Bloggers Wanted: Number Two Contenders (May) Want You!

If you’re a fan of Number Two Contenders, and I truly hope you are (otherwise, reading this is very peculiar), you’ve noticed that lately we’ve had a pair of “substitute” contenders join us to share their opinions.  Both Kyle (@RasslinWithLife) and Shannon (@Love2HulkSmash) did an outstanding job with their initial posts here at #2C and I expect that both will be returning to this space sooner rather than later.  In fact, their posts have been so popular and we had such fun having them on board that we’re hungry for more.

To that end. . .

Are you a fan of professional wrestling?  Do you have strong opinions on the subject, both past and present, that you feel needs to be shared with a rather small but growing audience?  Have you ever considered starting a blog but, be it from fear, ignorance or just pure laziness, have never gotten started?  Are you able to throw a few sentences together without your spell-check going haywire?  

If so, The Number Two Contenders might want you!

The NXT Day: Championship Week Edition!

It was Championship Week on NXT, despite only 2 of their titles being up for grabs.  Still, a solid NXT from top to bottom, though as with WWE, I always seem to enjoy the undercard more than the main event.

On with the show!

Walk Away On Top: What has to happen with Charlotte

There is no question that Charlotte is the best women’s wrestler in NXT, and in my mind, very little question that she’s actually the best in the entire WWE.  Every week, I see something I’ve never seen before - this week it was the Figure 4 that she then bridged - I had a ‘mark out’ moments the likes of which I haven’t seen since I was 10 or 11.

In fact, every time I watch a match of hers, I can’t help thinking 2 things, the latter being much more scandalous than the former.

1. Charlotte could very well be the best women’s wrestler in history by the time she’s done.
2. Charlotte might be the best wrestler with the last name of Flair in history.

When It's Not Quite Hell in a Cell...

If you were to take 100 average WWE fans and ask them about Hell in a Cell, the vast majority of them would immediately talk about Foley’s brush with death during his seminal Cell match with Undertaker.  Some might also mention the bloodbath that was Michaels vs. HHH, back in the day.

Last year’s CM Punk vs. Ryback match is likely not going to be on the top of many wrestling fan’s minds when HIAC is brought up, and after watching it last night, I can totally understand why.  It was a boring, boring match.  No blood.  Very few high spots, save for Punk’s beatdown of Heyman after defeating Ryback and some quite creative suplexes Mr. “Feed Me More” gave to the future GFW World Champion...

See what I did there?  Got your attention, didn’t I?

The NXT Day: Thoughts on Last Night's Episode (9/25/14)

Welcome to the first installment of “The NXT Day”, where we take a look back at last night’s episode of NXT, aka the best wrestling show you can find on the WWE Network.  Here on The NXT Day, I’ll share some thoughts on what we all witnessed, both in longer and “quick quips” form as well as pose some ‘discussion questions’ that we can tackle over there on, as Y2J puts it, The Twit-ahh!  I won’t cover everything, since NXT seems to have found the secret to fitting a whole lot of action into a 60 minute show, but we’ll get to the good stuff, at least.

And Here. We. Go.

The Way It Should Have Been

On a recent major event, two wrestlers met in the middle of that very ring.  On paper, it seemed like these two were a fairly equal match, although one seemed to be much more vicious than the other.  Despite this, however, the match was, for all intents and purposes, and squash.  It was brutal.  Moves were repeated.  In the end, one person very simply conquered the other.

Why am I talking about Lesnar and Cena on an NXT blog, you ask? I’m not.  

I’m talking about Mojo Rawley and Bull Dempsey.

Time for a Lesson: Why Whining is No Good.

As a teacher of youngsters (yes, friends, I am trusted with the future leaders of the world - be very, very afraid), I have to deal with a lot of childish behavior.  An inability to share, peeking at neighbor’s papers, trying to fool me with seven-year-old stealth, all of it.

Yet there is no single behavior that boils my (and honestly, most people’s) blood than whining.

Every year, right around mid-September, I spend part of each and every work day discussing whining behaviors, and how people hardly ever get what they want from it.  “You need to express your opinions like grown-ups do,” I say, “because when you whine, people immediately stop listening to you.”

And they get it. . . Well, most of them do.  Over the school year, most of my students (who, I remind you, are 6 and 7 years old) will slowly begin expressing themselves in a more adult manner.  The tone of their voice changes, they use better descriptions to express their current emotional state, and best of all, they come up with (in some cases) compelling pieces of evidence to argue their case.

“I don’t want to do this” becomes “Can I please have a bit of a break before I finish my work?”  “This is sooo harddd” becomes “I’m not sure what to do here.  Can you help me?”

I mention this simply because these students of mine. . . Once more, 6 and 7 year old children. . . Seem to have a better grip on this fairly simple life lesson than the vast majority of wrestling fans I’ve seen on Twitter these last few weeks.

Substitute Contender: Try Some Positivity for a Change!

From time to time, The Teacher is absent, Doc Manson's lab is empty, and a substitute takes center stage.  Today, Shannon Scott (@Love2HulkSmash) discusses the Twitter-verse reaction to the Roman Reigns injury.

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I have been a wrestling fan as long as I can remember. Literally at least two-thirds of my life. It's the only thing I'm truly passionate about. Some of my earliest memories of life involve wrestling, watching it on Saturday nights on TBS with my mom. Yep, I started off as a WCW fan sometime in 1990. It took a few years before I finally found World Wrestling Entertainment, but I knew from the moment I saw Undertaker in 1994 where my heart was destined to stay. Now, 20-plus years later, I am a firm and unashamed WWE loyalist and WWE apologist. At the end of the day, I stand by this company, come what may happen. They have given me memories to last literally a lifetime. I’ve been to lots of house shows, Wrestlemania X-8 in Toronto, a couple Smackdown shows, and just this past summer, I went to my very first RAW broadcast. I’m kind of addicted to them.

NXT Top Ten: Edition 4

Welcome to the NXT Top Ten, edition 4.  It’s been a little while since our last rankings, and a whole lot has happened.  We had arguably the event of the year, Takeover: Fatal 4 Way.  We’ve had some debuts, both of new NXT talents and of some top tier developmental guys on RAW.  Actually, that has required some tweaking, since at the onset of this rankings, I said I wouldn’t include any NXT guys with WWE experience.  Since that would mean getting rid of three rankings stalwarts, we’ll now adjust that to say I won’t include any NXT talent who has had a significant WWE run.

Which brings us to Tyson Kidd.  I haven’t been including him in my rankings as of yet, and I haven’t had a big problem with that up until now.  He wasn’t getting anything resembling a decent push, I thought, so why bother?  Well, now he had arguably the strongest showing of the men involved in the Fatal 4 Way, and this whole “fact” thing seems like it is taking off.  Should I start ranking him?  Help me, #WWEFamily, you’re my only hope!  If you want him ranked, then rank him I shall.  

(Note: If you’re curious, he’d likely be in the top 5 somewhere this week.)

OK, let’s do some rankings.

Number 10: Hid. . . Nope, I won’t do it.   His name is Kenta!