One of my best friends whom I haven't been in touch with in a few months sent me a text last night that read "raw is unwatchable". I was recording Raw as I usually do so that I could watch TV with my wife (she's not a wrestling fan) so I had not seen any of it yet. Being that my friend is a marginal fan and not really "smart" about the business, I took his comment with a grain of salt. After all, last week's Raw was one of the best in recent memory, When I finally watched the episode I realized that for the first 2 hrs and 50 mins my friend was right - this show was terrible. And then there was that thing that happened... NXT.
I'm going to cut right to the chase, and that is why I titled this post "NXT INVASION EDITION". The last 10 minutes of this otherwise abominable show are the only thing worth discussing. There are so many things to be angry about that I could dissect - Jericho being buried, the horribly unfunny A-Team skits, and the stupid viewer's choice gimmick which set the night up for ridiculous match ups like Hornswoggle/Khali vs. the Hart Dynasty and a Santino vs Kozlov dance-off(I can't believe I just wrote "dance-off"). Even the Edge-Orton stuff was not very good for those two. But I digress. The story that everyone is talking about is what happened at the end of the Main Event. And that is what I'll focus on.
All show I was waiting for the next step in the Daniel Bryan/Miz feud which I thought was one of the best things going in WWE. When Miz came out for a tag match and no mention of Bryan was made I feared the worst and just hoped he'd make some kind of appearance. Come main event time my hope was lost, although seeing Punk get voted in (was that rigged?) was a nice consolation. But then, just as Cena was setting up for the Attitude Adjustment, NXT winner Wade Barrett enters... and so does the rest of the NXT season 1 rookies, including my boy Daniel Bryan. BTW, how cool was that shot of Tarver with the bandana covering his mouth?
My jaw literally dropped as they made quick work of CM Punk and the SES and circled the ring like vultures to go after Cena. I have to be honest, I was not liking this at all. All I could think of is "there goes Daniel Bryan's solo push, there goes a cool angle with Barrett having a title shot". I really felt like Bryan was getting over as an underdog face and I felt like that was the right way to go. But as the angle started to unfold and the NXT crew began wreaking havoc on the ring, the set, the announce team and staff, as well as the top star and champion - I began to get it. I think my mind change when Bryan told Cena "You're not better than me," spit in his face, and kicked his head in. This is war! This is what Daniel Bryan was talking about in his worked-shoot a few weeks ago. For too long the WWE has been pushing big guys with stupid gimmicks who have been at the top of the company for more years than should be allowed, holding down young and hungry wrestlers who deserve a chance. Well, now the young and hungry strike back, and they are doing it on their own terms. Last night was not about turning heel and taking on the WWE's top good guy (afterall they also took out Punk, one of WWE's top heels). It was about taking on a company, a corporate machine. It was about taking on an industry that they love but has held them back. It was about taking the stupid reality show concept with all of its dumb competitions and shoving it right back in the face of the beast that is WWE.
So many fans, including myself have been clamoring for new stars and the WWE just made 8 of them last night. Some people are saying this has nWo-like potential. Well potential is the key work. There are so many ways this thing could play out. Heck, next week they could drop it all together for all we know. So, I'm not ready to christen this a new era or anything, but I will say, I am intrigued.
Will they take on the entire WWE? WIll they show up on Smackdown too? Will some already established stars jump over to the side of the NXT guys? Is there some other mastermind behind this whole thing? Could this lead to some title shots for these guys? Were the NXT guys the ones responsible for Undertaker's attack?
Only time will tell. At any rate, I will be tuning into NXT tonight, and I imagine so will many others (as WWE hopes). What started as a RAW that seemed to go back to the old lame, hokey tricks turned out the same way I felt about last week - fresh and exciting!
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