TJ Hockenson - 2019 NFL Draft Scouting Report

I have already tackled one underclassmen tight end from the University of Iowa in Noah Fant, so now it only feels right to tackle his teammate in Redshirt Sophomore and John Mackey Award Winner, TJ Hockenson. I took a look at his games against Wisconsin, Penn State, and Indiana from this past season.

Although both Fant and Hockenson are tight ends from the University of Iowa, their games are quite different. Where Fant is a freak who can stretch the field but may not be as refined with his technique, Hockenson is not a freak but knows how to find space in defenses and probably had the best hands on the Hawkeyes team.

Since Hockenson isn't a freak athlete, he has to use his guile to get open.

Here, he gives a very slight push with his left arm to create some separation at the top of his route, and uses that to cut away from the defender to give himself about two yards worth of space. He not only makes the catch but gains another seven yards after the catch.

But even though Hockenson isn't a freak of an athlete, the guy is definitely still an athlete.

No need to measure his vertical at the combine. It is officially one Penn State defender.

He's not just hops as he's got some speed as well.

Hockenson is able to turn a simple out route into a touchdown by not only staying on his feet on a missed tackle but barely losing speed despite getting his legs clipped. He then races down the sideline for the score.

Hockenson was also a guy who always showed great awareness during plays.

On this play, Hockenson starts in the slot on the far side of the field and his route has him break towards the near sideline, but he sees Stanley being forced to roll to the far sideline and readjusts his route to give his quarterback a different option, and ends up making a really nice catch while dealing with pass interference. Also, this throw will end up on Stanley's highlight reel next year, because he threw the ball 58 yards in the air while rolling to his weak side. Just getting this ball close to Hockenson shows some incredible arm strength.

One of my favorite things about Hockenson is how he catches the football.

He frames the ball with his hands as opposed to letting it get into his body, and keeps his thumbs together to give a tight area for the ball to come in and secure it before bringing it into his body and absorbing the hit. There is no wasted movement on his technique which is what makes him such a reliable pass catcher.

Seriously, look at these hands.

IT WAS A CATCH, DAMNIT.

Just in case you want an example of a ball that was not overturned as a catch. Here's a definite catch where he gets two feet in for good measure.

This is great extension by Hockenson where he does a great job of snatching the ball out of the air and quickly pulls it in to secure the catch.

But now it is the real reason that you came here. Let's get to the blocking highlights.

To start off, Hockenson kicks out the defensive end to create a big opening for the running back. But instead of just doing enough, Hockenson plays through the e in whistle, showing that he is a true Football Playing Jesse.

This next one is not as sexy, but it is as effective.

He starts head up and gets his hands under the defensive end's shoulder pads to turn him away from the runner while keeping his feet moving to help give a big lane to the running back. There are offensive linemen that fail this block, and Hockenson is picture perfect.

And now, the main event, although fair warning: The following clip is not suitable for children.

That is blocking porn right there. Don't be ashamed if you need to take a break to clean up after watching it.

As you can probably tell, I am a huge fan of TJ Hockenson. He blocks well, knows how to get open, and has reliable hands to make plays. He's a good, but not great athlete and that does limit his ceiling. I don't see a scenario where he is competing with Kelce, Kittle, and Ertz when it comes to receiving numbers. The most common comparison I have seen is Kittle, and there are aspects that are similar, but Kittle is a better athlete, where Hockenson is a better blocker and has shown more durability (although that last part is not yet conclusive). The best comparison that I saw was from Daniel Jeremiah who compared him to Heath Miller. He's going to be the total package at tight end, and although he won't be taking the top off defenses, he's going to be a first down machine and considering how high his floor is, he's got a very good chance to sneak into the first round, even in a loaded tight end class.

Previous Scouting Reports:
Noah Fant - Iowa Hawkeyes - Tight End

The WWE Is Ruining... The Usos

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.

Last week, I looked at a Bro, this week I look at some bros in Jimmy and Jey Uso.

The WWE has actually been doing a great job with The Usos the last couple years. They started as a babyface tag team that nobody cared about on the main roster or in FCW and NXT. They just kind of existed, yelled for crowd participation and had above average matches. It wasn't bad, but they seemed pretty damn replaceable.

Then they turned heel, and things got WAY better. They developed a real personality and started to put on phenomenal matches that people cared about. Really, the WWE has done a great job with them over the last couple years, because they went from an afterthought to something to look forward to in just about all of their matches.

Lately, things have stagnated a bit. Most recently, Jey is reading love notes from Naomi to Jimmy, which is weird in itself, and got weirder when he found out it was from Mandy Rose. Then it get even weirder when he asked him whether he was going to cheat on his wife, because, um, I guess it would be rude to not have sex with a woman who wants to have sex with you. Then poor Jimmy got caught by the paparazzi in Mandy Rose's room, but luckily nobody saw Naomi around despite wearing a neon green bodysuit. So I guess my biggest piece of advice would be to not do that.

Outside of what has happened most recently, I feel like the WWE has done a pretty damn good job with The Usos. They are fun to watch, and it's easy to get invested in their matches. Nobody utilizes Samoan talent like the WWE, and The Usos are no exception.

Other Wrestlers WWE Is Ruining
Alicia Fox
Andrade "Cien" Almas
Apollo Crews
Bayley
Bobby Lashley
Bobby Roode
Charlotte Flair
Curt Hawkins
Dana Brooke
Dash Wilder
Ember Moon
Goldust
Jinder Mahal
Kane
Karl Anderson
Killian Dain
Kofi Kingston
Luke Gallows
Mickie James
Mojo Rawley
Nia Jax
Peyton Royce
Randy Orton
Scott Dawson
Shinsuke Nakamura
Tyler Breeze
Zack Ryder

Alex Marinelli - Iowa's Most Improved Wrestler

It may seem a little insane to take a returning All-American, someone who entered the NCAA Tournament seeded fourth, and a guy who beat the NCAA Champion last year and name him Iowa's most improved wrestler. Most of the time I would agree with you, but it has been an absolute pleasure to see the leaps that Alex Marinelli has made this season for the Iowa Hawkeyes.

To start off, he's undefeated, but his record isn't the impressive part, it's how he's doing it. Last year, he got bonus points in 28% of his matches which is very solid for a redshirt freshman. This year, he is over 71% as only three guys have been able to keep it close and two of those guys are ranked in the top-5 in the nation. Those numbers will drop as the competition gets stiffer during the final month and a half, but he is still a totally different guy this season.

It's not surprising, because the first thing that jumps out at you is how different he looks. It is clear that he is much bigger this year than he was last year, and that increase in strength has definitely helped him.

The biggest way this has helped seems to be confidence as he is far more aggressive this year. He is really earning the nickname of "The Bull" as he is nonstop charging his opponents with pressure and takedowns, and he is simply breaking people. One of the best examples was this past Friday against Illinois. He squared off with former Hawkeye, Joey Gunther, and even though he wasn't scoring a ton of points, he kept the pressure on. Gunther got called for stalling. Then again. Then another one. Then one more. And finally, a fifth stalling call which is an automatic disqualification. Marinelli broke his opponent.

Finally, his technique has greatly improved. He is an absolute hammer on top, and that's leading to him turning guys over for big points and pins. He has also improved on bottom, which was most notably seen in his win over #3 Evan Wick. Last year, Wick dominated Marinelli on top which led him to a major decision victory at the NCAA Tournament. This year, Marinelli was able to get out from bottom, and he was able to win on his feet to give him a Midlands Championship.

Alex Marinelli still has a ton of work to do. He's likely got a rematch with Evan Wick, and, if he can win that, a match with two-time defending National Champion, Vincenzo Joseph, and that only gets him through the Big Tens. Two weeks, he'll have to do it all over again against those guys as well as some other tough challengers. Last year, Marinelli made the semifinals before dropping three straight matches. This year, I see a different guy, and although it's impossible to call him the favorite over a guy who is on pace to win four national championships in Joseph, I'm not counting out Marinelli. Win or lose, anyone who is brave enough to get in the way of The Bull is sure to get the horns.

Noah Fant - 2019 NFL Draft Scouting Report

With the Chicago Bears eliminated a couple weeks ago, it is officially NFL Draft season. Since the Bears (smartly) don't have any of their picks for this draft, I'm not sure how interested I will be in the top names, and ultimately, this quarterback class isn't all that inspiring at first glance either, so for right now, I only know that I am going to focus on one thing: The Iowa Hawkeyes. I am starting with the guy that seems to be the consensus top guy coming out of Iowa this year, Tight End, although not the Tight End that won the Mackey Award, Noah Fant. I checked out his games against Penn State in 2018, and then his 2017 games against Ohio State and Iowa State.

I should start that even though there was the dig about the Mackey Award, I do not blame Fant for that as Iowa GREATLY underutilized Fant this season. They called him a specialist, but his specialty is being a large super athletic target for the quarterback who is also at least good enough at blocking in the run game.

Check out the way he clears out the linebacker on this run play. He does have some misses in blocking, but I do think he is at least average and just gets underrated due to how good of a blocker Hockenson is, because it is nearly impossible to separate the two.

Is Noah Fant athletic?

Yes, Noah Fant is athletic. He not only blows by the safety because of a bad angle, he was only building distance as he got further down field. Also, watching 2017 film reminded me that Nate Stanley could not complete a deep ball to save his life that year.

If Stanley waits another beat and keeps his eyes open, Fant is wide open down the middle of the field for an easy touchdown here.

The key is that Fant accelerates so quickly that linebackers are going to have absolute hell trying to keep up with him, especially on a double move.

In fact, it is not going to be easy for anybody to keep up with Fant if he has the chance to accelerate in the open field.

Check out the acceleration as he crosses the field. First, he outruns a safety who tries to dive at his feet, and then he EASILY gets the corner on a linebacker who is also in pursuit.

One thing that didn't show up in the games I watched but was something that was a concern of mine were easy drops from Fant. Matt Waldman does a great job of breaking it down in this video.

I do think some of his technique needs to be refined to make more consistent catches, but at the same time, the guy made some pretty impressive catches as well.

Still, the most frustrating part of watching Iowa this season was not how few times they threw to Fant, but how few times they even looked his way. It is a massive coaching blunder to not design more plays for their most dangerous weapon.

I always supported Noah Fant, but seeing how effective Hockenson was in comparison to Fant did make me lose sight of how good he really was when Iowa actually targeted him. Basically all of their best performances coincided with Fant actually getting thrown the ball. He's really freaking good. Also, everybody is expecting him to blow up the combine with ridiculous athletic testing scores.

There are two names that come to mind when looking at Fant. The first is arguably the best tight end in football, Travis Kelce. Fant does have that kind of upside. At the same time, the name that really clicks with me is Eric Ebron. The fun thing about that comparison is I don't know if it's a compliment or not. If you ask Lions fans, it's a horrific diss, because drops and inconsistency marred his time with them despite his incredible athletic gifts. But if you ask Colts fan, he's a top-five tight end who can stress defenses down the middle of the field. I think the latter is a very likely outcome for Fant, but his raw talent gives him a chance to be the best tight end in football.

The WWE Is Ruining... Zack Ryder

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, I look at Woo Woo Woo, You Know It, Zack Ryder.

The only reason you know Zack Ryder is because of Zack Ryder. The WWE is not in the business of helping Zack Ryder get over, but Zack Ryder changed the game in what wrestlers could truly do on their own while in the WWE by starting his own YouTube show, Z! True Long Island Story. This was Being The Elite before Being The Elite. It was stupid, ridiculous, and wonderful, and it built such a following that the WWE couldn't stop denying how over Ryder had gotten without actually being on television.

The WWE started putting him on television but never gave him a significant push, and let's not forget how over he was at the time. There were "We Want Ryder" chants during Raws, Pay Per Views, and even during The Rock's promo one time. I own a stupid looking t-shirt to prove how over this dude was.

And yet, the WWE did as little as they could with it. The WWE did take over possession of his YouTube show to launch their own channel, but it quickly lost its magic and died out shortly after that.

Years later, it led to Ryder winning the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania, but he lost it the next night on Raw, so it was not the most memorable title reign in history. After that, his most memorable moments involved tagging with Mojo Rawley who had more impact on NXT than they did with anything on the main roster.

Since then, he has tagged with Curt Hawkins, No Way Jose, Tyler Breeze, and Tye Dillinger. He tagged with No Way Jose twice, so you probably remember those very important matches on Main Event.

Basically, he hasn't done shit.

In my piece on Curt Hawkins, I recommended getting the Major Bros back together, and it's not a bad plan for either guy. Honestly, I think it's about the best that the WWE can do for Zack Ryder.

That is why, possibly more than anybody else on the roster, Zack Ryder needs to leave the WWE and go to All Elite Wrestling. AEW's aim seems to bring variety and fun back to wrestling. Joey Janela isn't some amazing technician, MJF is still in the process of getting better, and Cody is very good, but not anywhere near the best wrestler in the world conversation. Still, these guys bring other things to the table that get people invested in their matches, and Zack Ryder would fit perfectly in that sort of environment. Ryder's career would go from completely unimportant to one of the most fascinating additions to the hottest brand in wrestling.

WWE is ruining Zack Ryder, and although Ryder is a lifelong fan who seems to love WWE. If he truly loves it, he must let it go on his way to All Elite Wrestling.

Other Wrestlers WWE Is Ruining
Alicia Fox
Andrade "Cien" Almas
Apollo Crews
Bayley
Bobby Lashley
Bobby Roode
Charlotte Flair
Curt Hawkins
Dana Brooke
Dash Wilder
Ember Moon
Goldust
Jinder Mahal
Kane
Karl Anderson
Killian Dain
Kofi Kingston
Luke Gallows
Mickie James
Mojo Rawley
Nia Jax
Peyton Royce
Randy Orton
Scott Dawson
Shinsuke Nakamura
Tyler Breeze

Iowa Wrestling's Win Over Minnesota Gives Hope for 2019

Iowa beat Minnesota 24-10 on the road this past Sunday, and it was by far their most impressive performance of the season (unless you got real excited about them beating Kent State and Cal State Bakersfield which, admittedly, I did). But Iowa finally looked like a complete team (minus Heavyweight, Sam Stoll), and even in their losses, they wrestled hard from beginning to end. Here's a quick takeaway from beginning to end, where the meet started at 157.

157 - Kaleb Young
Young has probably been the most pleasant surprise this season for the Hawkeyes. All the guy does is win, excluding a tough loss in the finals of the Midlands to Ryan Deakin. He took on a top-10 ranked guy in Steve Bleise, and outside of a deep shot that he couldn't quite finish in the first period, absolutely nothing happened for the first six and a half minutes. Then Bleise surprised Young on a shot and got double underhooks, and this happened.

Kaleb Young! What a throw for a 6-point move. What a way to start the day! #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/y5Ro6Zb20j

— Cody Hills (@ByCodyHills) January 13, 2019

Definitely the move of the meet, but I would still like to see Young get after his offense more to ensure an All-American finish this season.

165 - Alex Marinelli
Marinelli has been Iowa's best wrestler this year, and it's been amazing to see the leaps he made from last year to this year. I know he was an All-American last year, but outside of a surprise upset over Vincenzo Joseph, he seemed to falter in big matches. This year, he's not only winning but dominating the opposition. He got a pin in the third period in this match, and this year if he beats Vincenzo, it won't be that big of a surprise.

174 - Mitch Bowman
Mitch Bowman was the first Iowa wrestler to lose in the meet, and he has had a less than stellar transition down to 174 pounds. He got down big early by giving up a four-point move and ended up giving another point away with locked hands at the beginning of the second period. When he was down 7-1, I was convinced that this switch in weight classes just wasn't going to work out for Bowman. But Bowman just kept coming. He grinded away for takedown after takedown on Minnesota's Devin Skatzka who is a legitimate contender to be an All-American (currently ranked 11th). Skatzka clearly had nothing left in the tank as Bowman stalked him relentlessly, but time ran out on Bowman. Had he just not gotten called for locked hands, he likely would have seen overtime where the situation definitely would have favored him. Bowman was always an up-and-down wrestler that was truly maddening. He just needs to get over the hump and turn some close losses into wins. It's still too early to say for certain how much of a threat he can be at this weight class.

184 - Cash Wilcke
Wilcke finally came out and showed some offense early on in a match. He still came one point shy of a major decision, but that's basically his M.O at this point. He has come one win away from being an All-American two years in a row, and it would not surprise me if he made it three straight years, although I still have hopes for him to break through to AA status this season.

197 - Jacob Warner
Warner is a true talent on offense, but his defense and gas tank are still works in progress. I think the gas tank should be something that is in good shape when it matters this March, but his defense can be suspect, and that will probably stop him from being elite this season. Still, outside of Bo Nickal, this weight class is fairly wide open, so I think he is a threat to anyone else in the division.

HWT - Connor Corbin
Corbin is the Hawkeyes third string Heavyweight and really is more of a backup at 197, but he held Gable Steveson to a major decision, so he may have been the most pleasant surprise of the meet. Steveson clearly got gassed early, but I'll take it as Corbin stayed in there against the most dangerous heavyweight in the division.

125 - Spencer Lee
I am still very confident that Spencer Lee is going to put it together and win the National Title again this year. But man, this is not the Spencer Lee we have learned to love. Even though he completely shut out Sean Russell who is a likely All-American at 125, it was about as unimpressive as he could be. His only takedown happened after defending a shot from Russell, and he never came close to initiating a takedown off of his own offense. I am still assuming that he is in recovery from health issues earlier this year. Let's not forget, he's SPENCER FREAKING LEE. He did things I never thought possible last year in the NCAA Tournament, and I think he's going to start steamrolling fools and annihilating the competition when it matters in March.

133 - Austin DeSanto
DeSanto is an absolute psycho, and I love it. He came into the match against Ethan Lizak as a slight underdog according to the rankings, and he came out and sent a message. He got a takedown in the first period and immediately wanted to let him up so he could keep taking him down, but the coaches made him put on a ride for a while, but he did get a second takedown after Lizak escaped. To start the second period, Lizak picked top, because he is one of the best riders in the entire NCAA. DeSanto kept active throughout the whole period but couldn't escape. So it made sense that DeSanto would just pick neutral for the third as that is where he seemed to hold a significant advantage, but NOPE. Dude picked down to give himself another chance to get out from Lizak, not because it made sense, but because Lizak dared him to during the offseason. DeSanto didn't just escape but got a reversal, then rode out Lizak the rest of the period and ended up with a riding time point. Then he taunted Lizak and the entire Minnesota crowd and Iowa got docked a team point. TOTALLY WORTH IT. DeSanto was known to be a little wild when he transferred to Iowa, but instead of being out of control and bad for the sport, now he's our wild man, and I support him 99% (still 1% uncomfortable about the time he went for a kimura when he was losing to Micic at the NCAAs).

141 - Max Murin
Max Murin is a fascinating guy at the best weight class in the nation. Nobody has blown the doors off of him in a match, but he also hasn't been able to pull off a signature win. Mitch McKee is very tough and seems to be wrestling to his potential this season, and Murin could not find a way to get to his offense and get a takedown on him. This was another case where the Iowa guy seemed to have more in the tank than the Minnesota guy at the end of the match, but it didn't lead to points and Murin was unable to pull off the upset. I think Murin is good enough to get a low seed at the NCAAs, and he can keep it close with anybody, but it's tough to predict big wins until we actually see big wins. I'm still very excited for his future both in the long-term and just how he can progress the rest of this season.

149 - Pat Lugo
If you can predict what Pat Lugo is going to do at the NCAAs, you are a better man than I. He has been competitive in his matches but hasn't gotten a big win against the top guys. At the same time, he's had some disappointing losses, but then he came out against Minnesota and dominated from start to finish for a 15-1 victory. 149 doesn't have anybody that actually dominates, so anybody is susceptible to an upset. I think Lugo is definitely good enough to pull off one of those upsets, but at the same time, I haven't seen anything this season to say that he can actually string together enough good matches to finish as an All-American. But seriously, this guy confuses me more than anybody on the roster.

Overall, Iowa is good enough to finish in the top-four, and has the talent to battle for second place, but it's still Penn State's year for a team title. The rest of this season will tell us a lot about their potential for 2020 though, because nearly everyone is back, and Iowa will have a legitimate shot to end their National Title drought. Also, wrestling is the best, so you should just watch as much as possible.

The WWE Is Ruining... Goldust

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, I look at (deeply inhale) Goooooooollllllllllldustttttttttttt.

Goldust has seemingly been around forever. He started in the NWA/WCW over 30 years ago, in 1988, and the Goldust gimmick has been around since 1995. Originally, Goldust was just a super sexualized wrestler whose peacocking would have made Mystery jealous. The character has mostly devolved from there as it has included cross-dressing, Tourette's, and being a cuck. That last one was only ended due to the real life death of Brian Pillman.

A weird thing happened over his nearly 25 years in the role. 20 years into it when he should be thinking about retirement, he was doing the best in-ring work of his career. He put on some great tag matches while teaming with his brother Cody Rhodes (no clue what that guy is doing these days) and even some really entertaining stuff teaming with R-Truth.

He has been out the past several months with a knee injury, and considering his age, it's probably best that he doesn't come back as a singles wrestler, especially with what he has shown in the recent past as part of a tag team.

And as great as The Brotherhood and The Golden Truth were, neither of those teams compare to his greatest tag team. I'm of course talking about Goldust and Booker T, sucka.

I know what you're thinking. Why am I showing a video of Booker T and Latrell Sprewell in a post about Goldust? Well, that isn't actually the famous shooting guard; it's the legend himself, Goldust, in an elaborate disguise. I know, even when he says he's not Sprewell, it's still almost impossible to tell. The range that Goldust had with Booker T is truly incredible. A quick search of YouTube has Goldust disguising as Kane, Darth Vader, and even Santa Claus.

"But Booker T retired" you say? Oh, I guess he would never consider coming back for something like this, except for Booker T himself said he wants Bookdust to get back together.


With a retired Booker and a Goldust that hasn't been around in a while, maybe they shouldn't go straight to dominating the entire tag team division. Hell, I'm not even sure if they need to wrestle more than a handful of times a year. But in between, let's have Goldust dress up, use a sophomoric sexual innuendo, and occasionally trick Booker T into a sexual misadventure.

Is that really too much to ask?

Other Wrestlers WWE Is Ruining
Alicia Fox
Andrade "Cien" Almas
Apollo Crews
Bayley
Bobby Lashley
Bobby Roode
Charlotte Flair
Curt Hawkins
Dana Brooke
Dash Wilder
Ember Moon
Jinder Mahal
Kane
Karl Anderson
Killian Dain
Kofi Kingston
Luke Gallows
Mickie James
Mojo Rawley
Nia Jax
Peyton Royce
Randy Orton
Scott Dawson
Shinsuke Nakamura
Tyler Breeze

The Ultimate NXT Draft Review: 62-73

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 first 61, so we will finally close it out by going over the last twelve selections.

62-63. Joe selects Mada and Steve Cutler
Jonah: Mada looked cool as hell and apparently trained Jason Mamoa, sadly he was released.  Steve Cutler is in the Forgotten Sons. He was an NXT jobber forever, and is recently seeing some success as a member of the new group.  He’s a veteran, and as I mentioned I’m a huge mark for vets. He’s on NXT TV and actually winning matches since he’s a Forgotten Son, so he does have some potential going forward.

Joe: Jay got all of the attention, and nobody paid any mind to Lil’ Stevie. He truly was the Forgotten Son.

64-65. Jonah selects Babatunde Aiyegbusi and Carolyn Dunning
Joe: I’m going to go out on a limb and say Carolyn Dunning is no longer with the WWE since she hasn’t had a match in nearly three years since being signed. That is bad, but Babatunde Aiyegbusi is good. He is 6’10” and he can move fairly well. He doesn’t have a wide array of an offensive moveset, but he’s gigantic and competent. They have really slow played his development as he has been hitting up the house show scene for over two years without making his NXT debut, and I would guess that he will make a huge impact in 2019. I haven’t seen a ton of charisma, but he shows flashes, and at that size, he’s pretty much guaranteed to make the main roster.

Jonah: Carolyn Dunning is just patiently waiting for a track to explode on, but yeah she’s probably no longer employed.  I had actually heard of Babatunde since he was signed to the Minnesota Vikings the year before he went into wrestling. I knew he was a physical freak, which is a good thing in the WWE.  He has already made his main roster debut as the highlight of The Greatest Royal Rumble. Lio Rush also used to ride around on his shoulders, and that’s a gimmick that would get over anywhere.

66-67. Joe selects Terrance Jean-Jacques and Danielle Kamella
Jonah: So Terrance Jean-Jacques is a former Iowa wrestler and he beat his pregnant girlfriend and was released.  As I learn that the WWE takes domestic violence more seriously than many other sports, he’s a MMA fighter these days.  Danielle Kamella is Vanessa Borne who is an NXT wrestler with a character who is on TV. She mostly loses, but nice pick here to get a wrestler who is still developing.

Joe: This was my worst round of the draft. Vanessa Borne might be interesting, not even touching TJJ.

68-69. Jonah selects Jerome Turner and Bianca Blair
Joe: Jerome Turner has never had a match, so I’ll assume he’s done wrestling. Bianca Belair might be the second best pick in this entire draft, as she is UN-DUH-FEA-TED and totally awesome. She’s also married to Montez Ford which makes them the couple that the WWE wished John Cena and Nikki Bella were. She’s fantastic in the ring; she’s fantastic on the mic; she’s just fantastic, and the WWE will have to really try to mess up her career.

Jonah: Jerome Turner is just putting in the work at the Performance Center, waiting to be unleashed.  Bianca Belair is un duh fea ted, and that is a fact. She’s a physical marvel in the ring and she has great charisma.  She should be a future star especially if she’s whipping fools with her braid.

70-71. Joe selects Adrian Jaoude and Nikola Bogojevic
Jonah: Adrian Jaoude is Caesar Bononi’s tag team partner, so you’ve reunited this team.  He’s a BJJ practitioner, and gets on TV. He was also 8-3 in MMA, with his last fight being a loss to Roy Nelson which seems like a size mismatch.  He’s also 41, so he needs to get called up on the quick. Nikola Bogojevic is the other half of Heavy Machinery so way to reunite them as well. Big dude, can do the worm, good enough in the ring, and the charismatic one of the tag team.  Heavy Machinery would have a nice jump in the redraft, while Jaoude is picked before all the people who retired.

Joe: HOW DARE YOU CONFUSE ADRIAN JAOUDE AND ANTOINE JAOUDE. Antoine is over the hill, but Adrian is a spry 37 so has plenty of time to reach his full potential. There is some hope for Jaoude as he and Bononi have occasionally been hanging around Taynara Conti, so they could create a formidable stable. I still definitely could have done better. Through the main roster and NXT draft, I loaded up on talented ladies and thought I was full of them which caused me to miss out on Bianca Belair and Jonah’s last pick.

But at least I didn’t let Otis Dozovic slip through my fingers. I still don’t think Dozer has a high ceiling, as even with his charisma, it’s more goofy than important. Basically, I think he’s George “The Animal” Steele. That’s a hell of a career, but I don’t really see the guy challenging for world titles.

Jonah: What is A. Jaoude the John Anderson of Brazil?  Sorry to mix up your guys Joe, clearly he’s very important.

72-73. Jonah selects Macey Estrella and ZZ Loupe

Joe: I think what this shows is that WWE is super fucking good at finding and signing talent. Macey Estrella is now Lacey Evans and may have debuted by the time this is published. She was nearly the last pick in the draft, because all I knew was that she was a tall blonde lady. I’m not the biggest Evans fan, but she definitely has enough talent to last on the main roster for quite a while, so good for her.

At least I knew that ZZ had no future in wrestling as he sucked on Tough Enough and apparently sucked after Tough Enough as he got released before he could shit the bed in front of an audience.

Jonah: Lacey Evans is a good female wrestler who is main roster bound.  She’s pretty, jacked, and has an original character. It should work. It’s kind of hard to not end up with the worst wrestler when you have the last pick in the draft, but ZZ had some show on the WWE Network for awhile, so at least he was on TV.

Previous Installments:
Picks 1-10
Picks 11-20
Picks 21-30
Picks 31-40
Picks 41-51
Picks 52-61

The Ultimate NXT Draft Review: 52-61

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 51, and we are now at the penultimate portion of the list with picks 52-61.

52-53. Jonah selects Chris Atkins and Dallas Harper
Joe: Chris Atkins got released, and even though Dallas Harper’s twitter says he is NXT signed, he hasn’t wrestled for two years, and the man hasn’t tweeted for 21 months. Is Dallas Harper alive? Dallas, if you’re reading this, please tell us that you’re fine, or better yet, OH SO FINE.

Jonah: Chris Atkins, good look, good size, got on NXT TV in losing efforts but that seemed like a good sign for the future plus he’s Australian.  He got released and he’s done with wrestling. Dallas Harper is still 6’9” and oh so fine, but I can’t find any article that says he was released.  So he may still be employed, and if he is, he’s the next Roman Reigns.

54-55. Joe selects Dan Matha and Nikki Storm
Jonah: Dan Matha is one of my favorite wrestlers because his only TV appearance was heavily hyped all night, then he got destroyed by Samoa Joe.  It was amazing. He really needs to get off the gas if he ever wants to make the main roster, or just avoid every drug test ever like Jinder Mahal does.  Nikki Storm is someone that I couldn’t believe I didn’t take in the draft. My brain just crashed and I thought she got taken earlier. It’s embarrassing.  Nikki Storm is Nikki Cross, a very talented woman’s wrestler who is actually held back by the group Sanity. Still, she’s a great wrestler and has a great character, she will be a future champion on the main roster where she is headed.  Also, fun fact, she’s incredibly pretty out of her crazy makeup and get up. Check her out in her past roles, stunningly beautiful.

Joe: Yeah, I have not been a big fan of Dan Matha, but apparently all the new rage for the kids is the “drip.” I’m not sure what drip means, but Dan Matha says that he goes drip, drip, drip. I assume it doesn’t mean he has a drippy dong (Almost Heroes reference), but I do have to assume that it’s related to Ol’ Drippy, one of the greatest side characters from Aqua Teen Hunger Force. If his new gimmick is that he’s mold, I am ALL IN.

Fun fact: The main reason I drafted Nikki Cross is because she was going by her real name early on at NXT house shows which is Nikki Glencross. Well, my wife heard Nikki Breadcrumbs, and I would very much get behind a wrestler with the last name Breadcrumbs. But yeah, she’s got a great character and is fun in the ring. I don’t have high hopes for her immediate future as the WWE can only have one woman’s storyline going on at a time unless your Dad dies where they can do a second shitty storyline, so I’m kind of hoping her debuting soon means after WrestleMania.

Jonah: Ol’ Drippy is the best face character in the past 20 years, he heals the sick.

56-57. Jonah selects Daria and Kenneth Crawford
Joe: Incredible picks by Jonah here. Daria is now Sonya Deville and although they haven’t done anything important with her yet, they have given her good losses where it wouldn’t be shocking to see her get a big push in the next year or so.

As incredible as that pick is, it ranks nowhere near how good the Kenneth Crawford pick is, as that man is now known as Montez Ford. If we redid this draft, there is NO WAY that he makes it out of the top ten if I can draft him as a single wrestler as opposed to being stuck with Angelo Dawkins as well. Montez Ford has natural charisma and incredible athleticism. He is still just scratching the surface, and even though I shit on Angelo Dawkins, I do love Street Profits, and I think it has been very valuable for Ford’s development. Still, I want to see them break up as I really would love to see an NXT singles run for Montez, because that is really where he can unleash his full potential. The sky is the limit, and as much as I hate to admit it, this is the single best pick in the draft.

Jonah: Yeah I got back on the winning track with this round.  Sonya Deville will probably be a Women’s Champ at sometime. She’s a good talent just middling along right now due to booking.  She’s also an open lesbian, and I like diversity in my picks. She’s got a good shot at being the first openly gay champion in the WWE.  Montez Ford is awesome, he’s super talented in the ring to go along with his crazy charisma. Hopefully he doesn’t get stuck on 205 Live, he’s a star.

58-59. Joe selects Cezar Bononi and Noah Kekoa
Jonah: Cezar Bononi is on NXT TV, he loses almost every time, but he “puts in a good showing” in a loss.  Usually that means that they have future plans for the guy. He’s got good size, a good look and is good in the ring.  Noah Kekoa is Kona Reeves, The Finest, I guess. He’s on TV, has a character, but also loses pretty much all the time. The Finest is a gimmick that doesn’t fit him well in my opinion.  I think he should be a Patrick Bateman American Psycho type, there’s something about his eyes, they’re disturbing. Anyways, two wrestlers that are still signed and have some potential, good picks.

Joe: I have seen signs of potential in Bononi. No idea whether it will turn into anything, but I would probably take his ceiling over Kona Reeves who basically has the talent of a modern-day Virgil. Maybe he becomes EC3’s butler?

60-61. Jonah selects Uriel and Gabriel Ealy
Joe: I haven’t seen the twins in months. They seem like nice guys, but their in ring work so far couldn’t blow a feather away.

Jonah: One of the twins got released which probably isn’t a good sign for the other.  They’re big guys so I thought they’d get a tag team push, guess not. Gimmick of a guy who has a twin we never see sounds like a fun one to me, let’s give it a try.

Previous Installments:
Picks 1-10
Picks 11-20
Picks 21-30
Picks 31-40
Picks 41-51

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.

Previous Installments:
Picks 1-10
Picks 11-20
Picks 21-30
Picks 31-40