WWE NXT: SEE YOU NXT WEEK

WWE NXT

AMERICAN DRAGON = "AWWWWESOME" DRAGON? ... MAYBE NOT.

I'm legit excited for this thing, especially after hearing the official pairings of the "Pros" and "Rookies." Check out the video here.

Having Miz "mentor" Danielson, is so hilarious, and I'm almost 100% positive it was done on purpose, with the intention of getting the smarks undies in a twist, and possibly creating some awesome (pun intended) tension between the two.

As for the rest of the pairings, I'm a little less intrigued, only because of my lack of knowledge of the FCW roster. But that's fine. Because the entire point of the show is for you to learn about these new guys in a new way. It's not Tough Enough where you just learn about these boring dudes (for the most part) and watch them learn how to actually wrestle... it's (as far as I know, which isn't far, because the show hasn't aired yet 'n stuff) like The Ultimate Fighter.

Some may say that those two things are the exact same thing.

Not so.

TUF is about profiling two guys each episode, and getting to know the dudes themselves. When a guy like Big Country from this past season is shown being cocky and cracking jokes after a fight, or when the announcers explain how deadly of a knockout specialist a dude is, they're trying to get him and/or his gimmick over to an audience that doesn't know who these guys are. Sure, the UFC is real, but they're working to promote fights, embellish fighters' personas and abilities and build up heat between guys, just like the WWE.

So NXT has the opportunity to do the same. Instead of the focus of the show being on learning about the business, the focus will be on getting new guys over to an audience that doesn't know them. Sounds cool to me.

At first I was upset that guys like Low Ki (Kaval), Brett DiBiase, Joe Hennig and the Rotundas weren't included. But then I remembered that it's not like you HAVE to go through this show to get to the main roster. I assume the reason they were left off was to uphold the reality aspect of the show - a guy named Kaval may seem a tad hokey on a show featuring dudes with real-sounding names. As for the 3rd-generation guys, it seems like that the WWE likes to let their history help them along, so maybe the thinking was that they didn't "need" NXT to get them over since they already have something going for them. All of this is just top-of-my-head speculation.

With ECW being extremely (pun intended again! lolololollzzol) hard to watch in Canada (originally aired at midnight on Fridays, now it's not even on then... I really don't know when it's on, but now it's dead, so THANKS GLOBAL TV), I'm worried NXT will be just as difficult to see.

One way or another I will find a way to catch this debut show, which should be entertaining, or at the very least interesting. I hope I don't eat those words.

WWE NXT: SUDDENLY MY HOPES ARE RAISED STUPIDLY HIGH

CHANGE OF PLANS

I keep going back and forth about this NXT business, but now I've accepted that I won't know what I'll think of it until I see it, so I am high as a kite on this thing right now.

Maybe it's because I just watched this...

FLORIDA CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING

BRYAN DANIELSON VS. KAVAL

The idea that this new show could focus around these two guys alone is amazing.

But if it's done like The Ultimate Fighter, where they spend the majority of one show building to one match... it could be even better.

I'm kinda shocked at the amount of people who are so quick to dismiss this concept as being a failure, because we (or casual WWE fans, rather) won't know any of the guys. Anyone who says that must be forgetting about EVERY reality show. Literally.

People seem to love being able to watch people they don't know on TV, in order to get to know them. American Idol, The Ultimate Fighter, The Real World, Jersey Shore... I mean, I don't have to list show after show or anything, but the truth is, in episode one of every one of those shows, nobody knew any of the characters.

The potential point of this show (which has to come obvious to more people than me) is that you tune into NXT to see who's working to become the next WWE Superstar. Hopefully there will be guys that people want to get behind, and hopefully there are matches or incidents, or anything at all that reveal more about these guys' personality as the show goes on.

One problem that could come up is the comparison to Ultimate Figher, which, unlike WWE, is real. The guys are real, the fights are real, and therefore you never have this thought in the back of your head that what happens on the show doesn't matter, because it's fake.

But even that, if the show is presented well, shouldn't matter too much. The WWE knows that people who watch WWE, LIKE the WWE (duh!). So why wouldn't we want to see who the next big star could be?

Tough Enough already tried this, but went about it the wrong way, I think. If NXT can show these guys without completely breaking kayfabe (i.e. don't show them learning how to take a bump or work a match or whatever), and just present it as "wrestling is real and I want to win and become the best," then I really think this could be cool. The Ultimate Fighter is a great show and such an easy concept.

I'm really intrigued, and I can't wait to see that first episode.

I will admit that my biggest fear (still) is that Bryan Danielson's and Low Ki's one shot to make it in the WWE will be flushed down the toilet with a failed reality show.

But my hopes remain high! Please make me come down, WWE.

WHOA: BRYAN DANIELSON TO FCW NEXT WEEK

BEST IN THE WORLD (WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT)

BRYAN DANIELSON

Looks like we'll have to wait just a little longer for Dragon to make a splash on WWE TV.

It's funny that there were all those rumours that he'd be skipping right over Florida, going straight to TV, and then he wrestled Chavo in a dark match on Monday (which got an apparent great reaction), so everything seemed like it was on the right path... er, 'til now.

I really think he can succeed whether he has to change his style or not, even though his success was built almost solely upon his wrestling ability.

I almost see him as a modern Bret Hart, in that he is over because he's that genuine hero-type character, that doesn't feel like a character at all. It just feels real. And he gets over with his wrestling first, personality second, which is difficult to do. At least in mainstream wrestling.

All cool with me, though. Can't wait 'til he debuts.

... I hope I don't eat those words.