and 4 coaches per team) and be split by who are the heels and who are the faces. So the teams would be…

FACE TEAM:
* Matt Hardy
* Justin Gabriel
* MVP
* Skip Sheffield
* Christian
* Heath Slater
* R-Truth
* David Otunga

HEEL TEAM:
* Chris Jericho
* Wade Barrett
* Carlito
* Michael Tarver
* The Miz
* Daniel Bryan
* CM Punk
* Darren Young

<font color=goldenrod>Said this in the ECW thread.........but I definitely think out of the guys listed, Bryan/Miz is likely to be the most contentious mentor/teacher relationship. I can definitely see it being used as a springboard for Bryan to enter right into a feud with The Miz when the NXT season ends</font>

I don't know, I've heard they're actually going to try to use Bryan as a heel. At least if he's heel, we should get his "I've got til 5 referee."

Also, I really hope at some point on NXT, Miz says "I'm awesome" only for Bryan to say "I'm better."

Never heard of any of those guys, but if you guys say they're good, I'll take the word for it.

How does this mentoring thing work?

This is what I was thinking. Or even if they don't do that, then Bryan will at least be made to look vicious as all hell. I like the concept of Bryan as a babyface, though. He plays the role quite well. But I guess heel will fit his style.

So far, I really like the concept of the show. I wish Kaval was involved, and I don't like that Brett DiBiase isn't in there, either. But whatever. I'm sure both guys will find it onto the roster. Wade Barrett with Chris Jericho is interesting. I wonder if they will get along, and if this will be a massive mid-card heel push for Barrett (who I actually know nothing about). Maybe Wade and Jericho will clash, and Barrett could earn some fans by turning on Jericho, or something? Darren Young/CM Punk and Heath Slater/Christian interest me, too. "Christian-Slater" as a future face alliance?

David Otunga will be a star, by the way. I say that without even seeing him in the ring. Being black and married to Jennifer Hudson will carry him a long way. :shifty:

I don't get this

What do you mean, Skip?

I'm intrigued by this concept. And that is something that I've not been able to say about WWE programing for a while.

They could have easily paired him with The Miz, considering his reality show past. I think he was on one of those crappy VH1 dating shows.

He does look like he has a better look than some of the other guys on the show, though, so it's entirely possible that they do push him to the moon. I just don't know how well he works.

I don't know how well he works, either. He sounds like he has a love for the business, though. He's genuinely a smart guy, and if he's banging Hudson, he must have some sort of charm or charisma about him.

It'll be cool to see an African-American wrestler in the WWE without a "street" gimmick. Right now, I think Shelton Benjamin and Mark Henry may be the only two.

This might be a dumb question but will NXT have matches ? I dont remember if tough eneough had matches or if it was just training for moves.

Tough Enough didn't have matches, but I think that this NXT show will. It may only be one or two, though.

The Miz mentoring Danielson. Really?

Miz: This is how you do a hammerlock...

(demonstrates a hammerlock on some jobber.)

Bryan: Seriously?

Miz: You think you can do better?

(Bryan does some complex chain wrestling, ending with Cattle Mutilation)

Miz: Hold on a minute.

(Miz gets on the phone.)

Miz: Hello, Vince. I think there needs to be a change of plans. Can Bryan mentor ME?

the point of a scripted wrestling reality show

seems like it will do terrible and all of these guys will be fired

Immediately what I thought as well.

from PWInsider

The cast of WWE NXT, as announced officially during the final ECW on SyFy:
<!-- UFdJIENvbnRlbnQgU291cmNlOiBKUm9jazJLIEAgSVAgQWRkcmVzczogNzUuOTkuMTMxLjI1MA== -->*Chris Jericho mentoring Wade Barrett.
<!-- UFdJIENvbnRlbnQgU291cmNlOiBKUm9jazJLIEAgSVAgQWRkcmVzczogNzUuOTkuMTMxLjI1MA== -->*Matt Hardy mentoring Justin Gabriel.
<!-- UFdJIENvbnRlbnQgU291cmNlOiBKUm9jazJLIEAgSVAgQWRkcmVzczogNzUuOTkuMTMxLjI1MA== -->
*MVP mentoring Skip Sheffield.
*Carlito mentoring Michael Tarver.
*Miz mentoring Daniel Bryan (aka Bryan Danielson) - No, really.
*Christian mentoring Heath Slater.
*CM Punk mentoring Darren Young. *R-Truth mentoring David Otunga.

------

Pretty much everyone's thoughts

Someone mentioned on another site that Darren Young is one of the guys Punk shaved recently. True?

It did seem that in the graphic of him (Young) the hair and headband were digitally added.

Ugh... so this will be a scripted wrestling reality show? Just for the record, I hate every single reality show there so if that's the case, I'll give it a chance but I'm willing to bet that if there's no wrestling and just bullshit training with drama-rama- I'd rather watch the news than NXT.

Fuck that :)

Sounds like you have an open mind

I'm open minded about most things, but not about reality shows. I can't stand them. I watch TV for entertainment to escape from reality, why watch stuff I'm not interested in on TV? Like I said, I'll give it a shot- but If it's anything like most reality TV- I will hate it.

What's it going to have? Segments of WWE guys encouraging the new guys to train hard if they want to get in their place in the future? And then have segments of the new guys talking all emotional about how they want to make it? I don't see that as entertainment at all. Not to me, anyway.

In a perfect world, the Miz/Danielson pairing is going to show signs of tearing apart during the show, due to Miz's ego and Danielson wanting nothing to do with it. Then, after weeks of tension, Danielson graduates from the show, and he chooses to be on the RAW brand to take the Miz's championship and shut him up. He eventually does and the "American Dragon" nickname can make a bit more sense with the US title and maybe get him a nice t-shirt.

Ok, I'll wake up now.

It's the same thing as Tough Enough really, except there's no real "competition", and the "contestants" aren't complete rookies.

I'm bummed that Kaval, DiBiase, and Hennig didn't make the first roster but you can't put all your best guys in the first season. I'm guessing they're saving them for season 2 so we don't have to deal with a bunch of scrubs the next go-around.

True, but you would think that WWE is like any sports franchise in that they are constantly looking to sign and develop talent.

Outside of Henning and DiBiase missing, I was a little meh to the idea of verbally stating their personality types. I think it would have been better suited to actually take the time for the kids to show what type of character they are, rather than tell us up front.

But either way, i admit I'm a little excited for this.

Since WWE was so intent on using the final ECW to set up NXT, they pretty much had to give out something about the characters that are going to be introduced to the world next week. If you didn't know who Daniel Bryan, Heath Slater, or any of the other new guys were, what would saying their name and showing their picture mean to you? Probably not a lot. So why would you bother tuning in?

The only other way WWE could have taken it would have been to anounce the "Pros" and tell you to tune in next week and see the "rookies" get matched up.

I've said this before, but I'm really fucking pumped about NXT.

Oh I get what the point of it was. I know they have to throw a bone to get people to watch. I'm just opinionating. For people like myself or anyone else who enjoys character development that seems spontaneous, I would've prefered them to just wait and have the kids grow.

I would have liked for this to happen.

:y:

Yeah, they actually could have milked a whole hour out of it.

THIS!!!!

I officially hate Skip Sheffield and therefore I'm sure he'll be really successful

No pairing of WWE NXT Pros and Rookies has garnered more scrutiny than Daniel Bryan and his allocated mentor, The Miz. In a blog post on the WWE Universe website, the United States Champion responds to those online saying he's not fit to teach a wrestler of Bryan's caliber.

In its entirety, here is what The Miz wrote:

Mentoring Daniel Bryan on WWE NXT

There has been a lot of controversy this week about me mentoring Daniel Bryan on WWE's new show, WWE NXT.

I've read a lot of interviews, blogs, ect. about the matter and they all seem to be asking the same thing. "Why is The Miz mentoring Daniel Bryan when Daniel Bryan has wrestled all over the world for 10 years plus?"

It's come to my knowledge that some members of the WWE Universe think they know everything about WWE and what it takes to be a WWE Superstar. They think that if a guy does well in the independent minor leagues, then all of a sudden he should be in the WWE.

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.

What the WWE Universe doesn't understand is there is so much more then I can describe in a single blog involved in being successful in the WWE.

My job is to make Daniel Bryan a star in the WWE, because let's face it, if you look at a picture of him right now, do you think STAR?

No, Daniel Bryan looks like my accountant ... ordinary and bland.

Maybe if he had The Miz's charisma and look, he would have been in the WWE by now. Don't hate on me because it didn't take me a decade to get a WWE contract and go down in WWE history to be the first Superstar to win the United States Title and Unified Tag Team Titles.

Don't get me wrong, Daniel Bryan has all the talent in the world, but every wrestler has weaknesses. And that's what my job is, to find his weakness and make him the biggest star possible.

I just hope Daniel Bryan doesn't believe himself what these ignorant members of the WWE Universe believe about him, or WWE NXT is going to be a nightmare for him.

MIZ

Yup, Miz and Dragon are gonna be at it

the miz and danielson, you have to be joking

and so the wweisastion of the american dragon begins

erm what?

He has a point. In WWE, you need to at least have charisma and at least be decent on the stick. From what I've seen of Danielson, he's lacking in a similar way that Benoit did.

Could he get over with the WWE audience on his in-ring work? Sure. Anyone could with the right push. But that's not how WWE works, so you need to work within the system.

i know that, that's why i was quite happy when i thought it was going to be HBK, the resulting creation would have been epic.

Well then what are you whatting about?

You know the blog is in kayfabe, right?

oooooh i see

carry on

i was whatting about
but know i know its kayfabe

I've said this before, but I'm really fucking pumped about NXT.

:y:

As with most, my initial reaction was "What the hell could Bryan learn from The Miz?" But, after thinking about it (and reading his blog), Miz could actually teach him a lot in the charisma department. Plus, Bryan could help Miz better his in-ring stuff (though he has been improving week to week, I think).

I am definitely looking forward to it :y:

<font color=goldenrod>So call me crazy...but I wouldn't be totally surprised if NXT got a small match at WM, just for the sake of promoting the show. Especially since there is gonna be a MITB PPV this year, which I guess means no more MITB at WM.</font>

It seems like NXT will be in kayfabe as well, right?

Crazy talk

WrestlingObserver:

William Regal is set to replace MVP as the mentor for Skip Sheffield on WWE NXT. With MVP and Skip set as faces, and Regal being a heel, it is not currently known if another pairing will change alignment.

Think it would be interesting to see a heel/face pairing.

this is what I'm talking about. much better then ECW. now I can follow these rookies. Plus all these guys will be more over with the WWE crowd then they would of ever been on ECW or whatever #3 wrestling show they would of been on

hit the nail on the head :y: