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.
