Opinion
Cook: NXT Is No Country For Young Men
Cook explores the current complaint…but puts things into perspective. NXT is filled with more veteran experience than one would think. How do you feel about the new old champ?
After a brief delay of one week, Finn Balor became the new NXT Champion by defeating Adam Cole. He’s not the first man to hold the NXT Championship twice, but he is the first man to win the NXT Championship, leave for Raw & SmackDown, come back and win the NXT Championship again, five years after his first run as champion.
Finn’s been wrestling since 2000, and is currently 39 years old. Some of you have noticed a trend surrounding our current NXT Champions.
NXT Tag Team Champions: Fandango (37, wrestling since 1999) & Tyler Breeze (32, wrestling since 2007)
NXT North American Champion: Damian Priest (38, wrestling since 2004)
NXT Women’s Champion: Io Shirai (30, wrestling since 2007)
Our least experienced and youngest NXT Champions are in their fourteenth year of wrestling. That’s, like, ten more years than The Rock wrestled. We have a man that trained under Killer Kowalski, another that trained at The Monster Factory, and another that trained under Lance Storm, who, if you listen to him talk or read his tweets, seems like he’s older than Kowalski & Larry Sharpe. Two people with NXT gold right now were wrestling when World Championship Wrestling was the World Wrestling Federation’s main competitor.
If you think that NXT is supposed to be a developmental brand that’s providing WWE with its next top stars, all of this probably sets alarm bells off in your head. You’d think that WWE would be developing younger stars to carry Raw & SmackDown into the next generation, right?
This is where we have to face reality.
Frankly, as somebody that grew up on Ohio Valley Wrestling and is a fan of watching developmental promotions to see good young talent work their way up the ranks, it took me some time to accept it too. But the fact of the matter is that NXT isn’t a developmental territory for young wrestlers. Certainly not for new wrestlers.
It’s been a thing for awhile. Check out our five most recent champions before Finn, who with the exception of Keith Lee are all still with NXT:
Killer Kross (35, wrestling since 2006)
Keith Lee (35, wrestling since 2005)
Adam Cole (31, wrestling since 2008)
Johnny Gargano (33, wrestling since 2005)
Tommaso Ciampa (35, wrestling since 2005)
Cole only being 31 stuns me, by the way. His CZW run feels like it took place twenty years ago, which is part of why I originally scoffed at the idea of his being a “young Shawn Michaels”. Now I’m more willing to buy it, especially since Shawn is right there to teach him exactly how to be like the Heartbreak Kid. Some like that, some don’t, but I think it’s what we’re going to be seeing.
NXT Champions being “older” is nothing new either. Samoa Joe. Shinsuke Nakamura. Bobby Roode. All men who had been on our radars for decades before popping up in NXT. Always kind of seemed weird to me that these guys would be taking classes while younger men would be on the road.
Now, don’t get me wrong. All of these guys still have things to learn. Everybody does…if you ever stop learning, you’re not going to evolve & you’ll be unable to adapt to what comes next. But to call them “next”…honestly, you’d have to call these guys the “present”, wouldn’t you? I mean, I know we see guys wrestling for longer and longer these days, but all of these people are in or around their physical prime.
NXT doesn’t exist to be a “developmental” fed. It’s WWE’s third brand, built to appeal to the types of folks that read columns like this one. As for why it does so well with the older demographic…well, a lot of us are getting old.
Here’s some food for thought.
While WWE’s third brand may be full of more experienced hands, a youngster has emerged on Raw that seems to be taking the world by storm. It’s tough to tell in these days without actual audiences, but I imagine that Raw live crowds would be going crazy for Dominik Mysterio caning the heck out of everybody in his path. Dude is 23 years old, having the first matches of his career and doing a darn good job out there.
He might never set foot in an NXT ring. Which he probably shouldn’t, to be honest. It does kind of make you wonder, doesn’t it? Do NXT wrestlers & folks constantly training at the Performance Center get jealous of Dominick for his recent success? I imagine I would in their position. Maybe they don’t.
Age is a funny thing though, and sometimes you get fooled trying to judge everybody based off of it. And sometimes it just makes you scratch your head. Dominik’s father, Rey? 45 years old. Only six years older than Finn Balor, even though we’ve been watching him on our TV screens so much longer than that.
Some people are ageless. Some people age super quickly. Our favorite NXT Champions better hope they’re the former instead of the latter.
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Opinion
Chris King: The Wyatt Sicks’ Wasted Potential By WWE
Chris King takes a look at the WWE and their wasted potential of Uncle Howdy and the Wyatt Sicks faction.
Chris King takes a look at the WWE and their wasted potential of Uncle Howdy and the Wyatt Sicks faction.
It’s that time of the year again, folks; it’s unfortunate and downright awful that so many WWE superstars got released today. I’m not going to list all of them, but I am going to talk about one of my favorite factions,
The Wyatt Sicks. Nikki Cross, Joe Gacy, Erik Rowan, and Bo Dallas (Uncle Howdy) were something special. After Bo’s brother Bray Wyatt’s tragic passing, WWE felt like there was a hole that needed to be filled. Wyatt was one of the most creative and brilliant characters, and Bo would be taking over his brother’s concept and bringing it to life. In 2024, at the end of an incredible documentary highlighting Wyatt’s career and struggles, Bo appeared on the screen portrayed as Uncle Howdy. The last time Uncle Howdy was seen on-screen was at the 2023 Royal Rumble, where Wyatt defeated LA Knight in a Pitch Black Match. Howdy jumped off a structure onto Knight.
This post-credit scene sparked so much speculation and excitement that Wyatt’s brother would carry on his legacy and possibly debut the faction that was Wyatt’s concept. On the June 17th episode of Monday Night Raw, The Wyatt Sicks made their dramatic debut ,destroying the backstage area as well as “murdering” Chad Gable. It was such an iconic arrival for Howdy as he made his menacing walk from the back into the audience who were chanting “Holy Shit.” The Sicks and American Made (Chad Gable and The Creed Brothers) battled for months, with The Sicks being victorious. On the September 9th episode of Raw, The Sicks defeated them, with Howdy getting the win with Sister Abigail.
The following year, The Sicks would move over to Friday Night SmackDown, and it seemed like WWE had a plan in place. They would win the tag team championships from The Street Profits and start to look dominant. Now, what should have happened next is Howdy should have won the United States title. The Sicks could have held all the gold over on the blue brand, but it never happened. The Sicks entered into a never-ending feud with The MFT’s (Solo Sikoa, Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa, JC Mateo, and Talla Tonga.) It started off exciting, and the WWE Universe was red-hot for their interactions.
After months of repetitive matches and The MFT’s stealing their lantern, the feud grew tiresome and boring. Even Tama asked Solo why they are still holding onto the lantern, as it was destroying them as a whole. Finally on the SmackDown before Mania, Tama
gave the lantern back to Howdy against Solo’s wishes. Please explain to me why both factions fought almost every single week instead of just having one final blowoff match at WrestleMania.
It should have been either a massive street fight or a falls count anywhere match on the grandest stage of them all. Instead, it turned into a meaningless week-after-week extravaganza that benefited no one. The MFTs won the rivalry, and The Sicks don’t even work for WWE anymore. This was the same criminalized creative process that Wyatt dealt with during his first run in the company.
We’ll never know how much of a dangerous force The Wyatt Sicks could have been in the WWE. For all their careers’ sake, I hope they stay far away from the company for as long as possible. Every superstar that was cut deserves better!
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Opinion
Chris King: Bloodline Saga: Is This the Right Call For WWE?
Chris King questions the WWE’s logic in setting up Jacob Fatu as the next challenger for World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns
Chris King questions the WWE’s logic in setting up Jacob Fatu as the next challenger for World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns
Roman Reigns is once again World Heavyweight Champion after his dominant win over CM Punk at WrestleMania 42. On the following night on Monday Night Raw, The OG Bloodline came back together as a well-oiled machine as The Usos stood side by side with Roman. With the WWE Universe asking who would be the first to challenge “The Tribal Chief,” Jacob Fatu shocked the world by answering the call.
Fatu is running hot after his impressive win over Drew McIntyre and feels like he is ready to become the new world champion. This bloodline segment ended Raw, and it picked right back up on SmackDown with even Solo Sikoa and the MFTs involved. This is now two shows that have been centered around The Bloodline saga, and it’s made me question whether or not WWE should be retelling this story.
The Bloodline (Roman Reigns, The Usos, and Solo Sikoa) ran WWE for over four years as Reigns’ henchmen, doing his dirty work to retain his title. Even though Roman has declared he doesn’t want Jey and Jimmy to serve him, it sure seems like WWE are spinning their wheels. Fatu could add a whole new chapter into the story, even if he’s not able to beat Roman at Backlash. “The Samoan Werewolf” could be forced to do the same thing as Jey did all those years ago and fall in line.
In my opinion, I feel like Fatu should be challenging for the Undisputed WWE Championship because that’s a title I feel like he should win. I understand standing up to your blood and trying to prove you’re the best, but I don’t think this is the right move. It feels like 2022 all over again, as The Bloodline is the central focus on both shows. If Fatu doesn’t win, what happens to all his momentum he’s been building over the last two years?
Why did WWE make this the best choice for storyline purposes? Why couldn’t creative have come up with a different challenger for Roman? There are so many other superstars that could challenge The Tribal Chief, such as Rusev, Bron Breakker, Gunther, or even a returning Sheamus.
I just can’t help but question WWE’s logic here, and it kind of reminds me of all the times The Shield reunited. Could WWE be pushing the same storyline too many times here? Could the WWE Universe get tired of this rinse and repeat cycle of The Bloodline Saga?
Are we about to see all the weekly episodes solely focused on The Bloodline again? Will it be cinema… Yes. Is there still money in The Bloodline… Yes. Was it the right call? That’s to be determined!
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Attitude Of Aggression Podcast: The Big Five Project (chronologically exploring WWE's PPV/PLE history) Unidentified History (Ufology) & Game Gone Wrong (Game of Thrones Universe)
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