THE NXT REPORT
THE NXT REPORT FOR MARCH 4TH, 2015.
Your eyes do not deceive you. Sasha Banks bent back Charlotte's head so far in their main event match on the latest episode of NXT that Charlotte looked damn-near decapitated.
This week’s NXT was about Sasha Banks vs Ms. Charlotte, and nothing else could even approach wrangling as much interest (and that’s not necessarily a bad thing).
The show continues to struggle a bit as new gimmicks are introduced, and Kevin Owens veers off into an odd bullying-tangent with commentator Alex Riley.
Apart from a brief, genuinely touching video promo from Sami Zayn, the first forty minutes of the show was lacking. Bull Dempsey & Solomon Crowe had what I can only describe as a strange match, Baron Corbin has reverted back to smashing jobbers in fifteen seconds (it’s noticeable how the crowd is getting bored with this), the tag division hasn’t been well-represented ever since The Ascension left, and the purpose of NXT as a developmental-division has been diluted with the influx of characters like Rhyno, The Brian Kendrick, and returning gimmicks like Adam Rose and Emma.
A bit of focus and positivity has left the show these past few weeks. This is, in part, due to the dominance of the heels (a dark thematic cloud looms over the broadcast in the form of champions Sasha Banks & Kevin Owens to great dramatic effect), but it's mostly due to a slightly discombobulated roster.
The women’s division is as strong as ever, however, and without Balor & Owens directly interacting as they move toward their Championship match, Sasha and Charlotte are easily the best part of the product.
An entire episode of NXT could be devoted to the women’s division (not a bad idea, if I do say so myself), and it would be one of the best episodes. I'm strongly opposed to the idea of creating a separate Network show devoted to women's wrestling, though - such reeks of "separate but equal" to me, a concession that avoids the problem with the main roster instead of fixing it.
It’s encouraging to see how much momentum the heart and soul of professional wrestling is gaining. The idea of taking women’s wrestling seriously is catching on, and the term “sports entertainment” has become more passé than ever.
Right now, at the time of this writing, the top Twitter trends revolve around professional wrestling (see Drew Galloway's TNA promo, and find out about #StandUp) - both the importance of treating female wrestlers with more respect and preserving pro-wrestling for exactly what it is; wrestling not entertainment, a philosophical distinction that represents the modern fan’s fundamental conflict with Vince McMahon’s “corporate wrestling” (as Colt Cabana calls it).
The revolution has arrived, ladies and gentleman.
And the more normalized a Sasha Banks & Ms. Charlotte match becomes, the more we keep talking about them as great professional wrestlers and not great women wrestlers, the stronger our revolution becomes.
A gradual shift is taking place in the world-wide public consciousness - a movement towards treating human beings with more intelligence, more respect, and fixing the destructive stupidity that has defined the human race for centuries.
A youthful generation desperate to be treated with respect, desperate to right the wrongs of their forefathers is utilizing technology in inventive ways, holding a mirror up to rotting corporate infrastructures and demanding change in an increasingly convincing fashion.
What’s happening in the WWE right now is a microcosm of what’s happening in the world.
The free exchange of positive ideologies and new concepts, communication between people across the world is the key to our evolution as a species and the evolution of the arts we love.
You, dear reader, are a part of this process. This website is dedicated to changing the WWE for the better, for they are, inevitably, the keeper of the keys. They have the power to change the way the medium is perceived, but we have the power to give them no choice but to do so.
We need to keep doing exactly what we’re doing. We need to praise matches like Sasha vs Charlotte, we need to make it known that we want women’s wrestling in a main event. We need to rally behind positivity, and the continued maturation of our culture, our art, and ourselves.
Thank you for reading. Check out Mick Foley's Facebook Page where he recently shared my article The Women Warriors of NXT. Subscribe to The Work of Wrestling podcast in iTunes and follow me on all the usual social media gimmicks by clicking on the links below: