The VaudeHipsters

I like The Vaudevillains. They're talented guys who play well off one another and work well as a pairing. But their current gimmick is markedly different to the ones they had when they made their debuts and that's worth reflecting on. And it's one that may ultimately keep them as NXT guys, as opposed to WWE main roster guys.

The excellent 'Drama King' phase.

Aiden English first became a featured NXT performer in the latter half of 2013. He was a singer. Specifically a music hall singer (although he didn't actually sing in music halls what with being a wrestler ad all), emphatically not the sort of pseudo rock star wrestling has had an abundance of over the years (Chris Jericho, I'm looking your way, pal). And he actually could and did sing. He also had an entrance of above average flamboyance: he'd sing his way to the ring and be thrown roses after winning.

Aside from a rambling, hard to engage with rivalry against Big Cass there wasn't a great deal going on for English at this point. He clearly wasn't going to progress as a singles act. He lacked the physique, gripping promo skills or indy rep it takes to stand out in NXT as a lone star. Which is why someone made the smart decision to pair him up with someone as a tag guy.

That someone was, obviously, Simon Gotch. After a period of inactivity on the televised show English returned to Full Sail with Gotch and announced that they were The Vaudevillains, a clever name that acknowledged the music hall influences of 'The Drama King's' singles run and the Edwardian tropes of Gotch, who was sporting a waxed-up moustache and doing a circus strongman mixed with silent movie star routine. NXT has since become a show that has a healthy number of characters on it but at the time this level of detail for guys not at the top of the show stood out. It was engaging and helped them stand out. Which is the point, of course.

The pair were initially presented as bad guys. This worked for a while, mostly due to the strength of English's previous solo run. In terms of heelishness Gotch did very little for the tandem. His mute performance gave him an air of innocence and charm, not exactly the most intimidating, villainous traits a wrestler can have. The Full Sail crowd took to him even while they were still booing English.

The hipster lads.

Gradually they warmed to English too. Their various backstage skits aping the style of silent movies during their feud with the Lucha Dragons played a role in that opinion shift. Their music was a big part of it too. Catchy and carefree it encouraged people to clap along and engage with the entrance. Basically the two were never going to stay heels because pretty much everything they were given, from the above to feuding with the technically proficient and flashy but devoid of personality Lucha boys, was something that drew viewers in in a positive manner.

After their unsuccessful challenges against Sin Cara and Kalisto the 'villains were given a brief hiatus from NXT. They returned in June, fully embracing the babyface role and launching into a slow-building, eventually really very good series of matches with tag champs (Wesley) Blake and (Buddy) Murphy. There's a chance it could flare up again but that seems unlikely. The programme peaked at Takeover: Brooklyn on August 22 where English and Gotch dethroned BAMF for the NXT tag straps.

It was at that Takeover show that they were defined as hipsters for the first time. Which had been glaringly obvious for a while it just needed someone to verbalise it. They've got the joviality and facial hair generally associated with that subculture. It's not a bad move but it is a shame. A hipster tag team makes a great deal of sense but is it more than a music hall singer and a circus strongman teaming up to enjoy sepia entrances and a spot of wrestling? I don't think so. 

Believe the Hype

So. The Hype Bros. Although they're clearly bit part players in the grand scheme of NXT I think this is an inspired pairing. Zack Ryder and Mojo Rawley. A reality show-modelled "broski" and a guy who bangs on about hype. That feels right. That works.

It's nice on several levels. We're seeing 'Long Island Iced Z' finally getting something to do, years after he managed to get himself over and WWE frittered his popularity away to enhance Kane for a feud with Cena (got to keep Kane strong!). Technically, yes, it's a demotion but it's not like Ryder was doing anything on the main roster. It's years since he was involved in any form of noteworthy storyline and months since he lost to Cena in the US open challenge, his last meaningful match.

Dick to the mouth finish there. Strong.

It's nice for Mojo. Because he may actually get over this way. His kids' TV-like ever-hyped demeanour grated on the Full Sail fairly early into his initial singles run last year. Pairing him with the genuinely popular (and relatively likeable) Ryder, smartly positioning him as a guy Ryder's chosen to take under his wing, gets Mojo screen time but keeps him in a role where his hyperactivity can be a strength: Ryder can get worked over and Mojo can rally the crowd.

That they've been made a tag team is good for the doubles scene as a whole. For a while there there were only two teams in NXT: Enzo Amore and Big Cass's New Age Tribute Act and Blake and Murphy's Dubstep Cowboys. The Vaudevillains were excused were excused from TV duties for an extended period and every other team either got main rostered or were split. The Hype Bros give NXT a much needed fresh duo.

The obvious thing to expect is a heel turn from Mojo. I don't think that will be the initial plan though. King of NXT Triple H seems to want Mojo to work out as a face, hence why he was pulled once he started getting booed and has been retooled for his redebut. I suspect a heel turn on Ryder may be a backup plan but we won't see it unless the Hype Bros fail to work out. Which I don't think they will. NXT is the WWE show where they know how to present stories and characters for a modern audience. If they really want Mojo cheered they're going to find out how to make it happen.

NXTweet 08.01.15

Hideo Itami gets a singles match and The Vaudevillains have their tag title rematch. Oh, and NXT champ Sami Zayn returns to work. Good episode. Compelling and rich.

Sami Zayn promo, featuring Adrian Neville and William Regal

Tweet 1: And now to tweet about NXT.

Tweet 2: Sami Zayn has finally bothered to show back up to work. Why did nobody lay into him for taking a month off like Lesnar?
Tweet 3: Just kidding, obvs. Dude was a-selling.
Tweet 4: Flat cap alert.
Tweet 5: Sami's wandered into the crowd to show off his belt. Imagine if someone nabbed it.
Tweet 6: I like Zayn but his T-shirt could be better.
Tweet 7: Sami Zayn and the Zayniacs. Oh Sami. I just said I like you, mate.
Tweet 8: Guy in an nWo T-shirt in the front row. There's always one.
Tweet 9: The point of this is that Zayn got the title because he believed in himself and the fans supported him and that he's ready to fight Owens.
Tweet 10: Neville coming out with his weird music and his Orc ears and his guyliner.

BFFs.

Tweet 11: "I didn't mean to interrupt you" - Adrian Neville after deliberately interrupting
Tweet 12: They'll end up agreeing to have a flat cap on a pole match, just you wait.
Tweet 13: #Regalpop
Tweet 14: Regal announced a rematch for next week. Fair enough.

Vaudevillains backstage interview

Tweet 15: #Vaudevillainspop

Tweet 16: #Gotchvoicepop
Tweet 17: Good promo. English explained what they wanted (the tag titles) and Gotch did some squats. It had it all.

Hideo Itami v Curtis Axel

Tweet 18: Prince Tensai has just claimed that Hideo is popular in Japan as Flair was in his prime. Such a weird analogy.

Tweet 19: Flair was hated in his heyday.
Tweet 20: Curtis Axel and his beard are better off in NXT than on RAW. I hope they stick with him and give him things to do on this show.
Tweet 21: Graves and Albert arguing about hats there.
Tweet 22: Yeah, I mean, you've been going for three minutes so it's probably time for a rest hold.

The dreaded palm to the temple. It's a killer.

Tweet 23: Groin to the face cover from Axel there.
Tweet 24: I like both these guys but this match is doing nothing for me. It's slow. They should have just started off leathering each other.
Tweet 25: I'm disgusted at the lack of reaction to the attempted Perfectplex.

Byron Saxton interviews Natalya and Tyson Kidd backstage

Tweet 26: Tyson's busy preparing for a match next week? Lolwut?

Tweet 27: He's wearing his gear and everything.
Tweet 28: Tyson wants the title. He's also keen on cats. He likes them to eat food from his mouth.

Alexa Bliss v Sasha Banks

Tweet 29: Hype video for Corbin v Dempsey followed by an Alexa Bliss match. No, not odd at all...

Tweet 30: "I spend a lot of time around these ladies" - Rich Brennan, probably not realising like he sounds like a massive stalker
Tweet 31: Still loving the Banks Statement.

One of the best moves in WWE.

Tweet 32: Becky Lynch is no longer playing a nineteenth century Irish girl but hasn't updated her ring gear. Poor effort.

Tyler Breeze announces his comeback

Tweet 33: Close-up of Tyler Breeze! *swoons*

Chad Gable v Tyler Breeze

Tweet 34: Look! Look, everyone! It's Tyler!! #sogorgeous

Tweet 35: "Let's go Gable" chants? What is this? Why aren't they cheering for 'The Gorgeous One'?
Tweet 36: Nice to see Gable making use of some old Kurt Angle gear.

He learned this at the Olympics.

Tweet 37: "We've got a match to call, Albert" - Corey Graves to Jason Bloom
Tweet 38: Big fan of Graves on commentary for that exact reason.
Tweet 39: Chad Gable may have been to the Olympics but he didn't win gold with a BROKEN FREAKIN' NECK.
Tweet 40: Breeze should totes start using the Unprettier.

Devin Taylor talks to Finn Bálor backstage

Tweet 41: Finn Bálor's looking forward to his match with Tyson Kidd next week. Clever lad doing interviews instead of stretching a week early.

Tweet 42: Hilarious shot of Marcus Louis perving on Breeze from behind a curtain from before the (entirely unnecessary) break.

The Vaudevillains v Lucha Dragons

Tweet 43: One day the Vaudevillains pose will be as celebrated as the Impact Players pose.

Tweet 44: Has anyone ever explained why Sin Cara went from being on RAW to being in a tag team in developmental? I mean in storyline terms.
Tweet 45: Is he mentoring Kalisto? That would be a very WWE thing to do.
Tweet 46: Gotch nearly suffered a wardrobe malfunction taking that dive.

Lucha Device?

Tweet 47: I like both of these teams but the WWE tag formula is grating on me here. How about a match where nobody is isolated for an extended period?
Tweet 48: English singing to the crowd while applying a sleeper. Just like that I'm drawn back in.
Tweet 49: Nice sunset bomb, yo.
Tweet 50: "Look at that teamwork! My god!" - Rich Brennan with a call straight out of the Vince McMahon playbook
Tweet 51: Lucha Dragons win. I knew they would but I'm still disappointed.

Death by Bunny

When Adam Rose first rocked up in NXT he seemed destined to be a mid-carder for life. A fun-lovin' party animal with a love of lollipops and wackily-attired entourages is not the sort of man who wins world championships in a promotion like WWE (or, really, anywhere outside of CHIKARA, and even there it would be a stretch). Even a gig main eventing NXT seemed unlikely.

Note Simon Gotch wearing a fez.

As it turned out Rose didn't get much time in NXT to get to the top. He debuted on the March 6 episode, recorded five weeks earlier on January 30. A month later a vignette aired on the April 7 RAW trumpeting Rose’s impending main roster debut. For the record that was the night after WrestleMania XXX.

Despite being called up at such an integral time of year Rose still seemed destined for the mid-card. It was the same man doing the same gimmick in the same promotion. But that was okay. Not everyone can be in the main event. Nor can everyone be presented as having the potential to main event. If they were everyone would seem the same, and wrestling operates by making people seem extraordinary and out of this world.

I liked the idea of Rose being a mid-card guy who lost more often than not. He had the sort of character that could pull the role off long-term, and that's actually pretty rare. Logically, why would somebody stay a happy, smiley good guy if they lost all the time? Most wouldn't. But the Rose character would.

Rose could have gone out every week on Main Event or Superstars and lost without his gimmick being harmed. Of course the character would want to win, wrestlers should always want to win, but he'd have the Exotic Express to buoy him up and take him out for a night on the tiles after every loss he suffered. It wouldn't have been the best thing ever but it would have been reasonable enough for what's basically a featured jobber.

That was the theory anyway. His heel turn kind of ruined it. Turning Rose into a jealous egotist was a deft bit of character development that fit with what had gone before. But WWE is already full of mid-card heels who are going nowhere. It’s a short sighted move that’s seen WWE deprive themselves of someone who could have been a featured undercard guy for years.

WWE's policy of equal opportunities for rabbits is where it went wrong for Rose.

What makes it seem that bit worse is that Rose was turned heel for such a pointless reason. The Bunny (a man in a bunny suit, obviously) from his entourage had become a surprise hit with fans and someone in WWE decided they should start booking the Bunny in matches to capitalise on that. It was overkill and it was obvious it would be overkill. Left a member of the entourage the Bunny could have stayed popular before the inevitable wane (which has already been and gone) and Rose could have bolstered his babyface cred by being accepting of someone more popular than himself.

The changes made to Rose can be undone. People will probably be as accepting of him as they were before. But the heel turn thing has been a pointless diversion. One of the company’s many.

NXTweet 24.07.14

I’ve said before that NXT is the best weekly wrestling show available to wrestling fans. It features a good blend of high quality matches, entertaining gimmicks, and promos. It doesn’t hurt that none of the regulars who appear on the show have been around long enough to feel stale, or for the writers to have lost interest in them.

It was the July 17 episode that made me want to revive NXTweet. It was a particularly strong episode, featuring almost every major act in the league in some form or other. The only one missing was Adrian Neville, and to be honest I can handle skipping him for a week. I’d recommend that episode to anyone who wants to get into NXT who isn’t a regular viewer (there have to be some people in that position reading this, right?).

But that’s last week. This week’s show was good too.  The only real disappointment was the Charlotte versus Summer Rae Women’s title match, and that was mostly a letdown because of how good both women have been over the last few months. They’ve shown they can do better work than they did here. Perhaps we’ll get a rematch that surpasses this. Hopefully they’ll have the metaphorical creases ironed out before NXT’s next special event rolls around. I suspect they’ll be in a three-way match also involving Sasha Banks there.

But as I say, everything else on this show was a good watch. I don’t know how any wrestling fan could watch The Vaudevillains, Tyler Breeze, Adrian Neville and Rusev and feel unfulfilled.

Intro

Tweet 1: Watching NXT. Prepare for some heavy tweet flow...

Tweet 2: Opening video on the BFFs was good. How is it that the NXT Divas are booked better, and are better in general, than the main roster Divas?

The Ascension v Jonny Vandal and Aaron Solow

Tweet 3: Best thing about the opener so far has been Konor's no-sell of a weak chop.

Selling? Nope.

Tweet 4: Within NXT The Ascension are magnificent. I'm not convinced they'll be treated so well on RAW.

Tweet 5: Also, more commentary team comparisons to The Eliminators and The Road Warriors wouldn't go amiss.

Tyler Breeze v Mojo Rawley

Tweet 6: Zoolander references during Breeze's intro. I approve.

Tweet 7: I'm less keen on the furry phone cover.
Tweet 8: And I'm even less keen on Breeze facing Mojo Rawley. He has the feel of a low card WCW guy from 1997.
Tweet 9: And and and... I'm also not keen on the Beauty Shot still being a spinning heel kick. It should be a DDT or something.
Tweet 10: But hey, Breeze won. So thumbs up, yeah?!

NXT Women’s championship – Charlotte (c) v Summer Rae

Tweet 11: Summer Rae wearing gold boots, Eddie G style.

Tweet 12: Not to be outdone Charlotte does a handstand cartwheel thing and then slides into the ring like heel Nigel McGuinness.
Tweet 13: That figure four headlock lasted foreeeeeeeeeeeever.

The never-ending figure four headlock.

Tweet 14: "I made you, Charlotte!" - Summer Rae, providing the requisite lols
Tweet 15: They're both long women apparently.
Tweet 16: The fans are bored so they're doing a Mexican wave. I feel their pain. This match is pretty poor.
Tweet 17: Is it called the women's championship because they're women but not full-fledged Divas? Knowing how WWE works, probably.
Tweet 18: Charlotte won. The wrestling they did wasn't bad but they did nothing to draw the crowd in.

The Vaudevillains v Sin Cara and Kalisto

Tweet 19: #Vaudevillainspop

Tweet 20: Kalisto teaming with Sin Cara. Prepare the botch klaxon...
Tweet 21: Renee Young chatting some nonsense about mask spikes there.
Tweet 22: Apparently Sin Cara and Kalisto want to be “the future of lucha libres." Not lucha libre or luchadors but lucha libres. C'mon, Renee.
Tweet 23: She pulled it back with a Giant Haystacks reference. That's my girl.
Tweet 24: The Vaudevillains are two guys with moustaches. Just like Basil and Manuel in Fawlty Towers. #justsaying
Tweet 25: There is something a little John Cleese about Aiden English as it goes.
Tweet 26: That was a solid tag match. Everyone was good. Even Sin Cara. Yes, really!

"Don't mention the war!"

Rusev v Adrian Neville

Tweet 27: Lana shrugging off the "What?" treatment like a boss.

Tweet 28: #Putinheat
Tweet 29: Now feels like an apt time to mention that Rusev was trained by Rikishi and Gangrel.
Tweet 30: "I am 'The Super Athlete'. Rusev!" - Rusev
Tweet 31: Is it the Eiffel Tower tattooed on Rusev's back or just a generic electricity pylon?
Tweet 32: Don't really get why Rusev didn't just beat Neville. He's a beast and main roster. Neville could stomach that loss.
Tweet 33: Didn't mind seeing Tyler Breeze again though. #mmmgorgeous

Post-match beating, just to remind us who the bigger star is.

Tweet 34: As ever NXT bests every other weekly wrestling show from any company.

Tweet 35: Yep, even with a DQ main event.