Tag: Kevin Owens

RAW Response (3/22/16) – Promoting Positivity a fortnight from Mania.

The general consensus from last night’s RAW was that the show was a dud.

Well, that’s not entirely true. Most people will admit that the show was decent enough, but it paled in comparison to what many believed the penultimate RAW before Wrestlemania “should be”. I can understand where those people are coming from – the lack of Lesnar, Undertaker and Shane-O-Mac was pretty evident.

However, let’s focus on the show for what it was, not what we wanted it to be. Yes, friends, I’m donning my #PromotingPositivity Pork Pie hat and sharing with you the things I think you should be excited about from last night.

ROH Recap – February 27, 2016

One of the things I’d like to do with DDTpod.com is start crafting columns for the wrestling I watch, and since I happen to have a snow day today (on the second day of spring, no less), I decided to try to catch up on my Ring of Honor viewing.

I have a hard time watching ROH regularly. Part of it is the inconvenience of it all, and I mean that in the most first world of ways. Logging onto my desktop, going to the website, logging in, finding where I left off – I mean, man, what a hassle!

Still, I always enjoy it when I do watch, so I’ll try to be better about this, NAIborhood.

From the NAI Archive – November 6, 2015 – FanBoy Friday – Lessons WWE should learn from tournaments past.

Back to back days with NAI columns. This hasn’t happened in. . . Hmm, best not think about it.

Yesterday, I spelled out how Bray Wyatt, to me, is the only real answer for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. I received a fair amount of positive feedback for that piece, and I’m quite proud of it, although a lot of people mentioned whether, much like Taker before him, a character like Wyatt needs the belt. Fair point there, though my argument is that while Bray Wyatt might not need a title, he does need a concrete moment of becoming a true main event guy, and as much as I liked the pyro and lightning, it hasn’t happened yet.

However, in the interest of further discussion, today I will expand my horizons and consider other options. In fact, our goal today is to look back into the sands of time- specifically, previous WWF tournaments – and see whether or not we could see history repeat itself.

From the NAI Archive – September 25, 2015 – Full Nerd Friday – How WWE can take a lesson from Dungeons and Dragons

I always wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons, but I never got around to it.

Being of a creative and improvisational mind, D&D always seemed to be right up my alley. Creating a character, a backstory, a code of conduct, yet doing my best to adapt to the situations that presented themselves – Nerdy, perhaps, but seems like a lot of fun.

The closest I came was in college, and if memory serves, one Doc Manson was part of that group as well. We started making characters for ourselves (I wanted to be a Rogue-type, despite being one of the least stealthy people I know), but it fizzled out before it got very far. I consider it a missed opportunity, though I’m pretty sure that if I had gotten into it, Mrs. Matthews wouldn’t be sitting in the other room, us being happily married for going on five years.

Why am I telling you this, besides to beef up my nerd cred and (possibly) score some brownie points with my wonderful bride?

WWE needs to take a lesson from Dungeons and Dragons.

From the NAI Archive – July 20, 2015 – Battleground Response – Why Time Matters

Time was a funny and fickle thing. Sometimes there was never enough of it, and other times it stretched out endlessly. – J. Lynn.

If there was one topic that kept running through my head during and after last night’s Battleground, it was time, and not just because the ‘event’ ended 15 minutes “early”. To be honest, it didn’t end early, plenty of WWE events end well before 11 o’clock, this one just ended suddenly.

All of the problems I saw people having with the matches, with the results, with EVERYTHING have to do with time. So, let’s take some time today and try to sort things out.

You don’t live longer. It just seems longer.

From the NAI Archive – June 19, 2015 – DC Diary – Watching This Week’s Smackdown

For many of us, the advantages of adult-ness more than trump the challenges of childhood. With every time we pine for the days of being carefree and irresponsible, there are ten other times we flaunt our ability to spend money without asking permission, eat whatever we want at restaurants and stay up MUCH too late listening to #NAI52.

Still, folks, there is one part of being a kid that all of you are missing, even if you don’t quite know it. We teachers know it VERY well – In fact, we know it even more than the students.

Those first hours of summer vacation.

From the NAI Archive – May 28, 2015 – The NXT Day – Kevin Owens is the #2 Heel in WWE.

I love when the NAIpod boys and I are thinking the same things at around the same time. Early in last night’s episode (before the absolutely amazing interview with “Seasoned veteran referee” Jimmy Korderas), the guys mused briefly on whether or not Kevin Owens is THE top heel in WWE right now, and where he will rank as an all-time heel when his career is over.

Now I’m not going to spend a whole lot of time debating Owens’ Hall of Fame credentials, as A. its too early to say for sure and B. its not Friday, and we only discuss Hall of Fame candidacies on Friday, dang it!

What we will be discussing today on ‘The NXT Day’ is a simple statement, one that I defy you to argue with.

Kevin Owens is the #2 heel in WWE right now, and it isn’t even close.

From the NAI Archive – May 22, 2015 – The NXT Day – The NXT Gap, and the problems it could lead to…

If there was an overarching lesson or theme I took away from Wednesday’s NXT: Takeover special, it was that there’s a distinct difference between the “have’s” and the “have nots”, the “WWE ready” and the “Still Developing”. While that’s not a major issue in the grand scheme of things, it could potentially cause a problem down the road. . .If it hasn’t already.

Who has it? Who doesn’t?

From the NAI Archive – May 19, 2015 – The Chief’s Brief’s – Payback and RAW Response

Welcome, welcome, one and all, as The Chief tries to be Brief about the state of WWE in our Post-Payback, pre-Elimination Chamber world. The last few days of wrestling will likely spark a number of articles on NAI (I hope you’re all prepping your Fan Friday work, NAIbors!), so rather than clog your timelines with multiple columns, let’s try to get through as much as possible in a (relatively) short amount of space.

From the NAI Archive – February 14, 2015 – Re-Watched Rival: DC’s Network Diaries

They say that you’re only as old as you feel. I’m not sure if that is entirely true, since I feel pretty good for my 31 years, but considering my sleep schedule, I’m either a radio host for early morning drive-time or an octogenarian. Based on my slightly stammering performance on my first (and hopefully not last) appearance on NAIpod, I think we can all safely say I’m no radio host.

The point I’m trying to make is that I started falling asleep during the Zayn / Owens main event on Wednesday’s NXT:Rival. I know, I know, that’s shameful, but its true. It wasn’t that the match was bad – far from it, though I do think the number of reverse chinlocks might have had something to do with it. Besides, its not like this is the first time. Ask Doc Manson (@DocManson); I’ve been falling asleep during wrestling shows for close to a decade now.

Like I said… I’m an old man.

So this morning, at the bright eyed and bushy tailed hour of 5 AM (which is when my body naturally woke up, I’ll have you know), I decided to re-watch NXT. Not just the Owens and Zayn match, which I still hadn’t seen the end to, but the entire card. NXT is that good.

I also wanted to WATCH it. The first time I was live tweeting it, and as any of you who have done that knows, you’re not really watching wrestling when live tweeting. You’re listening to it while typing, which is perhaps why Michael Cole is so reviled among the NAIWC – most of the time during RAW we’re only hearing his voice.

So replacing my Chromebook with an actual looseleaf notebook, I sat down to record an NXT version of DC’s Network Diaries. As always, this isn’t a review or a recap. This is simply a few of my thoughts. I’ll share a Highlight, a Lowlight and a So What?, a takeaway from the match. All set? Onwards, then!

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