{"id":36657,"date":"2016-12-22T12:48:13","date_gmt":"2016-12-22T18:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=36657"},"modified":"2016-12-22T12:48:13","modified_gmt":"2016-12-22T18:48:13","slug":"rising-star-fading-star-week-neville-nikki-bella-mojo-rawley-miz-swann-perkins-shield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/12\/22\/rising-star-fading-star-week-neville-nikki-bella-mojo-rawley-miz-swann-perkins-shield\/","title":{"rendered":"RISING STAR &#038; FADING STAR OF THE WEEK: Neville, Nikki Bella, Mojo Rawley, Miz, Swann, Perkins, The Shield"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-1260646174\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><h3 dir=\"auto\">RISING STAR OF THE WEEK: The Miz<\/h3>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Miz by no stretch has ever been a personal favorite of mine, but his work as a heel these past few months have been perfect.\u00a0 The IC Title match with Apollo Crewes on Smackdown didn&#8217;t provide a whole lot to write home about, but his post-match interview with Renee Young did by going into worked shoot territory. Typically,\u00a0 I&#8217;m sort of against that parlor trick as it can carry some Russo stink to it, but Miz&#8217;s interaction with Renee showed his ability to pull it off. Also, his &#8220;Participation Awards&#8221; are just bad guy gold. If you missed it like I&#8217;m sure many did, he gifted one to Crewes to hang on his wall in a Smackdown Fallout clip. It&#8217;s very much like Mortal Kombat&#8217;s Johnny Cage signing an 8 \u00d7 10 to a beheaded Scorpion. Salt to the wound.<\/div>\n<p><strong>HONORABLE MENTIONS\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Neville:<\/strong> Neville came back at Roadblock with a new mean streak and a little more mustard in his kicks and punches, putting him immediately as a new top heel in the cruiserweight division. His promo on Raw was nothing special as he decided to go the Dolph Ziggler screaming route in exchange for substance,\u00a0 but it&#8217;s nice to see him in a new role. He&#8217;s also entering a division that suffers from depth at babyface, which is problematic. Jack Gallagher along with a sprinkle of Cedric Alexander (who I think has a ton of potential) are over, but that&#8217;s pretty much where the line ends.\u00a0 Swann and Perkins only garner a reaction when they&#8217;re getting savate kicked and thrown into barricades\u00a0 making them about as hot as New Day Version 1.0, which means they&#8217;re not hot whatsoever, and that&#8217;s a huge problem.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mojo Rawley:<\/strong> If you&#8217;re an extrovert who&#8217;s over the top with your wrestling fandom you may want to sit down or hold onto something because I&#8217;m about to put words into print that may cause your gag reflex to act up, but here goes: Mojo Rawley&#8217;s backstage performance on Smackdown was more Jake Roberts low-key and cool than it was Dolph Ziggler screaming and blood vessel breaking (Ahhh&#8230;.my fingers feel so tingly and strange typing that). Behind the eye black,\u00a0 those bright colors, and Zumbas, the guy actually managed to add a layer to himself. And whether Ryan Philippe was using method acting to portray interested is still up for debate, but he sold me enough to be a good rooting buddy for Rawley. This bit showed promise for Mojo, giving him a little more depth than his one-note Ray Lewis-crazy side allows. I&#8217;m not full-out bro fist pumping by any means, but I&#8217;m cautiously hyped.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 dir=\"auto\">FADING STAR OF THE WEEK: Nikki Bella<\/h3>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Wasn&#8217;t Natayla&#8217;s comments a little too on the nose this week? Hmm? The whole &#8220;failure in showbiz \/ crawling back to WWE&#8221; comment? &#8220;My cat has more personality than you&#8221;? It&#8217;s harshly accurate to not only her on-air persona, but to her off-air ventures too. Nikki already had a lot of work to do as she and Brie have been given the Big Show treatment when it comes to heel\/face turns, but eesh. Good luck after that one.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DISHONORABLE MENTIONS<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<strong>Rich Swann &amp; T.J. Perkins:<\/strong> These two are getting shoved in the same dishonorable mention because as top babyfaces in the cruiserweight division they have both been underwhelming in developing a presence on screen.\u00a0 A few weeks ago I was impressed with Perkins&#8217; time on &#8220;205 Live&#8221; commentary going as far to give him a &#8220;Rising Star&#8221; honorable mention,\u00a0 but he hasn&#8217;t done anything of note to build upon that. &#8220;The Inescapable&#8221; Rich Swann has been generic as Dollar General so it&#8217;s totally understandable for the Roadblock crowd to cheer when he got his ass beat. I&#8217;m not fully checking out on T.J. Perkins as a top face in the division,\u00a0 but both him and Swann have a lot of work to do if they want anyone to get behind them. Bring on the Gentleman Gallagher.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Seth Rollins &amp; Roman Reigns:<\/strong> Wow, WWE burned through those Shield teases faster than you can say &#8220;James Ellsworth&#8221;. After Roadblock, I don&#8217;t think a full-on Shield reunion will nearly pack as much as a punch as it once would have, and ironically, it&#8217;s all at the expense of attempting to get Reigns over, which it didn&#8217;t then. It won&#8217;t now. And probably won&#8217;t&#8230;.forever. The only thing that will help Reigns is turning heel, and that isn&#8217;t a newsflash.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK&#8217;S COLUMN:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/12\/16\/rising-star-fading-star-week-sami-zayn-mick-foley-byron-saxton-jack-gallagher-dolph-ziggler-anderson-gallows\/\">RISING STAR &amp; FADING STAR OF THE WEEK: Sami Zayn, Mick Foley, Byron Saxton, Jack Gallagher, Dolph Ziggler, Anderson &amp; Gallows<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-1977253690\"><div id=\"pwtor-3990626168\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>RISING STAR OF THE WEEK: The Miz Miz by no stretch has ever been a personal favorite of mine, but his work as a heel these past few months have been perfect.\u00a0 The IC Title <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/12\/22\/rising-star-fading-star-week-neville-nikki-bella-mojo-rawley-miz-swann-perkins-shield\/\" title=\"RISING STAR &#038; FADING STAR OF THE WEEK: Neville, Nikki Bella, Mojo Rawley, Miz, Swann, Perkins, The Shield\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,4309,27],"tags":[4463,653,974,674,74,84,505,1376,1244],"class_list":["post-36657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlightarticles","category-rising-star-fading-star","category-specialists","tag-mojo-rawly","tag-neville","tag-nikki-bella","tag-rich-swann","tag-roman-reigns","tag-seth-rollins","tag-the-miz","tag-the-shield","tag-tj-perkins"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/BellaTwinsGG_3x2_600.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36658,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36657\/revisions\/36658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}