NXT: No Mercy 2023
 

What the fuck did they do to the character models? Seen a bunch of no mercy mods and none of them make the wrestlers look like gangly weirdos

Perfect timing on 4 Superplexes!

Wish No Mercy was a main roster show and this was Fall Brawl with War Games and it was decades ago.

Started watching No Mercy. Only got the main event to go. I liked what they did with the N64-style intro. In theory. Execution was wonky lol. I’ve been waiting for that for years though. Missed it if they did it before.

The opener was pretty good. Kalani Jordan (trying to remember from memory, not sure if name is correct) has a great look. Endearing for a babyface. Green as shit. Some of her stuff looked too set piece for me. Blair Davenport looks like she’s cosplaying a Mortal Kombat character. It was fine.

Bron Breakker looks like a star. He’s got it all down. The dog thing is too much. Just walk out like a bad-ass. Like that they’re eventually going to do Big Dog vs. Big Dog. Too many custom entrances in NXT (and probs WWE in general). Baron Corbin is looking good. I thought they were going to get around him working in a shirt, but it came off. I actually thought he could use hair in this match. I think it would add to his expressions and selling.

Going to just say it: Baron Corbin is good. I haven’t always thought so, but he was really damn good here. I liked this match a lot. Felt the booking was a little weird, but I guess they’re going with heel Corbin/face Breakker? Ok. Thought Corbin did fine as a face. Maybe he’ll tell Stone to hit the bricks on TV?

The Family backstage stuff felt like bad AEW comedy. Just let guys be authentic. Just read that Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo was trained by Tom Prichard. That stuff gets lost in these silly gimmicks. Julius Creed always looks fucking incredible. Best I’ve seen Brutus look. Fine match, bit manufactured and AEW like. At least all the heels got superplexed in that spot. In AEW that attention to detail would not be paid. I can see ways to move the story forward.

Butch showed some personality in his match with Noam Dar. I haven’t seen much of Dar. Was reluctant to like him. He’s obviously talented. His annoying gimmick seems to be annoying on purpose. He carried himself well as a heel. It’s hard to care though. Again, match felt a bit manufactured. Like British tribute wrestling for dummies. Very good wrestling though.

North American Title match…eh. Dominik is good as a character, but this didn’t get revving. Williams is not terrible in the ring, but missing something. Dom was playing to the crowd almost too much. Williams winning was…weird. Feels like very odd booking to almost go with the subversion of the Dusty finish given the story they’ve been telling. Dragon Lee being out for minutes after the superkick was hilarious in a bad way. Very AEW where things will just happen because it’s an idea manifesting itself.

Ilja Dragunov is amazing. Mesmerizing professional wrestler. Carmelo Hayes held up his end. But Ilja. Feel he’s the most Terry Funk guy in wrestling rn. Obviously a whole different business in 2023, but he feels organic in almost everything he does.

Early thoughts on the main event: I like Tiffany Stratton. The gimmick works really well because it seems she can back it up in the ring. And because it feels a little bit put on like a gimmick. Love that she seems to like the taste of her own blood. The ring gear she chooses to wear to a fight is amazing too. She knew what she was drawing attention to, and it works 100% for the Barbie that is actually a good wrestler and targeted by society because she is “perfect.” She does little things that most others would miss.

Booking in NXT is weird. It’s moving stuff forward, but it feels subversive for the sake of it sometimes. It’d be fine to just do standard pro-wrestling and it work fine.

Good match between Becky and Tiff. I’m a fan of Stratton’s. Think it was the right idea to have her lose though. Interesting but oddly executed exchange between Hayes and Williams at the end.

Lol, Tiffany Stratton is only 24. Her Wiki says her character is based off Paris Hilton and a character off High School Musical. She was only 7 when that movie came out.

What I hope happens on NXT:

* NXT Title program revolves around contenders Baron Corbin, Carmelo Hayes, Bron Breakker and…Edge. I just way watched Ilja/Gunther II because Ilja impressed me so much. Beth says that Edge was inspired by the first match between the two. Edge shows up in NXT as a free agent and asks Ilja if it’s worth him signing a contract with Shawn Michaels.

* Dom is told he needs to win back the NA Title. Judgment Day promise to show up and help him. Williams wants to know if Hayes has his back. Hayes says Williams wanted to step out in his own. Williams says dearly with JD is a different thing. Hayes doesn’t show up when JD does and they screw him out of the belt. The beat-down afterwards leads to Edge and Ilja making the save, but no Hayes.

* The NXT Tag Title scene revolves around The Family & Creeds’ respect for each other. The heels scheme to help each other win matches against the faces, but the faces have each other’s backs. You can do an elimination tag between Bron Breakker, The Family & The Creeds and Baron Corbin & the heels. That sort of stuff.

Oh God! Six blocked posts in a row.

5 rep points for anyone who confirms creepy Tiffany Stratton posts.

Yikes. She's old enough to be his granddaughter :roll:

Also Noid is right. Baron Corbin is good and I've been saying it for years. If I'm starting a wrestling company he is definitely a guy on my radar.

He's good and for the most part Ive enjoyed his work.

Loved him as the Anti-IWC guy in NXT.

He showed some amazing character work as the broken down on his luck guy.

But even he couldn't make a king gimmick work.

The king thing is always death. I liked his anti-IWC stuff too. I actually thought Happy Corbin was great too. I didn’t like how hard they hit the “heels laugh at their own jokes” button, but the look was a good change for him.

Ewwwwwwww.

Typical Noid :roll:

Actually that wasn’t Noid.

Damb @XL it was you all along :eek:

He's a guy who's essentially opposite of where he should be.

When he was in NXT, he was over on looks alone, until he had a match longer than his "timed" squash matches and got exposed to be the sloppiest and most awkward drizzling shits. They couldn't put that genie back in the lamp, and didn't even try to. Just kept exposing how not good he was without a care of it because he was going to be a top guy just from "command presence".

So he got called up and pushed anyway, in spite of not being anywhere near ready for it. And he chipped away at getting better through every single bit of death gimmick after death gimmick he was saddled with.

Now, he's slowly come along all these years later and developed into a compotent talker and a decent worker, and he's back in devopmental. *This* is where he should be the main roster asset he was aggressively shoehorned to be ages back, and he's instead helping younger talent get over.

If he’s not already there he’s close to being in the Ziggler category of just being there. This rest from the main roster audience might lead to a rejuvenated run if he goes back up.

Actually that was Smeat. I was just intrigued to see your reaction. Does Smeat saying it get the same reaction as Noid. Call it a social experiment. Still love ya though.

Corbin feels more like a Mark Henry to me. Dolph was very good almost right away and there were lots of “shoulda” moments that passed. Dolph feels exhausted vs. Corbin just getting it.

Also Smeat: WWE didn’t plan to put the women’s match on last. They missed the opportunity to end the show in a classic NXT Title match. They’re already planning on firing Ilja Dragunov into the sun and shooting some puppies.

“None of that is true.”

Smeat: Wahhhhhh! Stop being mean to me — I’m just kind enough to steal the news!

Classification of DebbieDownUnder posts:



Wrestling sucks, is dead, etc.


Go {any verb here} a cock


Danny Bashem 4 prez


The salt


The bootlicks!

Yes, no, no, yes, yes. I don’t know how pointing out you slurp the boot because you slurp the boot is a diss on me, but yes, I do get to say that a lot, you salty bootlicker.

Well done.

Bumping this because NXT about to have No Mercy on Tiny Khan tonight!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I wonder what he wants ������ <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WWENXT?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WWENXT</a> <a href="https://t.co/BR7Ai4aK08">pic.twitter.com/BR7Ai4aK08</a></p>&mdash; Jade Cargill (@Jade_Cargill) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jade_Cargill/status/1711858463641338066?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Please stop calling, I’m busy tonight <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WWENXT?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WWENXT</a> <a href="https://t.co/FHSPyNlTJ5">pic.twitter.com/FHSPyNlTJ5</a></p>&mdash; Grayson Waller (@GraysonWWE) <a href="https://twitter.com/GraysonWWE/status/1711874459689271781?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

LOL Waller!

hahaha

Perez is a cutie

Nxt needs better advertisers because they're certainly not geared for my demo...except Cascade but they already get my money

NXT trending #1, Dynamite trending #2. Wrestling owning MLB Playoffs right now!

go say that in the Casual MLB Mega Thread! Rub it in!

Why are people cheering for an empty ring??

John...yes Nxt is the future... of stars not getting paid like pro wrestlers should now that they're under the same umbrella as UFC. teehee heee

Pillman on Nxt. Gotta pause that shiz and watch that part in a bit

Just watched it myself. The dude just needed some direction, and now he is getting it.

worth it