Since relaunching NXT in August 2012, we’ve seen a lot of different faces going through the black-and-yellow brand. Originally intended as a developmental group, the television product has slowly morphed to the point where it’s now getting easier than ever to decry the show as “Triple H’s vanity product”. (Warning: NXT spoilers lie ahead – even though WWE’s advertising it)
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In years gone by, it’s been a bit of a stereotype – you can’t bet on wrestling, it’s fixed! Well, in recent times, bookmakers have been offering odds for pay-per-views for several months now, with those odds usually shifting at the last minute (particularly if a certain dolphin-themed Redditer has his say!)
In amongst the responses to my “Royal Stumble” column over the weekend, there was an interesting alternative viewpoint to “why WWE has a dearth of credible championship challengers”, and the answer is simple: they’ve sacrificed everyone in an attempt to build up Roman Reigns. Although WWE did ultimately achieve their end goal of getting the fans to accept Reigns, ironically, it was at last year’s Rumble where the signs were clearly displayed that this was the wrong time to push Reigns.
Next Sunday sees the WWE kick off 2016 with its first pay-per-view of the year; the 29th Royal Rumble event. Traditionally, this is the first major sign-post on the road to WrestleMania, and the start of three months of segments ending with wrestlers pointing to a sign.
Within the space of 24 hours this week, WWE played crowned a new United States champion, and then yanked the rug out from underneath him, in what is the latest example of myopic booking.
Twenty years ago, when wrestling was in the midst of the “Monday Night Wars”, part of the allure of the ongoing WWF vs. WCW battle was to see just who was jumping ship. Last night, hours after New Japan’s WrestleKingdom 10 show, we had 2016’s version of this, with news breaking of WWE “signing” the quartet of AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Doc Gallows and “Machine Gun” Karl Anderson.
BackBodyDrop wraps up 2014 with our final awards at 2014, including some of our wishes for the year ahead. And a positive word to say about Grado too!
As we continue to wind down the year 2015, we continue our look at the year with some more of our awards for the best (and possibly the worst) of the year.