The Bryan & Vinny Show is back today with a special THANKSGIVING episode of the show, and we’ve got tons to talk about! First, it’s the epic NXT show with BAILEY VS. EVA MARIE, the Samoa Joe vs. Finn Balor NXT Title angle and more! Then, Granny joins us to take your comments on what you’re thankful for on this Thanksgiving night. And finally, the Raw report from this past Monday night! A fun show as always so check it out~!
OH MY GOD WHAT A SHOW TONIGHT. First, Granny joins us for the BABY NAME CONTEST! Will one of the NINETY ENTRIES guess the name of Bryan and Whitney’s child? There’s $100 US dollars on the line. This all leads to THE BIG REVEAL~! And then, what a follow-up. Raw from Monday with great wrestling and a God-awful main event angle, another match from the Tenryu retirement show, then NXT from Wednesday night setting up BAILEY VS. EVA MARIE~! A fun show as always so check it out~!
It looks to become tradition that WWE will run NXT events in conjunction with its big three pay-per-views after the huge success of the show two nights before WrestleMania in San Jose and the night before SummerSlam in Brooklyn.
With the Royal Rumble being in Orlando, the home base of NXT, it was a given something would take place. With the NXT Takeover special in December in London, and the company wanting to space out the NXT big shows so more time can be devoted to building angles and keeping them special, it doesn’t look like a live special will happen.
However, HHH announced that they would be doing a television taping on 1/22 in Orlando at the CFE Arena at the University of Central Florida campus, which is the Friday night before the Rumble. The arena, which holds 10,000, meaning with a stage set up capacity would probably becloser to 7,000, will be the biggest NXT event ever in the state of Florida.
By Alan Boon for WrestlingObserver.com
One of the more fascinating aspects of WWE’s new reality show Breaking Ground is the appearance of the trainers: seasoned grapplers performing in front of the cameras in a whole new way. One of the WWE Performance Center’s faculty who may be unfamiliar to some American viewers is Robbie Brookside, a long-time face on the British wrestling scene, who spanned the transition from the old ITV television days of Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks to the current, thriving scene.
Here are five things about Robbie Brookside that you may not know:
1) He could have been professional soccer player.
Brookside’s father played as a goalkeeper for Preston North End, a former powerhouse of the English game. He encouraged his son to follow in his footsteps and the younger Brookside was a prodigious talent, catching the eye of scouts on his native Merseyside. But wrestling got under his skin after a trip to Liverpool Stadium, a famous old boxing venue in the city, and he began training in secret at the Liverpool Olympic Wrestling Club. He was sent to Blackpool to begin his career, where he met a young grappler by the name of Regal.
2) He and William Regal have worked together before.
Brookside formed a tag-team with Regal – then known as Steve Regal – called the Golden Boys, working for British mainstay Brian Dixon’s All-Star Wrestling. Their most infamous bout came in the dying days of British wrestling on ITV, when they faced the legendary Kendo Nagasaki and “Rock & Roll Express” Blondie Barrett. Yes, a man named after a tag-team. During the match, Brookside unmasked Nagasaki, who then fixed his gaze upon the young grappler, hypnotising him into attacking Regal, his own partner. It would be Nagasaki’s last appearance on TV and the show itself was cancelled two months later.
3) Breaking Ground isn’t his US TV debut.
After his tag-team with Regal ended, Brookside teamed up with Ian “Doc” Dean as the Liverpool Lads. In the mid-1990s, Regal invited the pair over to WCW where they spent six months as enhancement talent, racking up a dozen appearances on WCW Saturday Night, WCW Main Event, and a solitary appearance on WCW Nitro, where Brookside lost a WCW Cruiserweight title match to Dean Malenko. The hook-up even extended to a short stay in New Japan Pro Wrestling, where they took part on the 1997 Best Of The Super Juniors tournament.
4) Breaking Ground isn’t even his first reality TV show.
In 1993, Brookside was invited to record a video diary for a BBC2 series imaginatively-titled Video Diaries. The hour-long show revealed British wrestling in one of its down periods, and a visit to Regal in Florida – made before he got Brookside into WCW – reveals the stark difference between wrestling life in the two countries. Brookside also detailed his love for heavy metal music and showed him on tour in Germany, a popular destination for British wrestlers during that time. The show is available on YouTube.
5) He’s been training wrestlers for a while now.
Brookside opened his own training school in the UK — Wrestleicester — in 2006. Among his graduates, who were taught a style which was based in the British hold-and-reversal catch wrestling style, are Becky Lynch and his own daughter, Xia, who has recently moved over to Orlando to further her nascent career. In addition, Brookside worked as a talent scout for WWE in Europe before moving to the Performance Center in 2013.
*****
Brookside should become something of a cult figure on Breaking Ground with his no-nonsense approach to life. If ever a man were going to call a spade a spade, it’s Brookside, only he’d probably do it in a more sweary, British-accented way. The talent that graduates from NXT will do so with a healthy respect for the professional wrestling business, instilled in them by one of the last of the old school of the British wrestlers, even if – and I know from bitter, personal experience – he doesn’t put much stock in the “wrestler’s handshake”!
The future of a WWE Superstar, or any pro wrestler for that matter, is no certain thing. So many factors, some controllable, some not, can determine the fate of a wrestler’s career. Only the smallest percent of WWE talents make it to the absolute top: the Shawn Michaels, The Rocks, the Austins, The Undertakers, the John Cenas. In the current era, the majority float around the middle. Some get close to breaking through the glass ceiling and separating themselves from the mid-card pack, while others spiral down into obscurity.
What is it that creates the divide and that differentiates a major star from an enhancement talent? Is it one’s work rate? Look? Mic skills? Charisma? Who one is or is not in a relationship with behind the scenes? That elusive and abstract “it” factor? Plain old dumb luck? Some wrestlers come along who seem to be the complete package, but wind up floundering, while another guy who throws the worst punches known to man and can’t take a bump to save his life gets pushed to the moon and becomes the face of the company for an entire generation. Sometimes, it almost feels like the decision to push or not push a performer is made completely at random.
This unpredictability is especially relevant for the “rookies” of WWE’s NXT for whom the future holds many different paths. Some will never make it past the developmental phase. Some will be promoted to the main roster only to be sent back after failing to get over like they had in NXT. The fortunate will go on to have a successful WWE career. One NXT wrestler who looks destined for big things in the WWE is Chad Gable.
Gable is at an exciting point in his pro wrestling career. He’s currently one of NXT’s most over talents, and has (almost) all the tools needed to become major star. While getting over with the fastidious NXT audience is a worthy accomplishment, they are a comparatively small sample size compared with the larger WWE fanbase. We’ve already seen acts that have gone over like gangbusters in NXT, but fall flat with the larger audience when brought up to the main roster.
To Gable’s credit, he has got over in NXT with his charisma and ability alone, as opposed to some outlandish gimmick, that, while initially entertaining, comes with a limited shelf life. This is a positive sign that Gable will be (G)able to connect with the wider WWE fanbase when he’s brought up to the main roster.
With that said, getting over with the audience is only part of the battle. Fortunately, Gable is a natural when it comes to actual wrestling. Before his arrival at NXT, Gable had trained and competed in folkstyle, freestyle, and Greco-Roman wrestling. He particularly excelled in the latter, winning a number of national championships, and placing ninth at the 2012 London Olympics. Gable has impressively transitioned from amateur to professional wrestling, creating a beautiful blend of sports entertainment and amateur wrestling styles in the process.
He has also shown himself to be very competent on the microphone. Mic work is often the downfall of even the most skilled wrestlers, and the saving grace of some of the less naturally gifted athletes. Do you think the Miz would have ever won the WWE Championship if he wasn’t such a good talker? Gable’s charisma and comedic timing come through not only in his wrestling, but more importantly (in sports entertainment) on the microphone. He’s a naturally gifted wrestler, he can talk, he’s charismatic, and he connects with audience. Gable has just about everything one needs to be top star in the WWE. Well, almost everything.
The only thing, at this point, that might stop Gable from making it to the tippy top is the dreaded size aspect. Gable is billed at 5’8” (173cm). In most professions, that would be irrelevant, but in WWE, admitted or not, size matters. The number of WWE champions under six feet tall can be counted on one hand (with a few extra fingers left over). Guys like Daniel Bryan and Rey Mysterio have proven that smaller wrestlers can reach the top, but in both cases, they were never really considered the top guys of the company like Cena has been.
With any luck, and if there’s any justice in the world, Chad Gable’s aforementioned attributes will be enough to overcome his sole drawback.
Only the most pessimistic of pessimists would doubt that Gable will make something of himself in the WWE. The real argument is to what extent will he make it. Will he become a top guy, a mid carder, a comedy act, a tag team lifer? Gable draws comparisons to a range of WWE wrestlers, past and present, who fill(ed) those various roles. Gable’s destiny might be to emerge as the second coming, but of who?
The Next Kurt Angle?
Like Angle, Gable is a champion amateur wrestler. Like Angle, Gable represented his country in the Olympic Games, admittedly not faring quite as well despite not even having a broken frickin’ neck. Still, he wrestled in the Olympics. That’s probably, like, super hard to do. Like Angle, Gable transitioned into professional wrestling seemingly effortlessly. Like Angle, Gable’s a good talker with a knack for humour. It’s hard not to argue that Gable is Kurt Angle 2.0. The only real difference is height, and even there, the disparity is minor with Angle billed at 6-0”, four inches taller than Gable. Besides, don’t even try to tell me Gable couldn’t pull off an adorable little cowboy hat. Don’t. Even. Try.
The Next Daniel Bryan?
In case you haven’t been paying attention, Gable is a fan favourite at Full Sail Arena. Gable and tag partner Jason Jordan were the highlight of the inaugural Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, getting some of the best reactions at NXT TakeOver: Respect despite failing to make the finals. Someone else who is (was?) good at getting the crowd behind him is Daniel Bryan. An argument could also be made for Gable becoming Bryan’s successor. They both have the distinction of being ”smaller guys” in the pro wrestling sense. Yet, it’s that smaller stature among the sea of ex-football playing, bodybuilding gladiators that helps make them such endearing underdogs. It might be the rabid support of the fans that ends up pushing Gable to that next level.
The Next Cesaro?
Of all Cesaro’s skills and attributes one could wish to share, like his amazing work in the ring and charming Swissness, Gable could end up sharing Cesaro’s one main undesirable attribute: being a super talented wrestler whom the fans clearly want to see succeed, but is never given any serious push because of the decision of one man based on vague, shaky reasons. Lamentably, that man is the one who decides who gets pushed and who gets to join the mid-card club. (Side note: nobody steal my Bullet Club Parody shirt #436: Mid Card Club.) Of course, if Chad Gable does become the next Cesaro, his first name will have to join Antonio, Adrian, and Wade up in first name heaven. First name heaven is, by the way, is conveniently located next to last name heaven, where Langston is currently residing.
The Next Santino Marella?
Here’s where that gift for great comedic timing and mic work might come back to bite Chad Gable in the behind. There’s nothing wrong with being the comedy guy. I love the comedy guy. Some of my best friends are comedy guys (I mean, they would be if I had friends). Sometimes you just want more for some wrestlers, especially one this early into his career. Having said that, WWE is missing that reliable comedy guy right now, and nobody, besides perhaps Damien Sandow, has really embraced that role since Santino’s departure from our TV screens. Gable does have a bit of a Les Kellett vibe about him in the ring. There are worse things than being the comedy guy; just ask Curtis Axel. Wait, on second thought…
If anything has been made clear from this exercise in comparisons, it’s that Chad Gable is a talented, well-rounded professional wrestler with the tools to make a name for himself in the biggest wrestling promotion in the world. But wrestling is wrestling and nothing is guaranteed.
Gable could blow out his knee like Seth Rollins before getting called up to the main roster. He could get a concussion that puts him on the shelf indefinitely like Daniel Bryan. Or, he could go on to become the next Kurt Angle and have a HOF worthy career. As flattering as it may be to be compared to such talented peers like Bryan and Cesaro, I don’t really want Gable to become the somebody.
Instead, what I truly hope is Chad Gable becomes the first Chad Gable, and that he makes his own mark on the wrestling world. And there’s no better time than now. He’s ready, willing, and Gable, after all.
The Bryan & Vinny Show is back tonight with tons to talk about including a full review of NXT from Full Sail, a very fun Granny contest this week trying to figure out what Bryan changes all the time and Vinny does not, and then the most boring Raw ever from Monday in Manchester. A fun show as always so check it out~!
WWE officially announced that the next live NXT Network special will air on Wednesday, December 16th from London’s SSE Wembley Arena at 3 p.m. Eastern time and 12 PM Pacific, featuring a 30-minute pre-game show.
While the lineup has not been announced, it appears the key matches will be NXT Champion Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe, Baron Corbin vs. Apollo Crews, and Asuka vs. Emma. Joe turned heel on Balor on NXT TV two weeks ago after Corbin cost Crews the NXT title in his match with Balor. Asuka vs. Emma is a continuation of a storyline that began at the last TakeOver event where Asuka destroyed Emma’s partner Dana Brooke.
The December 16th Wembley show will likely also include both tag team title matches (champs are Dash & Dawson) and a women’s title match (Bayley is the champ). That should become clear on November 19th when the final TVs leading to the show are taped at Orlando’s Full Sail University.
The most recent NXT TakeOver show, titled Respect, took place on October 7th at Full Sail and featured Finn Balor & Samoa Joe beating Rhino & Baron Corbin to win the Dusty Rhodes Invitational Tag Team Tournament, as well as an outstanding main event Bayley beating Sasha Banks to win the NXT women’s title in a 30-minute Iron Man Match.
Subscribers can hear Bryan & Vinny review the last NXT Takeover special here.
The Big News: Samoa Joe not only explained why he laid out Finn Balor last week, but he did it again this week.
The Medium Sized News: Dash & Dawson became either the 8th or 9th NXT Tag Team Champions (more on the number confusion below)
The Little Beaver Sized News: Eva Marie and Nia Jax may be forming the oddest pairing in wrestling history.
— The match between Tye Dillinger and Baron Corbin never got started.
It is time for NXT and it is time for the Perfect 10! Tye Dillinger to kick things off this week in singles competition. I hope Sawyer Fulton and Angelo Dawkins are sitting somewhere, realize that Tye Dillinger is not better off once he broke up with Jason Jordan and find a way to keep the team together. Baron Corbin was introduced as from Kansas City. I don’t know if he has always been announced from Kansas City, but it doesn’t sound appropriate.
Before the match could even start Apollo Crews ran in and attacked Baron! Crews is quite upset that Corbin cost him the championship last week and tore apart Baron! Corbin tried to make a comeback, but Apollo tore him apart and Corbin fled.
— NXT Women’s Champion Bayley & Hype Bros defeated Alexa Bliss, Blake & Murphy
It’s time for a nice, random, 6-person tag team match. Bayley got a healthy reaction coming out, but not quite the same level she had a month ago. It didn’t help that the Hype Bros got some pity applause, which is at least better than silence. It’s hard to believe that it was almost a year ago when Blake and Murphy were the designated jobber tag team on NXT.
Just as the match began a fire got lit under the butts of the audience as they got very loud in their chants for the babyfaces. The babyfaces ran wild for quite a while until the heels cut off Zack Ryder and got the heat. Mojo got the hot tag and went crazy on both Blake and Murphy. He had the match won, but Alexa broke up the pin, so Bayley attacked her. Alexa then stole the NXT Women’s Championship and ran off with it. Blake and Murphy tried cheating and using the ropes for leverage, but Bayley kicked their hands apart. Murphy had a problem with this, so Bayley gave him the Bayley to Belly and the faces won with the Assisted Rough Ryder.
-The Ascension were backstage and accepted Jason Jordan & Chad Gable’s challenge to a tag team match.
-Nia Jax was walking backstage when Eva Marie walked up and pulled her aside for a meeting.
-They showed the cover of Weekly Pro Wrestling in Japan, which had Asuka on the cover.
-Apollo Crews cut a promo and was quite irate about what happened. He wants to get his hands on Baron Corbin and vows to break him.
— Nia Jax destroyed Deonna
Deonna is one of those girls that looks exactly the same, so they are completely interchangeable. You could tell me it’s the same girl every single week doing jobs with different names and I would believe you. Nia Jax got to NXT for the third time in six weeks after being unable to find the arena for 2 months.
Nia destroyed Deonna with a bodyslam into a Samoan Drop, which would make a much better finisher than her actual finisher. Deonna then got destroyed with a corner splash and a running hip attack before being beaten with the standing spinebuster and legdrop. Seriously why does Nia Jax use set up moves that are much cooler than her actual finish?
During the commercial break, I assume someone came out with a shovel to get Deonna off the mat.
-Next week: Nia Jax vs Carmella. Poor Carmella.
-They made note of the neck surgery of Mr. Regal. I hope he gets better.
-Bayley caught up with Alexa Bliss, who was taking photos with her championship. Alexa ran away, so Bayley got her belt back. However when Bayley left the area she walked into Nia Jax. Nia just stared at her, which gave Alexa the chance to attack Bayley from behind and lay her out!
Alexa bent over to take the championship, but instead Nia picked it up. Alexa ran away and Nia…dropped the belt on Bayley and walked away smiling.
— Dash & Dawson became the 8th NXT Tag Team Champions by defeating The Vaudevillians.
To be fair, Dash & Dawson is either the 8th or 9th Tag Team Champions depending on if you consider Adrian Neville & Bo Dallas a different title reign than Neville & Oliver Grey. What happened was Grey got injured (credited to the Wyatt Family) and Bo took over as champion for about 2 weeks, before they lost the belts. This was also only the second title change on a “normal” NXT show since the Network started.
So about two weeks ago I was reading the results of an NXT house show and it not only listed Samoa Joe as a heel, but Dash & Dawson as champions. Since this was before this match was even booked I was all “What the what is this person talking about?”
The challengers scored an upset win in the 2nd round of the Dusty Rhodes Classic back in September and they were poised to win 2 in a row. They got the heat on Aiden English by working on the knee, including slamming the knee into the ring post.
English went to the Ricky Steamboat School where he kept doing something to show he was still in it, but he just couldn’t drag himself to the corner for the tag. Dawson hit a really nice Slingshot Suplex, but it was just for a 2 count. Somewhere Tully Blanchard is smiling.
Gotch got the hot tag and went all gentlemanly on his foes. He made the foolish move of tagging English in too quickly, but Aiden got chop blocked and sending Gotch out of the ring and into the steps. Dash & Dawson Pillmanized Aiden’s knee just without a chair. Finally Gotch slapped on a kneebar. Aiden scratched and clawed to get to the ropes….but he just couldn’t get there and he had to tap out!
The kings are dead! Long live the new kings of NXT!
-After a commercial break. Dash & Dawson cut a promo saying they have been fighting for this for 12 years. Interesting since they have been teammates for barely a year.
-Next week is the Jordan & Gable vs The Ascension match, as is Bayley vs Alexa for the Women’s Championship.
-The actual main event of the show was a Samoa Joe promo!
Last week, Joe appeared to make the save for Finn Balor, but instead he stabbed the NXT Champion in the back! Joe said that he did things like a man. He had earned a title match for being undefeated for 3 months, but instead of going for the belt, he agreed to be Finn Balor’s partner in the Dusty Rhodes Classic. Joe proved he was a man of action by destroying the competition by winning the tournament.
Joe then asked for a title match and he was insulted by being put in a battle royal. Finn had agreed to the match, but allowed Mr. Regal to make a battle royal and, thus, put no action behind his words. Samoa Joe stated that when he entered NXT he was such a star that he should have been automatically given a title shot.
This brought out Finn Balor and a bunch of referees. The refs kept them apart until Joe literally threw one of the referees into Finn and in the confusion Joe got through and choked Finn out with the Koquina Clutch. Joe dropped the NXT Championship belt on his foe before walking out.
That does it from NXT — another good show on the way to London. Until next week, remember to say your vitamins and take your prayers!
Recap by @RyanNPike
Key Takeaway: NXT heads down to Texas for a sold-out three city tour, while Josh tries to parlay his Tough Enough win into a WWE career.
Show Recap: The NXT tour of Texas provided the framework for an unusually focused edition of Breaking Ground this week. The entirety of the episode was split between getting to know Josh, who won Tough Enough this summer, and following the NXT veterans on their three-city Texas trip.
We meet Josh in the gym, where Jason Albert tells him he needs to take yoga because he’s in the rookie class. His big-money contract is briefly mentioned, and Albert tells him to get his banking and living situation set up and then it’s time to get to work. Later, Josh helps set up the ring at Full Sail for the NXT tapings and talks about having a huge desire to get in the ring. He says he has to trust in the coaches and their plan for him.
Later on, we join Josh at the grocery store. His wife and daughter call (via Facetime) and he talks about uprooting his family from Colorado so he can follow his dreams and how much it motivates him. He’s in the process of finding a place for them all to live so he can move them down to Florida. Later, we join Josh in promo class. He kind-of sucks, and delivers an awkward, meandering promo, trying to use his Tough Enough persona “the Yeti.” William Regal’s obviously disappointed (after 10 weeks on the mic in Tough Enough), advising him to be flexible and to ditch the Yeti thing. The coaches discuss Josh’s lack of progress in a meeting. At the end of the episode, Josh delivers a slightly better version of the same bad promo. Regal looks displeased. Josh doesn’t come across well, despite having a cute daughter.
The other two-thirds of the episode, focusing on the NXT shows in Houston, Austin and San Antonio, was really good. In Houston, they spent some time with Tyler Breeze and his history – he grew up on WWE and wanted to be a wrestler, but nearly got cut after years in developmental before falling into the Tyler Breeze character. He’s been in NXT for five years, and we get a montage of the 50+ wrestlers who have been called up from developmental since he’s been there. He’s hoping his call-up is coming soon and he seems really into his character, even staying in his persona backstage in Austin when Jason Jordan ribs him about wearing amateur wrestling boots. We hang out backstage as Sara Amato and Adam Pearce produce a show, paying a lot of attention to the Tyler Breeze/Samoa Joe match. Everyone praises Breeze’s match afterwards. There’s some downtime afterwards in Austin for the talent, so Baron Corbin goes to a bar to unwind and watch a band (but he has to deal with fans taking photos with him). Breeze and Tye Dillinger go looking for bats and find some under a bridge.
The segment in San Antonio spends a lot more time out of the ring. Breeze and Corbin argue about specific details of Texas history at the Alamo. Carmella and Colin Cassady, who seem to be a couple though it’s never stated, go to buy cowboy boots and cowboy hats. Apollo Crews’ sister visits him backstage and marvels at how far he’s come in his career – she says the last time she saw him, he was in Japan. Corbin’s cousin and nephew also visit. At the show, Carmella’s a little blown away that people cheer for her. Corbin loses to Joe (as Breeze did the previous night), and tells a story about his cousin texting him after the show to say his nephew wanted to beat up Samoa Joe because he was mad that he lost. After the show, everyone flies home – including Carmella with a spectacular (and complete in-character) leopard-print neck pillow.
Final Thoughts: If the goal of the first few episodes of Breaking Ground was to convince you that the NXT wrestlers that make it on TV are hard-working and that the Tough Enough guys are lazy and terrible, mission accomplished. The more time they spend on the up-and-coming NXT television performers – particularly Dana Brooke, Tyler Breeze and Apollo Crews – the more they come across as really likeable, enjoyable personas. Heck, Baron Corbin even seems like a relatable human even though he seems pretty obnoxious at times. But the time spent with ZZ (last week) and Josh (this week) seems wasted by comparison, and it waters the show down quite a bit.
If only the whole 30-ish minutes were solely devoted to the main NXT crew.
Filthy Four Daily with Bryan Alvarez and Tom Lawlor is back today with a shocking amount of stuff to talk about, especially for this show! We’ve got the WWE Title Tournament, Tom’s own Filthy Invitational 2015 tourney for a copy of WWE 2K15, the Smackdown finish and whether it was the worst ever, previews of Retro Raw and Retro Nitro this week, some comedy regarding the RUMBLR app, Bellator and UFC notes for last weekend and this weekend, Shamrock vs. Gracie, RIZIN fights, fun moves Tom has successfully applied to people and more! A fun show as always so check it out~!
