Substitute Contender: Is It a New Day?

From time to time, The Teacher is absent, the lab is empty, and a substitute takes center stage.  Today, Kyle (@RasslinWithLife) discusses the main event scene.

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"The more things change, the more they stay the same." 

Thats how the old cliche goes and within WWE, it couldn't be more apparent. My hope is to shed light on what is vital to success going forward. One hot-button issue in the company is their inability or flat-out ignorance to build around their top star, John Cena. 

It wasn't that long ago at one of their biggest pay per-views, SummerSlam, we saw resident conqueror and the Cenation patriarch go 1-on-1. Or at least that is what it was advertised as. What we all got at the biggest "Blockbuster of the Summer" was anything but a battle. I think to some degree we all expected a back and forth battle. Instead we witnessed an absolute mauling from the former UFC champ to the walking, talking merchandise king. Now, please don't mistake my playful banter for disrespect. John Cena is a 15-time world champion and has earned his stripes. Sadly for the champion his credentials meant zilch when the bell rang at 'Slam.

Class is in Session: The best 60 seconds you're likely not watching.

I want to let you in on a little secret.

There’s a good to great chance you’re not watching arguably the best sixty seconds of WWE programming each week.

It’s not NXT, as much as I like that ‘brand’.  It’s not Cesaro’s matches, though they are always excellent.  It’s not even Dean Ambrose, even though he might be the perfect blend of Steve Austin and Roddy Piper.

In fact, you won’t find this marvelous minute on WWE television.  Yet.

I’m talking about Sandow’s Sixty, which can be found on WWE.com and on the WWE App.

NXT Top Ten Rankings: Edition 3

Welcome to our third edition of the NXT Top Ten.  The last two weeks of WWE’s developmental “brand” proved, at least in my mind, that the best wrestling going on in the company today happens at Full Sail University, both in quality and quantity.  For a one-hour show, NXT always has 3-5 matches per episode and almost every one would fit in beautifully on RAW or Smackdown.

If you’ve missed the discussion @NewAgeInsiders and the #WWEFamily have had regarding NXT, you’re missing out.  Basically, there is a growing belief that NXT should replace Smackdown as WWE’s second nationally televised program.  Break out to 2 hours weekly, move down some of the lesser WWE talent to give them some room to grow and really push it hard.  We’d love to have you join the conversation; as NAI says, be heard!

OK, time for our Top Ten.  As usual, I’ve taken in-ring ability, current character, verbal skills and “It” factor into account.  However, I’ve realized I need to add a fifth criteria, which is “NXT presence / push”.   For example, over the last 2 weeks, The Ascension wasn’t on NXT, which causes them to slip from the top spot.  I’m still as high on them as ever, but I can’t keep them on top in good conscience while others are on WWE Network.

Honorable Mentions

The Teacher's Book: What could happen post-Summer Slam?

There are days where it is hard to be a wrestling fan.  If you read the Summer Slam preview Doc Manson and I had late last night, you could tell that for both of us (though Doc is suffering far worse than I), there is a definite vein of pessimism in how we feel about the WWE product.  In our minds, too much has been mis-managed, too many worthy superstars are being ignored, and there is way, way, WAY too much being shoved down our throats.  

Yet, despite the negativity that can drag me down at times, I have hope.  Perhaps its, as @NewAgeInsiders says, just because the relationship I have with WWE is an abusive one.  Or perhaps its because, as an actual classroom teacher, hope is sometimes all you can hold on to in order to maintain your sanity.  But I think there are opportunities abound here for WWE to start heading in a positive direction.  

We all have our ideas on how we’d book it were we a McMahon, so I humbly submit my own thoughts on a few directions WWE could go.

(Disclaimer:  All of this is conjecture, based on the information I have gleaned, rumors floating around, or just my best guess.  This should not be considered to be anything other than a series of thought experiments, and should in no way be considered entirely original thoughts.)

World Title Picture

Tonight, I want to see Brock Lesnar win the title.  I want it to be a competitive match, but mostly controlled by Lesnar, with Cena having to resort to more and more desperate acts to stay in it.  In the end, though, Lesnar’s just too big and too bad.

On RAW, I want Heyman to come out and be presented with the new belt.  Lesnar would be here, says the Advocate, but frankly, there’s just no reason to be.  He dominated Cena, and there is nobody out there who is worthy of a title shot, so Brock’s going on a little vacation.  

Heyman than calls out the WWE roster and says, simply. . . “Impress me”.  He wants to see somebody step up and make themselves worthy of the honor of being next conquered by The Beast.

Number Two Contenders Summer Slam Preview!

Summer Slam is less than 24 hours away, and the Number Two Contenders have you covered.  Doc Manson and The Teacher are here to discuss matches, angles, predictions and more!

The Teacher:  Doc, does it feel to you like this PPV has taken forever to get here?  It seems like these feuds have been building (or in some cases, not building) for months!

Doc Manson: Yeah, the build has been pretty slow for almost the entire card. I’m starting to feel like a broken record, always talking about the same stories and wrestlers. Although, a few of those wrestlers I talk about aren’t even on the SummerSlam card.

T:  I assume you are referring to one of our favorites, Mr. Cesaro, who will be kicking off the card by not wrestling on it.  He and RVD are scheduled to face off in the Pre-Show.  I’d like to say that having two of the better wrestlers in the company going at it before the PPV means that Summer Slam will be stacked with epic encounters top to bottom, but I just think this is more indicative of some of the lack of quality booking for certain talents.

Cesaro has to win, right?  Even if he’s going nowhere.

DM: They can pull the trigger on Cesaro at any time and he will deliver. I don’t think a win or a loss against RVD on the SummerSlam pre-show is going to make much difference in Cesaro’s career.

Guesses on the first match of the night?

The Teacher's Lounge: If all Summer Slams had Twitter

As almost every single pair of eyes who reads this knows, I, The Teacher, have been pretty addicted to Twitter since the birth of #2Contenders.  One thing I’ve been fascinated with is how the social media age allows everyone to share their feeling right as things happen.  This gives us a primal sense of how people are feeling, since from the looks of it, most people don’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about their tweets before sending them into the Inter-ether.

Which got me thinking. . . With Summer Slam around the corner, what would the history of this huge WWE event look like if Twitter had existed since its inception. . . Quite the thought experiment. . . I humbly submit some of what I believe we’d have seen in the last 20 years.

8/29/88

MegaPowersRule:  Can’t believe we’re getting a 4th #WWF PPV!  Can’t wait to see MegaPowers SLAM MegaBucks!  #Hulkamania  #OhYeah

MillionDollarBaby:  @MegaPowersRule - No way! Everybody has a price, and Dibiase and Andre can’t be stopped!  #MoneyMoneyMoney

NXT Top Ten: August 9th Edition

I love NXT.   In fact, I think it’s my favorite wrestling show of the week.  RAW has become too long and drawn out, and while Main Event can be fun (haven’t brought myself to watch Superstars yet), NXT is fresh and new.  Each week, I can count on seeing at least one thing I haven’t seen before, which is a rarity when you’re a longtime wrestling fan.

So, we’ll make the NXT Top 10 a bi-weekly segment here at Number Two Contenders.  Remember, this does not take into account any stars with WWE experience; I’m only looking at the purely developmental talents.

I took the following factors into consideration when compiling my list:

-  In-Ring Talent

-  Current character / gimmick

-  Verbal skills / mic talent

-  “It” factor, the je ne sais quoi that draws attention to a superstar.

Honorable Mentions

-  Most people are going to think I’m crazy, but I actually have dropped NXT champion Adrian Neville out of my Top 10.  Part of that is simply because he did not compete on either of the shows between this rankings and the last one.  The other one is that I’m still not sold on where they go with him in the future.  I don’t like his mic work, I don’t see him having a specific character, and guys who are only talented in the ring never get very far in WWE.