{"id":6030,"date":"2015-12-16T03:53:46","date_gmt":"2015-12-16T09:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=6030"},"modified":"2015-12-16T03:53:46","modified_gmt":"2015-12-16T09:53:46","slug":"6030","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2015\/12\/16\/6030\/","title":{"rendered":"Falls Count Anywhere &#8211; Reigns, SD Announcers, &#8220;NXT Takeover: London&#8221; Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-2423148853\" 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><em>On this ultra-busy week in pro wrestling, PWTorch specialist Tony Donofrio brings back the Falls Count Anywhere column breaking down the current big stories&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Falls Count Anywhere<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>-In the past 48 hours, WWE has done something that I didn\u2019t see happening by the end of 2015, probably not even by mid-2016 or the end of 2016! Vince McMahon and WWE have managed to get Roman Reigns over. If this week&#8217;s Raw happened in a basic town, I might not have typed out that last statement. However, Roman Reigns has gone full circle in the city of Philadelphia in a matter of 12 months. Being from Pittsburgh, I\u2019m no fan of the city of Philadelphia (as I\u2019m sure many of our Philly readers feel the same way about Pittsburgh!). But they are vociferous, opinionated, and a great wrestling city. Cities like New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia are great gauges for where a lot of wrestlers stand.<\/p>\n<p>You have to give WWE credit for the post-match angle at TLC and how they were able to follow up so well on Raw. If you <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/TonyDonofrio\" target=\"_blank\">follow me on Twitter<\/a>, I still don\u2019t buy Stephanie nearly crying over Triple H\u00a0being attacked (the man has been through wars in the ring!) and Reigns\u2019s family (Usos) and best friend (Dean Ambrose) not coming to his aid during a No\u00a0DQ TLC match. But, overall, the angle worked. This was a huge win this week for Reigns and WWE. Now, their aim going forward has to be winning strings of weeks to win over fans across the country and world.<\/p>\n<p>-WWE signing Maura Ranallo to be the new voice of Smackdown starting in 2016 is a great idea. Anyone who\u2019s heard his work before knows that he does a great job, whether he\u2019s calling the action for MMA, boxing, or pro wrestling. For me, some of his best work has been for New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV simply because most of the matches he calls on there are months or years old and he is able to insert himself into the action as if he were calling it live. He\u2019s a pro\u2019s pro.<\/p>\n<p>It will be interesting to see how he takes to being produced, if not overly-produced, by WWE. Having said all that, if WWE really wants to shake up Smackdown next month and give it a fresh look, the whole broadcast team needs a make-over and I have a suggestion for that. Jerry Lawler, despite his legendary\/HOF status, needs to be pulled from Smackdown. The same can much more easily be said for Booker T. Rich Brennan, of course, will now be strictly on NXT (which he does a great job at). I\u2019d have Renee Young and Corey Graves join Ranallo at ringside. Preferably, I\u2019d have only a two-person booth. But, if it has to be three, then that\u2019s my team. Smackdown, from a broadcast perspective anyway, would feel fresh and different. Graves is perfect as a heel commentator and he\u2019s worked with Young before on NXT. The fodder between them would be great as Young is the perfect Yin to Grave\u2019s Yang.<\/p>\n<p>-The Divas Division in WWE has finally started to clear up, but still needs some tweaking. It\u2019s better than it was six months ago, but still has a ways to go. Thankfully, the faction wars of the so-called &#8220;Divas Revolution&#8221; are over. Sasha Banks still isn\u2019t being featured properly, but I have a gut feeling that her time is coming very shortly. Charlotte is finally being allowed to show her chops as a heel but needs to be distanced from her father a.s.a.p. Charlotte, much like Ric, is a born heel. She pulls it off much better than she does being a face. If you\u2019re a regular viewer of NXT, you should already know this. However, she doesn\u2019t need to play a\u00a0&#8220;father\u2019s daughter&#8221; character. She has shown before in NXT that she can be a heel by standing on her own feet and not resorting to the tricks that made her father such a great heel.<\/p>\n<p>Charlotte didn\u2019t need Ric in NXT and she doesn\u2019t need him on the main roster, especially by her side. If anything, I feel having Ric by her side impedes her progress as a heel. No one wants to boo Ric at this point in his life\/career. Having them as a combined act only hampers Charlotte getting heel heat. If needs be, have her turn on her father. Let her be the heel that we\u2019ve seen her be in NXT. She doesn\u2019t need to be a carbon copy of her father.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-758047231\" 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>-NXT Takeover in London should be a great show if precedent means anything. Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe for the NXT Title could be an epic encounter. NXT has managed to get Joe over as the monster that any of us who have seen Joe work since ROH know he can be. With that said, I don\u2019t see a title change happening in London. With Apollo Crews presumably in the mix following Takeover, it will be fun to see where the returning Sami Zayn will be slotted along with Baron Corbin coming on strong, and still slowly improving, in recent months. A lot of great matches at the top of the card could be coming our way.<\/p>\n<p>The same can also be said for the Women\u2019s Division with Nia Jax challenging Bayley for the NXT Women\u2019s Title. Jax has been booked very strongly since her debut but somehow I can\u2019t see her winning the title just yet. I suppose that there is the possibility that Bayley will drop the title and be thrust onto the main roster, but I wouldn\u2019t do it quite yet. I am encouraged, though, by the supporting cast of women\u2019s wrestlers right now in NXT that are going to be expected to pick up the slack when Bayley does finally make the jump. Jax and Asuka are being groomed to carry the division along with Emma and Dana Brooke.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been very impressed by Brooke\u2019s progression this past year and the evolution of Emma into a really strong heel. Alexa Bliss and Carmella also can\u2019t be ignored as having taken steps to up their game, but still need work. Add to that the supporting cast of Billie Kay, Liv Morgan, and Peyton Royce and I believe the depth in the NXT Women\u2019s division is tremendous. Does it have the quality at the top like it did when the Four Horsewomen were ruling the roost? Definitely not right now. However, I do love the depth of the division and can see a lot of really fresh, quality match-ups coming to NXT in 2016. Those that follow my NXT Hits &amp; Misses reviews\u00a0and\/or <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/TonyDonofrio\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter account<\/a> closely should not be surprised that Eva Marie was not mentioned above. Here\u2019s hoping, wishing, and praying that Pandora\u2019s Box is not opened up in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>NXT\u2019s Tag Team Division is at an all-time high, in my opinion. Jason Jordan &amp; Chad Gable could be the next big tag team\u2026on the main roster! It\u2019s only a matter of time for those two. Dash &amp; Dawson have been great in their short run with the tag titles thus far. Enzo Amore &amp; Big Cass can always make a claim to be contenders, even if just because of their longevity in NXT. You also can\u2019t forget Blake &amp; Murphy and The Vaudevillians. All of those teams could be sniffing around the tag titles as we head into 2016. There\u2019s not reason to believe that the NXT Tag Division in 2016 won\u2019t be more exciting than it ever has been.<\/p>\n<p><em>Tony Donofrio is a Specialist for PWTorch covering a variety of topics and promotions. You can reach Tony at <a href=\"mailto:TonyDonofrio@icloud.com\" target=\"_blank\">TonyDonofrio@icloud.com<\/a> or follow him on Twitter\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/TonyDonofrio\" target=\"_blank\">@TonyDonofrio<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-2258288409\"><div id=\"pwtor-2629279925\"><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>On this ultra-busy week in pro wrestling, PWTorch specialist Tony Donofrio brings back the Falls Count Anywhere column breaking down the current big stories&#8230; Falls Count Anywhere -In the past 48 hours, WWE has done <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2015\/12\/16\/6030\/\" title=\"Falls Count Anywhere &#8211; Reigns, SD Announcers, &#8220;NXT Takeover: London&#8221; Preview\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1859,"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":[1356],"tags":[209,74,71,123,104],"class_list":["post-6030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-falls-count-anywhere","tag-nxt-takeover","tag-roman-reigns","tag-wwe","tag-wwe-nxt","tag-wwe-title"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Reigns_3x2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6030","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6030"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6031,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6030\/revisions\/6031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}