{"id":41495,"date":"2017-04-21T14:59:46","date_gmt":"2017-04-21T19:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=41495"},"modified":"2017-04-21T14:59:46","modified_gmt":"2017-04-21T19:59:46","slug":"nxt-tracker-evaluating-recent-callups-revival-samson-samoa-joe-nakamura-bollywood-boyz-tye-dillinger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/04\/21\/nxt-tracker-evaluating-recent-callups-revival-samson-samoa-joe-nakamura-bollywood-boyz-tye-dillinger\/","title":{"rendered":"NXT TRACKER: Evaluating the Recent Callups &#8211; Revival, Samson, Samoa Joe, Nakamura, Bollywood Boyz, Tye Dillinger"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-2423487626\" 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><p><b><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cheers, Torch readers, and welcome to the NXT Tracker. Normally the idea here is to take a wrestler from NXT and track their progress there, commenting on their potential to make a splash on the main roster. Since we\u2019re at that time of year that a number of workers have just been called up, this time I\u2019m going to recap what we saw of those performers in NXT and the early indications we\u2019ve gotten from their main roster debuts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In some cases, it really is tough to say what the main roster will do. I would have considered American Alpha to be can\u2019t-miss prospects, but Smackdown\u2019s tag division has made them seem like just another team, which is surprising in a division that really does need more depth after largely working dark matches and multi-team matches over the last month. The Vaudevillains are another cautionary tale. Fans who only watch the main roster must have considered them a total joke, but go back and look at their NXT Tag Team Championship victory over Blake &amp; Murphy and tell me they didn\u2019t look to be on their way to great things.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Enough about the falling sky &#8211; let\u2019s allow hope to spring eternal and have a gander at one of the most interesting crops of main roster calls in NXT\u2019s history.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>The Revival<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson were meant to be the object of my next feature before this call, as I basked in the afterglow of the three-way match at TakeOver: Orlando. Instead, they were brought to Raw after a fantastic run in NXT, holding the tag titles for eleven of thirteen months before dropping them to #DIY after yet another great feud. The Revival thrived during the best and worst times for NXT as far as storytelling goes, as their ability to shape a story in the ring continued to get better all the time, and they reached a point where their work as heels is nearly second to none. Early on when the team gained steam out of nowhere &#8211; they made a deep run into the first Dusty Classic without much of a push to that point &#8211; I pegged Dawson as one of the best heel promos in the company, who could perhaps one day nip at the heels of Kevin Owens for total jerkhood on the stick. Recently, Dash has made great improvements to himself in the same area, closing one of the few gaps in the team.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Revival answered an open challenge from The New Day on Raw after Wrestlemania, with the opening \u201cHey Yeah\u201d strains of their theme music eliciting an appreciative pop. The New Day did a couple of jobs to put over The Revival out of the gate before an ill-timed jaw injury to Dash that can\u2019t help the momentum of a team that already may have an uphill battle in store due to their smaller statures; I think others have made too much of this issue, as smaller tag teams haven\u2019t run into the same unbreakable glass ceilings as singles wrestlers over the years, but I can\u2019t deny that it might be tough for them when Gallows &amp; Anderson are potentially in front of them, and Sheamus &amp; Cesaro sit across the aisle as babyface roadblocks that will be tough to overcome. As long as they\u2019re not cut off at the knees, though, The Revival should have some strong matches with Sheamus &amp; Cesaro, Enzo &amp; Cass and The Hardy Boyz in what has become one of WWE\u2019s best divisions for either brand.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For my part, I just hope to see the constant cheating of The Revival continue, as this has done wonders for their opponents to this point, as well as for themselves. This is classic pro wrestling, dudes; Revival, indeed.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Elias Samson<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s a surprising call. Samson\u2019s potential move was spoiled weeks in advance, but until the loser-leaves-town match against Kassius Ohno was announced, I looked at it with a doubtful eye. On the other hand, Samson had more or less gotten the point across with his gimmick in NXT. If he wasn\u2019t going to gain traction there &#8211; and he wasn\u2019t, given that his more cartoonish persona was better-suited to the main roster than NXT &#8211; he may as well step up and see what happens. The big question is: is this heel heat or \u201cgo away\u201d heat? More interestingly, is it real heat while a portion of the audience <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">thinks<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> it\u2019s \u201cgo away\u201d heat?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have to say I\u2019ve been pleased with the promotion of Samson so far. There hasn\u2019t been a rush to involve him in a feud he\u2019s going to ultimately lose; instead, he\u2019s kept in our minds as the camera pans past him, following another wrestler. These are the touches that WWE has really been missing in recent years, and are part of the reason my enjoyment has been spiking of late.<\/span><\/p><div id=\"pwtor-498100326\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Samson is an okay power wrestler who really does come off as annoying, in a good way. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s a top-shelf guy, but he has the chance to have some fun midcard feuds and perhaps an occasional feud for a midcard title.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Samoa Joe<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s potentially a cheat to use Joe, but he\u2019s recent enough, so I\u2019ll take it. Joe has been presented as a very important cog in the machine, and furthermore, one that may be pay-to-see as his matches on TV have been infrequent. I do think it\u2019s nice to have some guys presented this way, retaining an aura of secrecy rather than being tossed in wacky tag matches and the occasional squash. Brock Lesnar is great, but he doesn\u2019t have to be the only Brock Lesnar around, and in time Brock will need real challengers for his title. While I suspect most of these threats will come from The Shield, if Brock ends up working as a face for a few months, he and Joe can have a hard-hitting feud that deserves a high buyrate (or however they prefer to gauge the success of those shows now).<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>The Bollywood Boyz<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do these guys count? They worked in the CWC, have had a couple of matches on NXT TV and also worked the inaugural <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">205 Live<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in front of a crowd who didn\u2019t quite know what they were meant to feel. I decided to count them because frankly, what they\u2019ve got going is yet another thing WWE has lacked for me: surprise.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While these two look and come off as really nice guys, I couldn\u2019t help but think the Bollywood Boyz gimmick was better-suited to a pair of heels than to a couple of smiling babyfaces. Now they\u2019ve tweaked the formula to come closer to what Steve Austin and Brian Pillman were doing as The Hollywood Blonds (though whether they continue with that on the main roster is yet to be seen), and were shockingly inserted into what should be a main-event feud with the equally surprising Jinder Mahal. I see Gurv and Harv as a couple of bump machines that are going to take a lot of RKOs on the way to this match, which still might be six to eight weeks away, and the crony formula has worked for everyone from Kurt Angle to Vince McMahon over the years. Although the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">205 Live <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">match is, to my knowledge, the only televised victory for The Boyz in WWE, I think this is a great spot for them for the time being, and can lead to a face turn which eventually allows them to be important players in Smackdown\u2019s tag division.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Shinsuke Nakamura<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a wrestler, you really can\u2019t ask for more fanfare &#8211; and perhaps pressure &#8211; than there\u2019s been for Nakamura. This past Tuesday, he was featured in an \u201cup next\u201d teaser that was simply leading to a video package and not a live appearance. WWE intends to strike quickly with Nakamura, and for this reason (among others), I thought it was a mistake to take the WWE Championship off of Bray Wyatt and put it on a cold babyface when Shinsuke, and not to mention Tye Dillinger, were on their way up. Granted, the WWE has found a different way to keep the title picture fresh.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I don\u2019t think Nakamura was done any favors with his relatively clean losses to Samoa Joe and Bobby Roode down in NXT, but when you drip with charisma, it\u2019s fairly easy to shrug off a loss. It looked like Nakamura was headed for a feud with The Miz, but with Miz\u2019s leap to Raw, this satisfying matchup will have to wait. Instead, I\u2019m looking forward to Smackdown simply to see who he\u2019s going to face and feud with first, which is a place the main roster doesn\u2019t take me nearly often enough. I\u2019m bullish on Nakamura\u2019s prospects, even in the short-term.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Tye Dillinger<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As if the arrival of one strong babyface wasn\u2019t enough, Smackdown has also treated us to Tye Dillinger, a move I hoped was coming given that Tye had eaten a lot of pins in NXT and babyfaces bemoaning losses don\u2019t stay hot for long. Tye was brought up to the main roster with none of that talk and none of the self-doubt that was hurting his character, and was immediately fed some low-level competition to get started. It seems the intent of the Superstar Shake-Up was to make Raw a place largely for established stars and Smackdown the place to see fresh faces, and that works for me; again, Tye being a face doesn\u2019t make him an early candidate for a title match, but there\u2019s some midcard pushing to be done with Tye anyway that isn\u2019t necessary with Nakamura, so that\u2019s fine. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised or disappointed to see Tye working with Kevin Owens before long, although with Owens adopting a bit of anti-American gimmickry to sell his U.S. Title reign, the Canadian Dillinger may not be the guy WWE sees as putting in that position.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the meantime, keeping the audience on board with the chants and cheers shouldn\u2019t be difficult, as Dillinger\u2019s babyface fire has been second to none in the last year, and his late(?)-career renaissance has been one of the more inspiring stories in the company. Smackdown looks to be committed to this character, and I think he\u2019ll be a great player on the main roster for a good four or five years before retirement starts being a consideration.<\/span><\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1122626926\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As much as I hacked on NXT for the past few months, it does look like their prospects have a good future at the moment. If they\u2019re committed to creating new stars with interesting stories &#8211; as it seems they\u2019re doing in the last couple of weeks &#8211; it could end up being a revival for NXT as well. Here\u2019s hoping the next crop of callups is in just as much a position to succeed as this one.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>NOW CHECK OUT THE PREVIOUS COLUMN:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/03\/28\/nxt-tracker-state-booking-headed-nxt-takeover-saturday-night\/\">NXT TRACKER: The State of Booking Headed into NXT Takeover this Saturday night<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-1159481989\"><div id=\"pwtor-3995688690\"><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>Cheers, Torch readers, and welcome to the NXT Tracker. Normally the idea here is to take a wrestler from NXT and track their progress there, commenting on their potential to make a splash on the <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/04\/21\/nxt-tracker-evaluating-recent-callups-revival-samson-samoa-joe-nakamura-bollywood-boyz-tye-dillinger\/\" title=\"NXT TRACKER: Evaluating the Recent Callups &#8211; Revival, Samson, Samoa Joe, Nakamura, Bollywood Boyz, Tye Dillinger\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25130,"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":[46,52,4381,27],"tags":[4728,4599,125,308,2779,1620],"class_list":["post-41495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlightarticles","category-opnionandanalysis","category-nxt-tracker","category-specialists","tag-bollywood-boyz","tag-elias-sampson","tag-samoa-joe","tag-shinsuke-nakamura","tag-the-revival","tag-tye-dillinger"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2016\/07\/ItamiJoe_3x2TG.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41495","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=41495"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41496,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41495\/revisions\/41496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}