NXT stays strong or how to run a promotion

Following the brand split and draft one thing became abundantly clear: the nxt roster will be changing drastically. Finn balor, American alpha, Mojo rawley (who cares), Alexa bliss, Carmela and Nia Jax all got drafter to raw or smackdown during the draft; bayley is only a matter of time. Samoa joe and nakamura have to counting down the days and I feel the revival is not far behind either. Not to mention sami zayn before and Apollo crews, Enzo and Cass, the vaudevillains and baron corbin were called up right after wrestlemania. That is 19 potential known commodities leaving nxt within four months. That would cripple just about any major television wrestling brand to its core; however, nxt just rolls along without missing a beat.

They are using samoa joe, shinsuke nakamura and bayley the best they can but, more importantly, what they are doing is bring in fresh faces behind all of the top talent. Austin aries arrived and is making no way jose seem legitimate, American alpha put of author's of pain very strong, Bobby roode was introduced seemingly being put at the top of the card, wrestlers like Johnny Gargano, Tommaso chiampa, ty dillinger, Andrade almas are being featured now. They have completely rolled over the entire women's division aside from bayley and Asuka successfully. Not to mention hideo itami has come back. Finally, with the success of the cruiserweight classic I'm sure some of the wrestlers will join nxt before starting on raw.  Nxt managed to refill almost their entire roster seamlessly and successfully. As a wrestling fan for a long time I have never seen a roster turn done so well. To have so much talent leave without a let down on the show speaks volumes of the strategy of focus on top guys while building the under card so that everyone is ready to step up as the top stars are elevated to the main roster. The amount of focus on featuring the mid card guys so they are constantly growing and progressing is remarkable. Why is this strategy not being used at the main roster level is beyond me. While Undertaker, Bret hart and Shawn Michaels carried the main events performers like Steve Austin,  triple h and The Rock honed their craft en route to being the next top stars. This worked with stars like Jericho, angle, edge, guerrero, batista, Randy Orton and John cena! Then it kind of stopped, unexplicably.

NXT has resurfaced this archaic strategy and it is working like a charm. The perfect mixture of building stars with established veterans and time to develop characters, grow as performers and hone their skills before they are rushed to main events before they are ready makes NXT easy must see television.
Could you imagine if raw was focusing on Seth rollins challenging Finn balor and Roman Reigns versus rusev while also allowing cesaro, owens and zayn to build legitimate credibility instead of lousy win some lose some meaningless stuff that gets no one over? So, when the main events inevitably become stale they can rotate guys in and out and the fan base actually believes it to be viable. What a wonderful wrestling world it would be. If cesaro finally got to challenge Seth rollins or Finn balor for the universal championship and it actually meant something the product would be so much more interesting and entertaining. Imagine if you didn't know for certain who was going to win a royal rumble because wwe was able to have multiple established bona-fide challengers involved in the match. It would be incredible! It's not impossible, nxt shows you how to do it every week. And, amazingly, nxt is a very good show most all the time. 

Are you not watching nxt, yet? You should be. It is easy to watch and a tremendous show. NXT is a great reminder of how good wrestling can be, how simple cohesive stories and quality in ring wrestling can produce great wrestling shows that are just so good. Summerslam will be the biggest wrestling event of the summer in North America but nxt takeover: Brooklyn will likely be the better performance of that weekend. It will have all the emotion, drama and athleticism of summerslam without the convoluted mish mash that pro wrestling has become.

That is just this marks remarks and if you like what I have to say or you would like to tell me what you think please subscribe to this blog, like the Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/amarkremarks and follow on twitter @amarkremarks thank you very much and please keep supporting.

Ambrose becomes legitimate or good guys on smackdown?

Dean ambrose cut a promo on smackdown to start the show that cemented him as a legitimate leader of the the smackdown roster. Ambrose had a cadence to his promo and a control over the crowd that resembled that of a prime dusty rhodes. I'm not saying that ambrose is on the level of Rhodes but that he cut a big time promo on Dolph ziggler that both elevated the champion and helped set the tone for an important smackdown main event at summerslam. Ambrose built himself up as fighter who constantly look adversity in the face and ran through every road block. He mentioned how ziggler was a complainer and used the crutch of people holding him down while ambrose never made excuses always pushing forward fighting to get to the top. Ambrose made himself feel like a true champion and a deserving top star, even it is on the "b show". I was very leary of ambrose being the face of the brand being that John cena will start slowly stepping back. However, Dean ambrose on the second smackdown of the new era made himself a legitimate top star based on the way he carried himself and conveyed an aura over the crowd. 
 

Dolph ziggler was ran down by ambrose as the guy who makes excuses, gets held down, doesn't focus on winning, only tries to pander to fans and steal the show. Ziggler tried to compare himself to ambrose with little success and was thwarted at every turn by the current champion. Ziggler talked about no one believing him and proving people wrong. The problem with this exchange is that ambrose was right about everything he said, all of his points about ziggler were right on the money and Dolph has really been set up for a few years as a second rate contender. Ziggler has been used to elevate guys and has lost quite a few (a lot) matches on television. So becoming a number one contender on smackdown is out of left field and doesn't seem that he should win the title. Therefore, based on the promos and Dolph saying everyone is against him ziggler should turn heel after he loses to ambrose at summerslam. Ziggler is a better "bad guy" than "good guy", it is a more natural fit for his attitude appearance. Dolph can be a chicken shit heel with no problem, he can take the heel bumps with no problem, and should be able to be disliked with no problem. During his career he has found more success as a cocky villain then being the sympathetic hero. His style will also be helped by working as a heel because it will force him to slow down, do less moves and sell.  Changing sides could potentially resurrect his career from being just another mid card guy to being a top tier rogue.
But, if ziggler turns (which is the better option) who is left on the good guy side of smackdown? Holy smokes will that roster be thin on hero's especially if cena becomes less of the focus. You'll have dean ambrose, who is a top guy, and then... Apollo crews? Smackdown does have randy Orton who is coming back hot but he is wrestling brock lesnar at summerslam and the odds of him looking strong at the end of that match are slim. So the top faces on smackdown will be ambrose, cena (becoming part time), Orton and crews? Those house shows will be something. The villain side would become aj styles, bray wyatt, ziggler, miz, and corbin. Aj styles may be the best wrestler in the wwe and bray wyatt could still be a very special type of villain but smackdown shaking up the sides really showcases how the brand split and draft did smackdown no favors to not be the best show. 

Smackdown needs more bodies, quality fan favorites that the wwe universe can get behind. The only guy in nxt that could walk in and be a top hero, immediately,  in shinsuke nakamura. Like, right now. He has charisma to spare, he is an international superstar and a great in ring performer. He is learning English very well and has that swagger in the squared circle that transcends language. Plus, he is fresh to the brand. Every feud he would have on smackdown would be new, unique and refreshing to the wwe audience. Nakamura could be and should be the savior of the brand because he solves a lot of current problems with depth, to many die hard he is a huge name and his styles lends itself to gaining popularity quickly.
If not nakamura to smackdown  (which I don't see in the immediate future) wwe will have to rely on bringing back older stars that are already established. Rumors are always circulating about Kurt angle and bill goldberg which would be a band-aid on the problem but does not benefit the brand long term. Now, if they use the older "legends" as a feature act while they build middle guys to become stars then that is a different story but history shows that doesn't happen  consistently. Smackdown is a work in progress. Hopefully they recognize the issues of top tier talent,  especially on the face side, and remedy the problem. The shows so far have been pretty good but if they want two "a shows" they need to start building likeable stars to become top baby faces otherwise a lot of these shows will revolve around the same stuff week in and week out and really expose a weak roster. I don't have an issue with Apollo crews or even zack Ryder being considered relevant faces but wwe will have to build them to that point. Nakamura is the key, in my opinion, but success will happen over time; which could prove to be smackdown live's toughest opponent. 

That is just this marks remarks and if you like what I have to say or you would like to tell me what you think please subscribe to this blog, like the Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/amarkremarks and follow on twitter @amarkremarks thank you very much and please keep supporting.