Showing posts with label Alexander Wolfe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alexander Wolfe. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

The Ultimate NXT Draft: Picks 91-100

We're at picks 91-100, so there are three options at this point: Proven commodities from overseas, potential picks in developmental, and Dan Matha. You best believe I loaded up on the last option. But Jonah is leading off today.

91. Jonah selects Alexander Wolfe
Jonah: Boy do I love Germany, it seems like there’s something in their past that means I should hate them, but I just can’t put my finger on it. The guy is a former NXT Tag Team Champion and made it to the main roster before the WWE forgot Sanity existed. His performance in the War Games match shows he can really go in the ring, so I love getting him here.

Joe: I like Alexander Wolfe, but I don’t see much of a future for him unless he goes full Wolfe and has people howl throughout his matches.

92. Joe selects James Drake
Joe: It was gutsy to wait this long to take Zach Gibson’s talented tag partner, but it paid off, and I was able to unite these Grizzled Young Veterans. I obviously think Gibson is the better of the two, but Drake is a no brainer this late in the process.

Jonah: Shit Joe, you want to talk about Marty Jannety? James Drake’s ceiling is Leif Cassady from the New Rockers or if he gets really lucky, one of the guys from Los Boricuas not named Savio Vega. I guess he’s OK, but he’s at his ceiling right now.

Joe: I think James Drake would be happy to be Al Snow, a man who has won 32 titles in his career, including eight title runs in the WWE. Also, he could be a super awesome coach on Tough Enough UK. Thanks for selling this pick for me, Jonah. I agree; I did do a great job.

93. Joe selects MJ Jenkins
Joe: When I drafted Jenkins, Jonah said he thought she was the next Bianca Belair. This surprised me, because I was not that high on Jenkins (although I like her a lot), and if I thought she was the next Belair, she would have gone 50 picks earlier for me. I’m hoping Jonah is right, because that would likely make this the best pick of the entire draft.

Jonah: I said it looked like they were trying to make Jenkins the next Bianca Belair, big difference. I said that because I thought I read she was an accomplished amateur athlete, but now I can’t seem to find that information so maybe I was hallucinating. It does look like she was in TNA for one match, so maybe she’s got some good potential, or maybe she wasn’t even good enough to make it in TNA’s joke of a women’s division.

Joe: Directly from the text, “MJ Jenkins reminds me of Bianca Belair.” This pick is un-duh-fea-ted.

94. Jonah selects Jessi Kamea
Jonah: Jessi Kamea is a real WWE homegrown wrestler. She started wrestling at the Performance Center, and has put up some decent showings in her matches including the Mae Young Classic. She’s a good athlete and was a college volleyball player so she’s 5’10” which makes her tall in the women’s division. She’s been playing a plucky, nerdy babyface gimmick and that will get over easily because we’re all huge nerds.

Joe: I haven’t been able to get into Jessi, and it may be that she’s just too green for me to enjoy. Also, she doesn’t seem to have a real character as her actions are all generic to me. There is still plenty of time to evolve, but it’s all projection at this point.

95. Jonah selects Omari Palmer
Jonah: Omari Palmer is also a very big guy weighing it at over 300 pounds. He played college football for Syracuse, so I like his athletic ability. I can’t find anything about his wrestling, but size and athletic ability are a good combo for wrestling.

Joe: You just beat me to Palmer. Is he the next Keith Lee? Super unlikely, but he’s big and likely athletic so he probably has the highest ceiling of anybody that was left on the board.

96. Joe selects Mark Andrews
Joe: Just a happy-go-lucky Welsh dude that the crowd seems to thoroughly enjoy. We’re at the point where there is going to be a lot of NXT UK picks, so at least I got a guy who has shown some aptitude.

Jonah: Andrews is a little guy who performs fun aeriel maneuvers. I didn’t take him because his spot seems like it’s as far as he will ever get, and I’d rather gamble on an unknown with potential than a lower midcarder for life. The good news, he’s a good wrestler so I mean at least he’s got that going for him.

97. Joe selects Jinny
Joe: Jinny is kind of like Aliyah and Vanessa Borne but British.

Jonah: She is, but at least she now has Jazzy Gabert as an enforcer so this could be leading to a push for Jinny.

98. Jonah selects Kavita Devi
Jonah: Kavita Devi is an Indian professional wrestler, so she’s got to win the title before the next India tour comes around. She was also in the Women’s Royal Rumble and is a former weightlifter. I bet she can do some cool power spots in the ring.

Joe: I’ve never seen Kavita, so I’ll just assume everything Jonah said is factual. I did do a Google image search and learned that she has trained with Great Khali, so watch out for that chop.

99. Jonah selects Wolfgang
Jonah: Wolfgang doesn’t have the WWE look, but he’s a pretty big guy and he seems to always be towards the top of the card in NXT UK. He fought Adam Cole for the North American Championship so they must like him. If we’re talking about guys who are already accomplished instead of guys with potential, this is way too late for him to go.

Joe: I know the game has changed, but every time I look at Wolfgang, my first thought is, “1980s jobber,” and it’s really tough to get over that.

100. Joe selects Dan Matha Dorian Mak
Joe: Dan Matha, who debuted years ago with weeks of vignettes leading up to his arrival, promptly got annihilated by Samoa Joe, but he is somehow still around. He’s still big, and now he’s all about that drip, which makes me think of Ol’ Drippy, and I really want Dan Matha to embrace the Ol’ Drippy gimmick. From what I’ve seen, there is nothing really wrong with him, but it’s really tough to imagine much success for him after that debut. Dorian Mak, on the star written all over him.

Jonah: That massive roid backne might drip, but it’s probably not penicillin. Matha absolutely has the look, but he’s been around forever and can’t make TV, I’m assuming that means he’s pretty garbage in the ring.

Joe: He’s been tagging with the Riddick Regimen lately, and that team is going to start out as the drizzling shits in most people’s eyes, but they are going to grow like a staph infection and infiltrate our hearts...and I guess in this scenario, kill us, because you really don’t want staph in your heart. But it’ll be fun while it lasts.

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

The Ultimate NXT Draft Review: 41-51

In June of 2016, so now nearly two and a half years ago, Lukewarm Jonah and I got together to do an NXT Fantasy Draft. We are going to focus on the NXT roster as the transition from NXT to the main roster or just the progression within NXT provides some fascinating talking points. Although we did a fairly good job, there were definitely some big time misses and some amazing steals. We've already broken down the top 40, and now it's time to author the next 11 picks.


41. Jonah selects Alexander Wolfe
Joe: He has made it to Smackdown, so that’s a nice accomplishment, but he may be the least important person on Smackdown. Earlier, I mentioned Street Profits being The Black Rockers. Well, Sanity is Goth Rockers, with Killian Dain as Shawn Michaels, Eric Young as Marty Jannetty, and Alexander Wolfe as Leif Cassidy, and only Leif Cassidy as there is no Al Snow run to follow.


That was unnecessarily mean as he is very solid, just has been given nothing to make him memorable in any way. I doubt many people even know he’s German.


Jonah: Hey Wolfe made the main roster and that is impressive.  He’s also a former NXT Tag Team Champion. He looked great in that War Games match, he does have some real potential if they ever use him in any way.  Joe mentioned that he is German which is great for the expanding Europe market, but making his gimmick anything German probably won’t go well, a little bit of German culture goes a long way Joe.  The crazy thing is Sanity will probably be tag team champs on the main show at some point, so I think he’s a future tag champion. At 41, that’s a good pick, and really this probably where he deserves to go even if he did already make the main roster.


Joe: Jonah, have you not been paying attention? German thoughts from the 1930s are all the rage in America today. Alexander Wolfe could be the babyface the oppressed white heterosexual males need to fight for their cause.

42-43. Joe selects Aliyah and Thomas Kingdon
Jonah: Aliyah has become a new heel in the lower card of NXT.  She’s getting some TV time and has a gimmick of a rich spoiled girl.  She’s got potential and you never know what she could become in the future.  She’s good enough in the ring and super young. A nice potential pick here. Thomas Kingdon is huge and working at a 24 Hour Fitness.


Joe: Aliyah has had more gimmicks and turns than anyone in NXT history. That seems to give her less aim, but maybe she’ll just become a construction worker and join up with Heavy Machinery on the main roster next month. I’ll just take your word on Thomas Kingdon as I’m not even going to waste my time looking him up.

44-45. Jonah selects Dylan Miley and Josh Woods
Joe: Josh Woods is gone, but the Dylan Miley pick worked out okay for Jonah. He’s now lurking around as Lars Sullivan. Sullivan is going to be interesting, because he plays the monster, but he’s really just a beefier Rusev who has solid charisma but not to the level of Rusev, but he’s American, so his charisma will likely get seen as much higher since he doesn’t have an accent. This is obviously incredible value as he can make a strong case to be in the top ten. I would have liked to see him get some more seasoning in NXT as these quicker call-ups do not have a great history. It will be interesting to see what they do, as he could be a monster on the level of Lesnar or Strowman, or he could end up doing shitty comedy bits and be depressingly underutilized.


Jonah: Dylan Miley looked like a buff George “The Animal” Steel, that’s a good look.  He’s now known as Lars Sullivan and he’s going to the main roster as a monster. He had a good NXT career and he moves up a ton of picks in a redraft.  Great wrestling pick, but he’s a racist so that really bums out my excitement over this pick. Josh Woods won the ROH Top Prospect Tournament in 2017, so he was still a good pick, he’ll be back in the WWE in five years as a huge indy signing.


Joe: Jonah, can you hear me? Are you still living in reality? What have you seen from Josh Woods that makes you think he’ll be a huge Indy signing in five years? I actually like him, and although anything could happen, this is an insane take.


Jonah: In five years Triple H will be signing everyone he can from ROH, that’s just a fact.  He probably renames the WWE NWA-ROH.

46-47. Joe selects Bronson Mathews and Tucker Knight
Jonah: Bronson Matthews won Tough Enough and was hated by everyone, he got released.  Tucker Knight is half of Heavy Machinery and despite looking like garbage at the Portland NXT show, he found gear and a wrestling style that worked for him.  Heavy Machinery is on their way to the main roster so great pick and a higher pick in the redraft.


Joe: Not my best round as Mathews is gone, but Tucker Knight is going up to the main roster so that’s nice value. Still not sure what kind of impact they will have on the main roster as I definitely have doubts about how well they will be used. Either way, I can’t wait for six months of Heavy Machinery vs. The Ascension before it comes to a head on the Vengeance preshow.

48-49. Jonah selects Jeet Rama and Kishan Raftar
Joe: They have not done anything with Jeet Rama, and they released Raftar, but at this point in the draft, you’re basically throwing darts hoping somebody will work out. These darts didn’t hit a bullseye, but he does have some of the greatEST steals coming up later.


Jonah: Good news, Jeet Rama is still signed to NXT.  The WWE needs an Indian superstar, and I can guarantee that Rama is better in the ring than The Great Khali and can pretty confidently say he’s better in the ring than Canadian Jinder Mahal.  If he’s still got that moustache, he’s gonna be over like Rover. Kishan Raftar was released and retired this year, cutting my Indian developmental guys in half.

50-51. Joe selects Gzim Selmani and Sunny Dhinsa
Jonah: These random names are better known as AOP, The Authors of Pain.  Well done on the pick here as they are former NXT Tag Team Champs and former RAW Tag Champs.  They have everything that could make a real monster tag team. They’re The Ascension except physically intimidating and better in the ring.  They were obviously better with Paul Ellering than Drake Maverick, but having some sort of a manager makes tons of sense. Make AOP a real monster tag team and they will be great for the next decade.  I think these guys move up to the top 20, maybe the biggest jump of anyone in the redraft.

Joe: Yeah, definitely a fan of the AOP pick, and although they have had a slow start, they are massive, strong, and have shown they can go in the ring. It would take a lot of things to go wrong for them to not be one of the better tag teams for years to come. Thank God they had cool masks, or otherwise, they may have slipped by.

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

The WWE Is Ruining... Killian Dain

As a pro wrestling fan, it is a part of our identity to always know how to utilize wrestlers better than the WWE. If WWE would just give me, random WWE fan, a job a the company, ratings would immediately rise to the levels of the Monday Night Wars, despite how television ratings have changed as a whole over the last 20 years. But until that happens, WWE will continue ruining our favorite wrestlers, and that is why it is time to point out the error in their ways. Because of WWE's incompetence, I am literally going to pick a wrestler at random and point out how they could be better utilized, because WWE is ruining everyone in one way or another.

Today, we tackle the big man from Belfast, Killian Dain.

Since getting called up in June with the rest of Sanity, the most memorable thing that they have done is not have Nikki Cross there with them. I remember seeing them, asking, "Where's Nikki?" and never remembering anything they have done again. This may shock you, but I'm not sure if the WWE had an actual plan when they called the group up to the main roster.

In six months, Dain has been involved in seven matches, winning two of them, although they were both on the preshows of pay per views. Once, he teamed with Alexander Wolfe and Eric Young to beat New Day in a tables match before Extreme Rules. And secondly, he teamed with nearly every tag team from Smackdown to defeat ten jobbers from Raw.

It's pretty clear that WWE's plan for Killian Dain has been...(crickets), so it shouldn't be too hard to come up with improvement as long as I can come up with something.

The first thing I would do is get him away from tag matches and make him the clear stud of Sanity. Eric Young remains the leader, but treat Dain as the hoss that he is and let Young and Wolfe take care of the tag matches. Meanwhile, let Dain start putting on fun singles matches. The great thing about him is that he's not just big, but the guy can go. I actually think that he would be good in the spot that Andrade Almas is currently in. Facing off against top talent, having entertaining matches, but not quite having what it takes to come out on top. I know it's tough to break into the WWE Senior Division, but putting him up against Jeff Hardy and Rey Mysterio could both be awesome feuds for both sides where you can just sit back, relax, and actually be entertained by the WWE product.

Anytime you have a guy with size, it's fine for them to not win a belt, because their presence makes them important. My big solution isn't really all that big; it's basically let the big guy who is good at wrestling have wrestling matches, but in this case, it's quantum physics compared to the plan the WWE has come up with so far.

Other Wrestlers WWE Is Ruining
Alicia Fox

Andrade "Cien" Almas
Bobby Lashley
Charlotte Flair
Dana Brooke
Dash Wilder
Ember Moon

Jinder Mahal
Kane
Karl Anderson
Kofi Kingston
Luke Gallows
Mickie James
Mojo Rawley
Nia Jax
Peyton Royce
Randy Orton
Scott Dawson

Shinsuke Nakamura
Tyler Breeze