Guest Column: NXT Season 3 Preview
Note from John: When NXT season 3 starts next week we won’t have Dr. Money reviewing it. He’s moved on and will be writing about TNA Impact weekly. What we will do is have three people tryout. They all submit reviews after the first show, I will post them all in one post and then you can vote on what you like best. One vote per person. Most votes wins. One of the three guys wrote a preview of NXT3, so I figured I should post it as an introductory for those of you (like me) that don’t know much about the women on this show. Also if you are looking for Andrew Johnson today he wasn’t able to write this week. Should be back next week. Take it away, The Freelance Texan.
NXT Season 3 Preview by The Freelance Texan
I am the Freelance Texan and I’m not ashamed to admit that I am an NXT viewer. As much as the internet complains about how awful the show is and how it doesn’t feature wrestling and doesn’t make any damn sense, I have to defend NXT somewhat. Yes, all those arguments are valid, but there is a certain charm to the show. The chaos of the format leads to an unpredictability that is somewhat refreshing in the staleness that can be the WWE. Obviously the matches are scripted, but how much do the rookies know about what is going to happen? Are they warned about the challenges? Do they have any idea what promos they’re going to have to do? Half the fun of the show is seeing these poor guys jump through the WWE’s hoops and finding out whether or not they sink or swim. Sometimes you get Botchamania moments like Gabriel’s “Flowers Promo” or anything Eli Cottonwood did. Other times you get Wade Barrett turning a promo on wind into an impressive declaration that he’s headed for the main event, and you believe him!
I also enjoy the flood of new wrestlers the show provides a national stage for. Since February of this year 16 wrestlers have gotten the chance to showcase their stuff on a WWE show and while the results have been mixed, seeing so many new wrestlers in the WWE is great. NXT brought Bryan Danielson and Kaval into the WWE, and they’re doing better than many would have expected. The show also turned Michael Cole heel, provided us with a future main-eventer in Wade Barrett, and somehow produced the hot Nexus angle that carried the WWE into Summerslam. You can’t say that NXT hasn’t given us anything. Despite all the muscle heads and the stupid bullshit, the cream rose to the top. Kaval won season two. Barrett won season one. Daniel Bryan came out a far bigger star through the experience. Should we expect more of the same from season three? Who knows.
At the time of this writing I’m not even sure how long season three of NXT will be on Sy-Fy. One rumor says that it will end the night Smackdown makes it move to the channel. The other rumor says NXT will continue to air on WWE.com or possibly WGN for several additional weeks. I don’t think the WWE totally knows for sure and I’m positive the women in the competition haven’t a clue. I say we all just settle down, join hands and prepare for what might possibly be one of the worst series of shows the WWE may ever air. Who knows, you might just enjoy it. But before the wrestling apocalypse comes, lets take a look at the individual rookies and pros that will make up season three.
Our first rookie, and one of the most promising, is AJ Lee. She started wrestling on the independents in 2008 and was picked up by the WWE in May 2009. I’ve read online that she was trained by and is dating Jay Lethal though I’m not sure of the accuracy on that. I checked out some of her FCW matches on youtube and she does seem pretty competent in 5-6 minutes matches, which NXT usually features. Her offense is fun, combining kicks, dropkicks, aerial moves and even a Sliced Bread #2 for a finisher. If that sounds like the offense of a smaller wrestler, that’s because AJ is tiny. At only 5′ 2″ and barely over 100 pounds she is a little undersized but seems used to fighting as the underdog. She’s definitely attractive, though she’s not armed with the bazookas the WWE typically likes. Though it is hard to predict what will happen with NXT, I would put my money on AJ Lee to win the whole thing. Primo isn’t a bad match for her as a pro either. People might be surprised that hes still employed, but the guy is undersized himself and can get a pretty good reaction from the crowd as a face. I’m sure he’ll have some good advice to offer AJ.
Our second rookie is Aksana, a blond from Lithuania. She’s pretty cute, in a European kind of way. She was a bodybuilder and fitness model before being signed to the WWE and doesn’t seem to have too much wrestling experience. I can’t find many of her matches online…..that’s probably not a good sign. I did catch her first ever match on FCW television. It was pretty rough, even by Diva standards. A more recent match with Serena in May was an improvement, but not by much. Aksana also has a heavy accent that could prevent her from effectively communicating or help her leave a lasting impression. It could go either way. Goldust should be a big help to her anyway, he’s got the most hands on wrestling experience of any of the pros in season 3 by far. Before I move on, a Wade Barrett quote about Aksana: “She looks like Pamela Anderson, she talks like Borat, and she wrestles like Byron Saxton.” That’s why they pay him the big bucks, gentlemen.
Our third rookie is the giant, Aliosa. She’s 6′ 9″ tall and is so new to the scene that she doesn’t actually even have a wikipedia entry yet. Besides her size, which you know the WWE will let her use to her advantage, she also has Vickie Guerrero as her pro. Vickie probably knows more about wrestling than we would suspect but is also a great heel to have by your side. Just as she did with Dolph Ziggler and Edge and just as the Miz did with Alex Riley in season two of NXT, Guerrero will use her massive heat to get Lilioso over if they go in that direction. And why wouldn’t they? She freaking huge, especially for the divas division. Can she wrestle? I have a better question: does she need to? She towers over a foot taller than almost everyone in her division, far outweighs them and knows enough power moves to work a short match. Divas almost always work short matches. As far as I can tell, she’s been in the business since at least early 2009, possibly earlier. Reports say she can’t wrestle well but she probably won’t be that bad compared to some of the other Divas. I think she’s got possiblities. Then again, so does Awesome Kong.
The fourth rookie is former NXT ring announcer Jamie Keyes. Jamie was snapped up pretty quickly by the WWE after almost starting work with Wrestlelicious and drinking a cup of coffee in TNA as a manager for Kevin Nash. She’s only been in FCW since March and besides looking really hot while wearing pretty much anything, I don’t know much about her. The only match of hers I could find ended in less than three minutes, including entrances. I doubt she can wrestle, but god-damn she’s hot and the audience already knows her. Her pros, the Bellas, have absolutely nothing to contribute.
The fifth rookie is Naomi Knight, mentored by Kelly Kelly. Kelly as a mentor is kind of laughable, both because she’s improved very little in the years that she’s been employed by the WWE and because there has never really seemed to be much going on upstairs. At least when you look at Tiffany you can see some gears whirring behind the blond hair. Anyway, theres not much information available on Naomi but she apparently was a dancer for the Orlando Magic at one point in time. She seems to have a more interesting character than other divas, wearing some very loud outfits straight out of the 90s or wherever they hell they came from. She does have a bit of a booty, and we all know what the WWE thinks about that. I don’t think she has that model look they seem to want but she does seem fairly capable in the ring. Naomi still needs to improve but looks to be one of the more solid divas heading into NXT, season 3.
The final rookie is Maxine, who I think was known as Liviana in FCW. She is being mentored by Alicia Fox, which is kind of like saying my roommate’s cat is mentoring me on how to be a writer. I haven’t been able to find much online about who Liviana is or what she’s done, though it appears she was a model at one point in time. She certainly seems to carry herself that way. I believe she was made a surprise general manager of FCW at one point in time, for some reason. At first I didn’t think she wrestled very well but the more I watch her the more I think that she doesn’t work too badly as a heel. She does have the look of a witchy woman, as JR might say. She might just surprise us.
So those are your rookies and your pros of NXT, season three. If it was Carlito instead of Primo you could call it the all diva edition. HOOOOOOOO! I kid, I kid. I don’t know if you could say that I’m excited for season three but I’m definitely curious and intrigued. Lets face it, the Divas division could use some serious help and if two or three of these chicks end up going the distance the show will have been worth it. Tune in next week when I describe the potential train wreck that could be week one of NXT, season 3. And if you liked this article, let John know! His is the name on the address bar after all.
The Freelance Texan
DAMN THE FREELANCE TEXAN JUST WROTE ALL THAT IN A PREVIEW IMAGINE WHAT THE REAL REVIEW WOULD B LIKE……I THINK THERE SHOULDNT B A SEARCH FREELANCE IS THE WAY 2GO(IM STILL INTERESTED IN READING THE OTHERS THOUGH)…..FOR THOSE THAT WERE LOOKING FORWARD FOR SOME THURSDAY WRESTLING SATIRE CLICK MY NAME AND READ “THE REAL LEGACY OF DEL RIO” A BLOG ABOUT VANESSA DEL RIO AND HOW SHE MIGHT B ALBERTO DEL RIO’S MOTHER. THERES ALSO A NEW GUEST BLOG ON DREW MCINTYRE BY TJR’S COMMENTATOR SHAMANS HARVEST. LOOKIN FORWARD THE ALL WOMAN NXT REVIEWS. KEEP GIVING THE NET THAT GOOD SHIT AND ONCE AGAIN GOODJOB FREELANCE TEXAN.
NXT is a bad show because having Matt Striker talk over everybody and doing stupid trivia challenges makes it so.
The idea of it was good, the way they do it, is shocking, often verging on unwatchable.
And now a female only cast? When the whole DIVA division is just a 2 minute distraction on RAW and Smackdown? What a waste of time. I have a feeling this will kill NXT once and for all, ratings wise.
Also what a waste debuting the 7ft girl on NXT.
I’d have brought her in as a Chyna style valet for Cody or someone.
Awesome preview. I doubt I will watch NXT anyway, but maybe I’ll just read about it on here if your reviews of the show are as good as this piece of work.
One note though, you seemed to overuse (and I use that term loosely) “at one point in time.”
None-the-less, this was fantastic.
TLDNR
Anyone who can write that much about hookers deserves a spot. He also deserves a name change…
good job
Formspring me by clicking on my name… You can ask me anything about wrestling or anything else.
good article, nice job.
i’d like nxt to be kept. like you say, it gives you something totaly different, and gives the WWE a chance to try out brand new performers. if they don’t work out on NXT, they aren’t seen as a total failure, because that’s the whole point.
personally, i just wish they’d change the format. rather than having 6 rookies each with their own pro, i think they should have a guest pro, or host each week, who shows the rookies the importance of what you need in the WWE. It would help ratings, because if yu had Cena, Edge, HHH, CM Punk, Randy Orton etc on the show, people would tune in just to watch them. You’d have experienced pro’s telling people what they need to be a star. There are enough seasoned performers who could give some brilliant advice. And they wouldn’t have to just be current performers.
Each of the pro’s would tell the rookies aout one aspect of the WWE. And highlight that element. As NXT always has a variety of styles, each week you’d be highlighting one of them. Have Matt Hardy talk/train them on tag team wrestling. Rey talking about high flying. Bret Talking about technique.
I think that would make a much more watchable show.
I think this season will be a bit of a wonderful train wreck. Most of the women in WWE should be kept to manager/valet roles. Hopefully AJ, the only one who seems to have ability, will win.
Is anyone else scared by the pretty obvious vision of the future storyling…BigShow and aliosa is a love story?
I enjoyed this column, thanks for writing it, I quite like NXT sometimes and am glad its sticking around, albeit it with divas. Am interested to see how this season pans out, as most womens matches are either a toilet break or get spun on, so not sure how they will support a whole show.
On the plus side, it may force WWE to actually give some of these personalities, in order to carry the show, so we may end up with a girl who isnt a bitch or an airhead. Hopefully.
Texan…
Isis the Amazon is actually pretty decent in ring, by women’s standards. She’s not exactly AJ Lee, (whom I’ve seen in person, and is a great talent) but she’s very competent. Search her up by her old ring name on youtube. She’s pretty good.
Oh, and good job. I like your writing style. I vote for you sir/ma’am/robot…
Liked the article .
I agree on the robot.
Good article, it’s going to take some beating by the other two guys going for the job to match that.
Good luck Freelance Texan =)
I liked the article. Aloisia (they should have kept the Isis) has a move set inspired in Undertaker, Kane and Big Show. That for a woman is really interesting. As far as I read about her, she’s only wrestling since middle 2008, but who cares. She’s big, she’ll do well. They still have Khali employed right? She can’t possibly be worst than Khali. Anyways I agree with Google Me. I would prefer for Isis to have a Chyna like debut, but they’re probably doing this way for NXT to have some viewers thanks to the freak factor and also for the audience to not make comparisons with Chyna.
Naomi Night was hired for WWE in the summer of 2009. The girl had no experience whatsoever, but in the few months she had before debuting on TV, she quickly learned and believe me, she’s improving extremely faster. In her debut match on FCW they paired her up with Rosa Mendes, vs AJ and I think it was Eve. AJ and Naomi kinda stole the show. Naomi is better than most of the current roster and seems to have an exciting personality.
AJ is AJ. The best out of the group. People say she looks like Melina, but her in ring style is very Gail Kim. I would dare say that AJ is probably the best Diva, with the exception of Gail and Natalya, but since WWE tones down the girls moveset when they go to the main roster, we will have to see.
Jamie isn’t wrestling for a long time. But Jamie is a fitness model. I easily see her as Michelle in the making (but hopefully with more charisma). She has the physique. For a woman to have those muscles, she’s used to train hard.
Aksana and Maxine are the less promising of the bunch. But in their last matches people have been noticing a big improvement. If that’s enough I don’t know. Aksana will probably be a Maria. I see her having a rather naive sexy bunny character. Having Goldust as a mentor will do her wonders for the crowd to actually care for her.
Maxine to me as more potential than Aksana, at least in charisma. I however fear that she’ll be Rosa Mendes number 2 after the competition. They should put her as Alberto’s valet or whatever for a while.
Great article. I almost feel bad for the other two writers. You’re spot on about the divas division. If some (or all) of these rookies make it to the main roster, then it can only help the division.
Actually I really sincerely hope that this Isis girl wins next 10-0 without showing any weakness.
If she has a 5-6 or something win-loss record, or is booked like Eli Cottonwood it pretty much kills any future she has as a monster. I really do think she would have been better booked as a valet/bodyguard for a Cody/Miz/Alberto and ease her into the wrestling that way.
I liked this, it was an excellent introduction to you, and a teaser of the potential you have. I’m looking forward to reading more of your work here. The best part about this was that you gave us the information, your interpretation of it, and enough humour, all while avoiding the temptation to over-write (stringing as many adjectives and adverbs together as you can, with no ear for euphony), which is a recipe for an enjoyable read. The other two ppl you’ll be competing against for the job had better be mind-blowing to compete with you, Texan.
I like that you like NXT. I’m tired of Dr. Money’s reviews and low scores. Someone that doesn’t like wrestling or has a set view that anything that isn’t WWF attitude era sucks, shouldn’t be reviewing wrestling shows.
Bad news for the ones who would see NXT just because of Isis.
WWE eliminated all the things about her. Photos, information, etc. Some say she was already released.
@Ana_ Nattie_Fan
Yeah I notice that too. hope there’s good why they remove her from the show or releassed her. Aloisia had really different, little dispapoint won’t get see to her on TV.
Apparently its a storyline. There’s now a statement in the news about Vickie firing her after a argument.
Great preview. Horrendous name.
@Ana_ Nattie_Fan
Yeah but a storyline leading where?
It’s great they took the 6’9 girl off, for the reasons I put on above. NXT could have killed her before she began. Now they can prepare her more for TV, then bring her into a big storyline as an enforcer/chyna/freak show kinda thing. Good move.
@Sam the IDGF man
Just read about this as well. This screams ‘work’ or ‘shoot’ if that is the correct terminology. I am guessing she comes out at the very last episode of season 3 and destroys the winner and the other females, you know build her up like a monster-type heel.
She seems to be the most ‘raw’ out of the other girls and WWE probably felt it best to keep her off TV until she gets more work under her belt. Both a good move and bad imo, I did not want to see someone terribly uncomfortable in the ring (not that it hasnt made a diff. in the past) but at the same time, she seemed to be the most intriguing aspect of the new season, so it could hurt viewership.
After thinking about this for a long time, I’ve changed my mind, this could work but they need to make some changes.
1. They need to change “we are wild and young” to “My neck, My back, lick my pussy and my crack” that they play in strip joints.
2. No men. No striker, no primo, no cole. Ashley Valance hosts. Strictly girls only.
3. Replace talk the talk challenge with kissing contest, replace obstacle course with dance offs, replace rock ‘em sockem rookies with pole dancing challenge.
4. Bring back bra and panties matches, and that fight where they all get in a hot tub full of chocolate, but instead of the 2 minutes they got on raw, let them go at it for an hour.
5. Put it on after the watershed. 2am will do. Rated R.
6. Give them all OTT slutty gimmicks. Have a slutty teen popstar, a naughty nurse, a raunchy secretary etc etc etc
7. Change the name to PRN and have a nice pink logo.
It might just work.
Fun article & well said~!
I’m giving it a chance…
Hey Freelancer Texan I enjoyed you review. You seem like worthy competition. That’s right, I said competition. I am one of the other Contenders for The NXT review. I enjoyed you article and it seems like you know your stuff. I was considering sending a review to John but anything I say would just seem unoriginal now, maybe even lacking comparatively. Anyway I liked the write up and I hope you bring your A-game after Tuesday’s episode. A little friendly competition never hurt no one right?
@Anon
Maybe you’ll want to post that comment on another post. I don’t think people have gotten your point yet.
It just means that we, the readers, are spoilt all the more!