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| Despite this, the Kidd stayed in the picture Photo Credit: WWE.com |
Oh Flying Spaghetti Monster was that ever awkward. William Regal was selling the moment hard verbally, and Sami Zayn was selling the moment hard non-verbally, and the crowd's reaction?
Well, the most appropriate modifier that comes to mind is "muted". See, Tyson Kidd had sent Sami flying out of the ring before landing a Savage elbow to the heart of a Helluva Kicked Tyler Breeze, and while Zayn would've broken the count at 3½ that's not how the pro graps work. As a direct result he goes on to the big show in two episodes to face Adrian Neville for the NXT Championship, and the crowd went somewhere between mild and wild but much closer to the former than the latter. You can understand why if you're a regular of the hour of usually Championship-level wrestling from Florida. Tyler Breeze has become the man the fanbase loves to hate, and some don't even want to try despising him since he's so in touch and on point with his character work. Everyone who hates Sami Zayn has banded together and given themselves the name Al-Qaeda. But Tyson Kidd? The one man out of the three who didn't cut a "I'm gonna take this thing home" promo and the interloper between two full time NXTers took advantage of the moment to earn his top spot.
It wasn't an all hope is lost moment, but it seemed clear to the audience in-house and at large that out of three admittedly above-average ones the least compelling one was the prevailing one. Remember, Neville was temporarily derailed by Breeze and they've put on a good match in the past few months. Likewise, in addition to being far and away the most popular roster member Zayn and Neville put on a really good match a few weeks ago with the Geordie winning out. Zayn now finds himself in the wake of all those 90s NBA All Stars good enough to eventually earn plaques in Springfield but not enough to come up with wins. Whether against Cesaro, Swagger, Neville, or the one shot against Dallas he hasn't walked away with the Big X, and you wonder without a callup to the main roster just how long the NXTers are going to willingly go along with the football constantly being yanked out from under their favorite Charlie Ginger.
It should be noted while not great, the triple threat was very good and did a lot more to advance the "more aggressive less selfies" Breeze narrative than a bunch of commentary. Per usual one should show instead of say even if both are necessary. With an innovative Tower of Doom spot and a perfectly placed And Lo My Wild Finisher Emerges one to boot, it wasn't like this was the Sting v. Jeff Hardy Would've Blown A .12 BAC match. Still, it's pretty ominous that not only was Yoshi Tatsu more over on the babyface ledger when the match began than Kidd but since beating Brodus Clay that the Champion's been AWOL off programming and there's only one show between them and their showdown. At this rate this may be the rare main event clash that's got something like a 10:1 steak to sizzle ratio.
And with Charlotte advancing relatively easily against Alexa Bliss to punch her ticket into the Women's Championship tourney finals -- so easily Bliss could only manage a small handful of flash rollups -- it seems that the rush of good luck flowing through Calgary...Alberta, Canada at the moment should auger well for Nattie Kat when she goes in against Sasha Banks in the other semifinal next week despite how compelling an all-BFF final would be and especially in contrast to the white-hat-on-white-hat violence for the Crown Jewel of NXT. You can see how in a moment when the stock is free falling like opening credits Draper what the hope is. Total Divas, amongst all the other things that it is, is also already popular to the point of getting rerenewed over at SeacrestCorp™ and the recipient of a few million eyeballs on a week to week basis. It's part of the more footprints in the tent idea: relegate some WWE stars but not the upper crust down to Full Sail and have them put over the new class.
Conversely, without using the tippy top of the most ridiculous totem pole in roster talent history when these relegations happen they have to provide something beyond the usual serviceable work. We're too embarrassed by riches, the equivalent of a long-time Californian's earthquake reaction of "I don't feel the earth move if it's below a 5". It's more compelling to see El Local and Kalisto lay out a challenge to the Ascension after the Champs bugsmear another couple of Those Guys in <120 seconds, or for Mojo Rawley to slowly learn how to work on taking abuse before rifling off his Five Moves of Doom (poor Aiden, poor beautifully singing Aiden), or Big Cass in a showcase making us miss an ambulatory Enzo Amore. Even if we are angling towards a CJ Parker/Cassady showdown that should lead to some pretty epic promo work, NXT has more than proven over the past year and change that it's strong enough to stand on its own. Even if Big E. is going to put the official nail in the coffin of Bo Dallas' NXT career next week, it's been proven that the talent of Full Sail can use the buoyancy of the crowd and their own hard work to stand on their own without dilettantism overriding and sometimes suffocating the product.
Then again, if they're going to use all these hypothetical eyeballs to get them hooked on NXT with a Breeze/Zayn and/or Bayley/Sasha rerere(re?)match come next Thursday you can just burn the last part of this Bias and warm your hands on the flames.
Well, the most appropriate modifier that comes to mind is "muted". See, Tyson Kidd had sent Sami flying out of the ring before landing a Savage elbow to the heart of a Helluva Kicked Tyler Breeze, and while Zayn would've broken the count at 3½ that's not how the pro graps work. As a direct result he goes on to the big show in two episodes to face Adrian Neville for the NXT Championship, and the crowd went somewhere between mild and wild but much closer to the former than the latter. You can understand why if you're a regular of the hour of usually Championship-level wrestling from Florida. Tyler Breeze has become the man the fanbase loves to hate, and some don't even want to try despising him since he's so in touch and on point with his character work. Everyone who hates Sami Zayn has banded together and given themselves the name Al-Qaeda. But Tyson Kidd? The one man out of the three who didn't cut a "I'm gonna take this thing home" promo and the interloper between two full time NXTers took advantage of the moment to earn his top spot.
It wasn't an all hope is lost moment, but it seemed clear to the audience in-house and at large that out of three admittedly above-average ones the least compelling one was the prevailing one. Remember, Neville was temporarily derailed by Breeze and they've put on a good match in the past few months. Likewise, in addition to being far and away the most popular roster member Zayn and Neville put on a really good match a few weeks ago with the Geordie winning out. Zayn now finds himself in the wake of all those 90s NBA All Stars good enough to eventually earn plaques in Springfield but not enough to come up with wins. Whether against Cesaro, Swagger, Neville, or the one shot against Dallas he hasn't walked away with the Big X, and you wonder without a callup to the main roster just how long the NXTers are going to willingly go along with the football constantly being yanked out from under their favorite Charlie Ginger.
It should be noted while not great, the triple threat was very good and did a lot more to advance the "more aggressive less selfies" Breeze narrative than a bunch of commentary. Per usual one should show instead of say even if both are necessary. With an innovative Tower of Doom spot and a perfectly placed And Lo My Wild Finisher Emerges one to boot, it wasn't like this was the Sting v. Jeff Hardy Would've Blown A .12 BAC match. Still, it's pretty ominous that not only was Yoshi Tatsu more over on the babyface ledger when the match began than Kidd but since beating Brodus Clay that the Champion's been AWOL off programming and there's only one show between them and their showdown. At this rate this may be the rare main event clash that's got something like a 10:1 steak to sizzle ratio.
And with Charlotte advancing relatively easily against Alexa Bliss to punch her ticket into the Women's Championship tourney finals -- so easily Bliss could only manage a small handful of flash rollups -- it seems that the rush of good luck flowing through Calgary...Alberta, Canada at the moment should auger well for Nattie Kat when she goes in against Sasha Banks in the other semifinal next week despite how compelling an all-BFF final would be and especially in contrast to the white-hat-on-white-hat violence for the Crown Jewel of NXT. You can see how in a moment when the stock is free falling like opening credits Draper what the hope is. Total Divas, amongst all the other things that it is, is also already popular to the point of getting rerenewed over at SeacrestCorp™ and the recipient of a few million eyeballs on a week to week basis. It's part of the more footprints in the tent idea: relegate some WWE stars but not the upper crust down to Full Sail and have them put over the new class.
Conversely, without using the tippy top of the most ridiculous totem pole in roster talent history when these relegations happen they have to provide something beyond the usual serviceable work. We're too embarrassed by riches, the equivalent of a long-time Californian's earthquake reaction of "I don't feel the earth move if it's below a 5". It's more compelling to see El Local and Kalisto lay out a challenge to the Ascension after the Champs bugsmear another couple of Those Guys in <120 seconds, or for Mojo Rawley to slowly learn how to work on taking abuse before rifling off his Five Moves of Doom (poor Aiden, poor beautifully singing Aiden), or Big Cass in a showcase making us miss an ambulatory Enzo Amore. Even if we are angling towards a CJ Parker/Cassady showdown that should lead to some pretty epic promo work, NXT has more than proven over the past year and change that it's strong enough to stand on its own. Even if Big E. is going to put the official nail in the coffin of Bo Dallas' NXT career next week, it's been proven that the talent of Full Sail can use the buoyancy of the crowd and their own hard work to stand on their own without dilettantism overriding and sometimes suffocating the product.
Then again, if they're going to use all these hypothetical eyeballs to get them hooked on NXT with a Breeze/Zayn and/or Bayley/Sasha rerere(re?)match come next Thursday you can just burn the last part of this Bias and warm your hands on the flames.
