Posted in: Mr. Tito
MR. TITO STRIKES BACK - Completing the Brooklyn Trilogy - WWE RAW Thoughts & More
By Mr. Tito
Aug 24, 2015 - 11:15:22 PM

Follow Mr. Tito on Twitter.com: @titowrestling

Baby I like it RAW! Baby I like it RAW!!! We are back to complete the Brooklyn trifecta. Welcome back to the Excellence in Column Writing heading into my 17th year as the man, the myth, and the legend (probably not) as Mr. Tito. I thought about taking tonight off, given that I've pumped out 4 freakin' columns in the past week. But you, my wonderful LoP and Twitter audience, wanted another... And I can't thank you enough for the comments.

In case you missed the first 2 parts of the Brooklyn trilogy of columns, you can read my NXT Takeover Brooklyn PPV review by clicking here and my WWE SummerSlam 2015 PPV review by clicking here. I reviewed both shows positively and yet I can't help but be amused by the nitpicking that I'm seeing in the comments and feedback of my column. Most of it is WWE vs. NXT...

To me, what NXT does better than the WWE is building heat for rivalries and having legitimate blowoffs for feuds that will leave fans satisfied. Great example is Bayley overcoming Sasha Banks to become NXT Divas Champion. She had to chase the title while overcoming the other 3 members of the 4 Horsewomen. It was my first time seeing Bayley wrestle, ever, and I felt emotional seeing her defeat Sasha Banks in one hell of a match-up at NXT Takeover. Very rarely have I felt happy for a competitor in the WWE as I did for Bayley on Saturday night. The difference is that NXT is a pro wrestling show and WWE RAW/Smackdown are considered entertainment. NXT has a few former wrestlers involved in the writing of the show while RAW/Smackdown have armies of Hollywood writers preparing scripts for what Vince McMahon/Kevin Dunn might want to see.

HOWEVER - In terms of talent, I see NXT being more successful at developing new female personalities than I do male wrestlers. I have to be honest here and I know that I'll piss off the Internet Wrestling Community (IWC). But you know what, this is MY column as seen by "Mr. Tito" seen in the column's title. If you don't like what I'm about to say, then you know where to Comment or Tweet. In my humble opinion and I know that many WWE fans agree, the NXT top guys Neville, Kevin Owens, and Finn Balor just aren't top drawing main event potential wrestlers to me. They'll work well in the midcard to upper midcard but carrying the WWE as top drawing guys? I just don't see it... Each of them lack something that appeals to a wider audience that watches WWE events. Neville is short and relies heavily on spots. I know this will tick off many, but Kevin Dunn is potentially right about Kevin Owens... The look doesn't work. When you have to wrestle in a t-shirt to cover things up, it's hard to take you serious as a main event caliber wrestler. Balor probably has the most potential of the 3 but I don't know how well his style or persona will translate to the wider WWE audience.

The jury is still out for me on the NXT call-ups for the past 4-5 years. Seth Rollins is not drawing as WWE Champion as seen by lower RAW viewership numbers since Wrestlemania 31. Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns are not being booked properly. Bray Wyatt could be good but inconsistent booking and being too over the top on his gimmick could be holding him back. Luke Harper is a good worker but needs to show more of a personality to connect with fans. Wade Barrett is made of glass... Ryback is also injury prone but has a history of being unsafe in the ring. Rusev is good but creatively, he's too reliant on the Lana storyline. They should have never broken them up. I love me some Cesaro but he has to find a character and stick with it. Too much tweener stuff from him and it's hurting his ability draw heat.

And then you have the logjam wrestlers like Miz and Sheamus who are always in the way... Get ready for the MEGA PUSH of Sheamus, especially as he'll appear in the new Ninja Turtles movie that will debut during June 2016. Gee, what is before that date? Wrestlemania 32. WWE remembers what happened in 2014 with Batista and they will NOT make that repeat mistake again.

The WWE Developmental System since the infamous Ohio Valley Wrestling Class of 2002 (there I go again, eh Comments section?) has NOT produced the next big wrestling draw. Actually, it did but he WWE took both guys for granted (CM Punk and Daniel Bryan). I think we're heading into 2002-2004 territory where the WWE didn't have a true top all time drawing superstar but had a collection of superstars (HBK, HHH, Kurt Angle, Brock Lesnar, Undertaker, etc.). There's nothing wrong with that... It's HARD to find a guy who can legitimately pack an arena or draw people to a television by themselves. WWE got lucky during late 2002 when John Cena found the rapping gimmick or else they'd be lost.

And spare me, internet, on the John Cena bashing. I'm so sick and tired of it. John Cena is GREAT. When the best matches that CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Cesaro, Seth Rollins, Brock Lesnar, and Kevin Owens ever had involved John Cena as an opponent, that's not just dumb luck. John Cena is the best wrestler in the world, period, and has been for the past decade. I'm growing really tired of the "Kevin Owens carried John Cena" crap because every match that I've seen Kevin Owens since his Cena feud have not been close to the greatness of those Cena matches. Cena is great at bumping and better yet, Cena sells for his opponents as if they are equals to him... He put Kevin Owens on the map with WWE fans with that very first match and Owens wasn't wrestling himself out there. Owens, himself, has thanked Cena for the opportunity and the amazing in-ring favor. For 2015, WWE has let Cena be a fighter's champion with the US Belt and we've been treated to nothing but quality wrestling.

I'm just not impressed, yet, with NXT's selection of male wrestlers. But then again, nobody saw John Cena coming. He was a joke during 2002 as he wore plain tights and didn't have much of a personality to sell. And then it clicked, out of no where... So the bullcrap that you hear me spouting today could be proven wrong over the course of the year or anytime in the future. And I'm OK with that... I hope we get our next Bruno, Andre, Hogan, Austin, Rock, or John Cena level main event draw sometime soon and WWE could use them. If John Cena were to get hurt today or just outright retire from pro wrestling, WWE has nobody as a strong babyface draw to replace him. Nobody else will command refunds at WWE houseshows like Cena has, at least not yet...

But that's my opinion... If you really believe in one of the recent NXT call-ups or someone from the NXT territory, that's OK... There is nothing wrong with your own personal stance as a wrestling fan. But I've got 17 years worth of columns where I was right many times and I'm still here, so thus, I have some good hunches about the pro wrestling business.

Now, the NXT Divas, they are amazing... I could spend all column about how impressive they are. That could be Triple H's legacy on giving the WWE a newly revamped midcard act with legitimately talented and very beautiful WWE Divas. Becky, Bayley, Charlotte, and Sasha have REAL talent and HHH deserves high praise for their development. The Divas division improving has hit me out of no where as I was iffy on how good Triple H was as the developmental guy. But the Divas division in NXT has been amazing and each of the ladies have heavily credited Triple H for his work there. After seeing Sasha Banks vs. Bayley on Saturday become a legitimate Match of the Year candidate, I'm excited for the potential of each of the 4 Horsewomen and what other talents may follow.

I hope that I'm wrong on male wrestlers coming out of NXT... I certainly didn't see them upstaging WWE SummerSlam. There was nothing on that NXT card that was as good as John Cena vs. Seth Rollins or Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar and nobody has the drawing power to captivate audiences like Cena, Lesnar, or Undertaker. Matches like Orton vs. Sheamus and even Kevin Owens vs. Cesaro hold up to what was seen on NXT Takeover by the male wrestlers. Internet fans who said "Takeover upstaged SummerSlam" are too invested and in love with NXT. It's like I've said repeatedly, the fanaticism over NXT is just like Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) fans during the late 1990's over the ECW product. NXT, until it can retain its wrestlers and become an separate and equal brand to the WWE, will remain the "farm system" of the WWE.

But that's my opinion... I'd love to hear yours.

RAW THOUGHTS

- Favorite segment of the night, by far, was the New Day match and then the aftermath following the match. As I said above, I have no problems being WRONG... I now get why many people love the New Day. Their SummerSlam stuff was awesome but Xavier Woods coming out with a freakin' Trombone was hilarious! And then playing it on the outside. Could you just imagine if that instrument was not only used weekly, but as a foreign object? New Day dispatched of the Lucha Dragons and then, oh my god, the Dudley Boyz appeared to an explosive pop! They manhandled the New Day, did all of their famous spots, and I'm quite thankful for their return.

Dudley Boys are the most decorated tag team ever, aside from the Road Warriors. In terms of titles won, the Dudleys are loaded. Their WWE exit was on bad terms as WWE was in a trademark kick and had ownership of the Dudley name and gimmick. Thus, Bubba Ray became Bully Ray and the Dudleys became "Team 3D" in TNA Wrestling. The Dudleys termination from the WWE left a bad tasted in their mouth but trademarking of the Dudley name really put the WWE and Dudleys at odds. Good to see them on good working terms again. Now, they can have another good run but also be useful in helping the other tag teams work and improve. New Day vs. Dudleys could have some serious heat behind it.

- And just like that, Team Bella gets their win back on PCB. SummerSlam's result has been rendered useless. This 50/50 booking by the WWE has to end. Nobody will ever get over when everybody is treated equally. Oddly enough, the weakest member of the Bella team according to the booking and marketing of the team (the one that isn't a Bella, Alicia Fox) gets the pin. I don't get it, but hey, this isn't NXT. Dunn dunn dunn!

- Good lord, who was that tall glass of water that joined the Wyatt Family tonight? Huge dude... I would be highly upset if the Wyatts didn't name him Big Dick (as in "Richard") Wyatt. Either way, it's nice to see a new addition. I wasn't much for Erick Rowan as the 3rd member and this guy could act as the muscle of the group while Wyatt and Harper keep advancing as wrestlers. But hey, why not bring Rowan back... Nothing wrong with a 4 person HOSS stable.

- I feel bad for Rusev and Dolph Ziggler... WWE has no interest in pushing either guy. It's all about Summer Rae and Lana. To the WWE's credit, they seem to be right on Lana. She always gets a good reaction and that fact is hard to deny.

- Meh to the Brock Lesnar/Paul Heyman segment... The seriousness of their claims against the Undertaker were soon taken away by unnecessary comedy added by Bo Dallas. Yeah, Dallas got his but him being added to this segment deflated any follow up to the Taker/Lesnar match.

- Jon Stewart really made the most out of his WWE appearances. Good to see him really getting into the events. Interesting explanation on why he helped Rollins win and that's because he didn't want to see Ric Flair's World Title record (16 times) tied or beaten. Ric Flair came down to praise John Cena, however, and then Stewart further explained himself to John Cena. Cena wasn't having it and destroyed Jon Stewart with an Attitude Adjustment. That's a 52 year old non-wrestler taking a slam... Enjoy the next few days of pain!

- Main Event segment was not a match but it was Seth Rollins celebrating his SummerSlam victory from last night. He was in the ring with Triple H & Stephanie and they were going to reveal a statue in Rollins's honor. Before this segment, Stephanie/HHH had "security" escort John Cena out of the building. By security, I meant local indy guys who didn't have handcuffs. No John Cena attack, as it was STING underneath the curtain where a statue was supposed to be. He attacks Seth Rollins, chases him out of the ring, and then holds up the WWE Title. Oh my...

LAST WORD: Funny that I rant on NXT tonight and a bunch of older WWE/WCW/ECW veterans appear to chase after WWE Titles. Happy to see the Dudleys back because they can contribute to the Tag Team division. Sting going after the WWE Title? I guess, but Triple H already disposed of him. Oh well, I was surprised multiple times by the WWE and that's what matters. Decent wrestling and a nice follow-up to SummerSlam. B grade for this show.

I'm exhausted...

SO JUST CHILL... 'TIL THE NEXT EPISODE!

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