This week just passed was looking like being being fairly slow for wrestling news, and I was seriously considering poking Joey Styles on Twitter to see if I could get him to keep saying stupid things about the Internet. That is, until rumours began flying around that A.J. Styles, Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson and Shinsuke Nakamura had all given notice to NJPW management of their intention to leave the company. If so, all indications are that they would have signed with WWE. The Wrestling Observer reports that if the rumours are true, the new signings would bypass NXT and debut on the main roster. That would be the first time that thats happened since NXT became a proper thing - even established stars like Samoa Joe havent been afforded that kind of respect. Of course, it could all be horse puckey, as wrestling rumours often are. Even WWEs own website is only reporting the rumour, not adding anything new, so the whole thing is a wait and see. Meanwhile, Vince Russo continues his glorious, noble efforts to insinuate himself into every conversation about wrestling thats going on, anywhere on the internet. In this case, its the story of WCWs Bash At The Beach in July 2000, and a pair of shoot interviews from last year that have come back up again this week for some ungodly reason. Ill be going into a little more depth on that in this article, along with touching on Sami Zayn and Finn Balor in NXT, reviewing CM Punks efforts as a comics writer and, on the seventeenth anniversary of The Night That Killed WCW, looking at the Fingerpoke Of Doom. No wrestlers were harmed in the writing of this article. Except for Dolph Ziggler.
12. Sami Zayn Is Back And It's Like He Never Left Except Its Completely Different
After seven months on the shelf recuperating from a nasty shoulder injury, the most likeable wrestler in the world (seriously - hes like the anti Matt Hardy) returned to NXT on the December 23rd edition of the show. I would have commented on it last week but honestly? I only just caught up on watching the Network shows I missed over Christmas. Bad wrestling fan. Bad. No cornetto for you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRIChgahcnY The show itself was recorded in London on 16th December, hence the reason why the crowd is so much better than the entitled monkeys at Full Sail. Sami Zayn works a great little match against Tye Dillinger here: there was never any doubt that hed win, but he made the Perfect 10 look like at least an 8 out there, in typically Sami Zayn style. He also delivered this promo afterwards. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8cGurmLi4U On one level, its so good to have him back that its tempting to suspend all critical judgement and just walk around with this face on: But Im concerned that, a) NXT has moved on without him, and that b) his perfect opportunity to join the main roster has also left the station. Lets take that last one first, Bizarro-style. That US title match with Cena was a freakin GIFT. On his debut, he got to hang with WWEs top guy and look good doing it. Thats not something the company hands out too often, especially to performers that look like Zayn. He reminds me a lot of Christian, one of WWEs unsung heroes for years, who never received his due from the company, and still hasnt had a formal farewell to the fans after effectively being forcibly retired due to post concussion syndrome. He cant debut on the main roster going after Kevin Owens, his nemesis, because the casual WWE fans dont know about their history. Does that mean that his best chance to make an impression on RAW has already gone? Goddamn. And NXT? Breeze is propping up the midcard on RAW and Owens is trying to pretend that Balloon Ambrose can hurt him. Finn Balor is the babyface champion in NXT now, and Zayn has no feuds to come back to. At this stage, Im crossing all my fingers and toes that Samoa Joe feels threatened by him and decides to take out the potential competition, because I really, really want Sami Zayn to feel important again.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
