Good If It Goes “Beast in the East” Roundtable Discussion

The card:

WWE NXT Title Match: Kevin Owens vs. Finn Balor
Kevin: Balor was big in Japan as Prince Devitt and Owens is about to be on the main roster full-time, so Owens drops the belt here. Going forward, my guess is that Tyler Breeze ends up getting a title shot. Once Sami Zayn and Hideo Itami are healthy, I have no idea what they do since so many of their top guys are babyfaces.

I mentioned Tyler Breeze challenging. Samoa Joe could take Owens’ spot as a monster heel in NXT, I guess. It wouldn’t shock me to see Baron Corbin get a push, nor would it shock me to see Balor turn heel and feud with Itami or Zayn upon their returns.

John: Finn Balor captures the NXT Championship as “The Demon” in Japan. I would expect some post-match shenanigans with Samoa Joe and John Cena in the mix to help congratulate Balor on the win. This would allow Kevin Owens to show up on RAW on Monday and tell Cena that he stuck his nose in his business and now he’s making it his business to take the US title away from John Cena.

I believe the program for Balor will be Rhyno coming off of the July 4th Special but feel that Samoa Joe is probably his next major program. Samoa Joe could talk about how he came to NXT looking for a fight but Kevin Owens took his ball to the WWE. He could say that he came here looking for a fight and to fight the best.

Sean: The two will look to tear the house down, and they will. Balor is massively over in Japan and Owens could get heat in an igloo. Balor’s retrospectives over the last few weeks have built up his “common man” type, similar to Daniel Bryan. The Demon makes him larger than life, but deep down he’s just a boy chasing his dream- and it starts Saturday with an NXT title win. Balor wins in a thriller, and will also have one hell of a fun entrance.

Following Owens’ permanent move to the main roster, Balor will likely feud with a heel Samoa Joe.

Tim: Tyler Breeze will challenge Balor. They had a great Number 1 Contenders match at the last NXT Takeover. I believe they could continue to work and have great matches. My second choice would be Rhyno. Those two have a feud brewing. Owens could do the rematch option.

Balor was HIGHLY successful in NJPW under the name Prince Devitt and was the first leader of the Bullet Club. I expect Balor to go all out in his entrance as this like a homecoming of sorts for him. This is going to be a great match. Balor wins by DQ. So both guys remain strong. With the injuries to Zayn and Itami – Owens, Balor, and Joe need to remain in NXT.

DeQwan: Kevin Owens is the man and there’s nothing anybody can really do about it. However, Owens will drop the title in this match due to his main roster call up (due to an unfortunate accident to Sami Zayn).

He’s the hottest heel in the WWE right now, and he will do great things on the main roster. Balor is returning home (sort of) so this will be a great victory from him. Since Owens is pretty much feuding with everybody I’m sure this won’t be a clean victory. On the NXT side, I rarely watch (Which I know is terrible since it’s the best thing about WWE programming now), but I see Joe/Breeze/Rhyno as the top guys in NXT.

Shaun: Balor via pinfall. I see interference by Cena, to continue his feud with Kevin Owens.

The question isn’t if Balor wins. It’s what happens after he wins. Balor is walking out with the belt, and I think his immediate challenger becomes Rhino or Tyler Breeze. From there I can see Hideo Itami or Samoa Joe eventually call him out for a face-vs-face title shot at some point. The darkhorse: Baron Corbin. Regal is intelligently building Corbin into an unstoppable force, and the Balor/Corbin feud of the future would be extremely entertaining as the athleticism of Balor vs. the brutality & power of Corbin is a match made in heaven for the fans.

Brock Lesnar vs. Kofi Kingston

Kevin: Brock wins. I’m pretty sure Kofi’s just in this match to take some big bumps and make the former IWGP Heavyweight Champion look good.

John: Brock Lesnar will win this match-up. The only thing that’s interesting will be how much offense Kofi Kingston gets. Kofi seems to be a company man and will probably be just a mere role player in continuing the push for Brock Lesnar on the road to Battleground.

Sean: This is a larger scale Cesaro/Diego. The powerhouse versus the jobber. Lesnar is just here for a tune-up, and Kofi will sell like a used car salesman for him. Lesnar will eat up the rabid atmosphere of the Japanese crowd and will toy with Kofi before putting him away. The only question is how many F-5’s will Kofi eat?

Tim: Lesnar. If this match lasts longer than 30 seconds I’ll be surprised. Kofi will probably do some high flying move and get caught by Lesnar and thrown F-5.

DeQwan: I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say, Kofi is going to win. Did you laugh? No? Kofi gets squashed. If New Day is ringside the match will go longer than two minutes, but the outcome will still be BAAAAAAAAAAAA-ROCK LEHHHHHHHHHHHSNAR winning.

Shaun: Is there any question? Lesnar via pinfall.

John Cena and Dolph Ziggler vs. Kane and King Barrett

Kevin: The team with John Cena will beat the team consisting of two randomly thrown together mid-carders. Hopefully, they let Dolph look good, too.

John: John Cena and Dolph Ziggler will get the win over the odd-couple team of Kane and King Barrett. King Barrett needs to make the most of this showing and show that he belongs back in the main event scene. I’m guessing Ziggler will sell for the majority of this match before making the hot tag to Cena and allowing Cena to hog the spotlight once again.

Sean: I have a low ceiling for this match. While Ziggler can go, and Cena has shown with the US Title that he can put together good matches, it won’t matter here. Kane drags pretty much any wrestler down these days as he should not be anywhere near a ring. Barrett can wrestle with a very interesting style, yet has never been booked to be believable (despite the KOTR crown). The KOTR used to mean something, but not anymore. Just like his IC title reigns, Barrett is seen as a laughingstock. The one thing that he got over with (Bad News) was inexplicably taken away from him.

Cena and Ziggler win in paint-by-the-numbers fashion.

Tim: I heard this is the main event. Cena and Dolph will go over in a typical face match both guys doing their usual spots. Cena hits the AA on Barrett.

DeQwan: This is a weird tag as there is no storyline continuity, but it is pretty fresh. If this is the main event, the faces send the crowd home happy. Ziggler and Cena wins, and hopefully there is a “If Cena Wins, We Riot” sign in Japanese.

Shaun: Cena & Ziggler via pinfall. Not much to see here, unless Cena busts out even more new moves to entertain the Japanese fans.

Chris Jericho vs. Neville

Kevin: A win here would mean he gets a win over somebody that matters. He should look good doing it, too; I don’t doubt the ability of Jericho and Neville to have a great match together. In the long run, it won’t mean anything if he’s back having matches with guys like Wade Barrett or Bo Dallas the next week on Raw.

Neville goes over. Jericho’s been more than willing to put over younger talent and there’s not really any point to booking this match if that’s not what’s going to happen here.

John: It will be interesting to see which of these wrestlers will take on the role of the heel in this match. I’m guessing Chris Jericho will play the role of the heel after something ticks him off, etc. I could see this turning into a “matter of respect” type feud if Jericho cheated to win, Neville gets upset, refuses to shake his hand. Chris Jericho “big leagues” Neville by not showing up at RAW each week, claiming he has bigger and better things to do -only to have Neville score the pin fall at Summer Slam.
Only drawback to this plan would be that Chris Jericho is the host of Tough Enough and WWE wouldn’t want him playing heel on RAW/face on Tough Enough.

A win over Jericho here means nothing for Neville. As we have seen before, Jericho losing doesn’t guarantee anything for the up-and-coming wrestler (see: Fandango). Jericho will win, and Neville will chase if they choose to continue it into an actual feud.

Sean: Neville sorely needs a win here after his recent matches on RAW. Sure, he is that scrappy wrestler who has the flare and the work rate and looks so close to winning. But what does that mean when he doesn’t have that “statement” win yet? I agree with John. Despite Neville needing a win on a big show, Jericho should win and set up a feud with Neville.
A win for Neville would seem like a big deal at first, but who knows how WWE would follow up? Hopefully the two continue to clash until Summerslam.

Tim: MATCH OF THE NIGHT. I think this will be classic wresting with great spots. I think it will go back and forth all night with Neville winning via the red arrow.

A win for Neville here depends on what happens after the victory. Fandango beat Jericho at WrestleMania and what the hell has he done since? Neville isn’t going to come out on Raw and say “I defeated Y2J I deserve…” I think Neville can jump right into the main event spot and have great success but this win isn’t going to break or make that now. I’m just looking forward to a great match.

DeQwan: Fandango beat Chris Jericho at Wrestlemania. With that being said, Jericho and Neville have a great match, with Jericho putting Neville over. Would love to see Jericho back on TV outside of hosting Tough Enough (WHICH I GOT SHAFTED OUT OF), and wrestling at Summerslam.

A win for Neville here means nothing. (See Fandango comment)

Shaun: Neville via pinfall. I think it is going to happen, and what it means is one of the all-time greats passing the torch to one of this generation’s all-time greats of the future. If he stays healthy, Neville has the skills to be the Jericho or the Rey Mysterio of this generation, and I think Jericho can pass the torch on down to Neville in Tokyo.

WWE Divas Title Match: Naomi vs. Paige vs. Nikki Bella?

Kevin: Little, if anything will change with this match. I don’t know a ton about AJPW or NOAH, but I know NJPW doesn’t do very much women’s wrestling at all. I’m not sure how the Japanese audience responds to this match.I don’t care.

Nikki probably wins. I doubt they take the belt off Nikki until she passes AJ’s record title reign. Whether they do that as another shot at Punk or as a shot at AJ for leaving, it’s incredibly stupid. Yeah, AJ probably could have let them know that she was leaving. And the professional thing to do is to put someone over on your way out. But it was a tag match, so Paige, who deserves so much better than the garbage matches she constantly gets put in, got her WrestleMania moment. Also, WWE fired AJ’s husband on their wedding day, so I really don’t care what AJ did to irritate anyone from WWE after that.

John: After the last few months, I don’t imagine anything will be different for the women’s title match. I don’t think this match should have a place on the card and I feel the Japanese fans will crap all over it.

This will probably end with some sort of Twin Magic due to WWE’s severe lack of creativity. Nikki needs to continue her streak until she erases AJ Lee from the history books. Though the true reasoning behind all of this is probably to just appease Cena and make his girlfriend more money.

Sean: Oh, how I love thee, WWE Divas Division. Kidding- but it is not a knock on women’s wrestling. Just the opposite, actually. I see the girls in NXT tear it up week in and week out, especially at their special events and expect more from the women on the main roster. It’s not all their fault, though. Outside of the Lita/Trish Stratus years, WWE has never placed a focal point on it as competitive. Correction. VINCE MCMAHON has not placed importance on it. He sees women as one thing: objects. They are either crazy, slutty or seen as being bitchy.
The fact this match is taking place on an NXT special and not an NXT women’s title match offends me.

The main issue these days is there is no real line between heels and faces. One week, the Bellas are heels. The next they get beat up by a heel Naomi and become “sort of” faces. Then a week or two later, they use Twin Magic and are now heels again against Paige. WWE needs to stop confusing their audience with everyone switching sides and put more effort on taking time to flesh out the characters while putting on competitive matches. Am I the only one wanting an NXT Divas Nexus-style takeover of the current WWE Divas division? Nikki wins here, as to continue her title reign for the sake of a long title reign.

By the way, Paige needs to quit with the “IT’S MY HOUSE!” after any instance where she gets an upper hand in the match. Similar to “BRIEEEEE MODE!”- it’s just frivolous and quite ironic with how often Paige loses to Nikki.

Tim: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Nothing is going to stand out about this match. Nikki is eventually going to break AJ’s record. The only deserving Diva to hold the title is Paige. With her filming TE I don’t see the belt getting put on her any time soon. Until they bring back the actual Women’s Championship this Divas Championship and division is nonsense.

DeQwan: *Bathroom Break*

Call up the NXT Divas to save this garbage.

Shaun: Nikki Bella wins here. I don’t see anything being different about this match whatsoever. I see another victory by a Bella twin. For whatever reason, perhaps to pacify their significant others, creative seems intent on pushing the hell out of the Bella’s and hoping that the fanbase just sees the wedgies and overlook the fact that they are average-at-best workers. I would be amazed at anything other than a Bella victory.

The Lucha Dragons vs. Big E and Xavier Woods

Kevin: New Day has the brighter future between these two tag teams. I had forgotten about the Lucha Dragons until they were in the tag team chamber match.

New. Day wins. New. Day wins. (Unless this is the beginning of a push for the Lucha Dragons, which I doubt.)

John: New Day are a byproduct of the WWE and are actually generating some heat/reaction from their gimmick. The Lucha Dragons are playing the role of a Kai En Tai, where you know you’ll get a fun match out of them but no real character development. Vince has never really been a fan of masked wrestlers and kind of leaves that up to Mexico (outside of Rey Mysterio Jr.)
New Day has a push going on and a match for the tag titles at Battleground. The kids will cheer for The Lucha Dragons regardless if they win or not due to the masks/colors, etc.

New Day wins here.

Sean: I’ll admit it. I, like many other could not STAND New Day at first. I saw it as a gimmick that hampered Woods and Big E. Kofi was lucky just to get the scraps of anything that had purpose. But what do great performers do? They take what they are given and make the most of it. I was never a Xavier Woods fan- but if you aren’t by now, I’m not sure what to say. The dude is killing it every week. His subtle gestures and dialogue at ringside are highly entertaining. Big E is very unique, too as a big guy with endless energy and fun promos.

Even though they lost the tag team belts to the Prime Time Players, New Day has a brighter future than the Lucha Dragons. The Dragons exist to get a pop out of the crowd and get the energy going. They have no agenda or real purpose, but can come up with great spots in matches. New Day wins in a competitive and fun match.

Tim: New Day will get the win here. High flying spots by Kalisto. But I think New Day will cheat to pull out of the W.

Lucha Dragons have the brighter future. They have better marketing ability especially in this PG era for the kids. I think eventually Kalisto could have a singles run. Woods as well could have success in a singles run. But the New Day as a stable is going to get stale.

DeQwan: New, Day Rocks! I always go back and forth on if I like New Day or not. They’re antics at ringside are hilarious (Xavier Woods especially), but I feel like they could be greater than a jump around, positivity spewing stable (Although the Bo Dallas addition is great, and likes them to the Nation with Owen Hart).

I love the Lucha Dragons, hope they get a push soon, but they are masked wrestlers in the WWE. Watching The New Day evolve will be great in the near future.

Shaun: The Lucha Dragons will win. They have the fans behind them and a gimmick that won’t go stale. New Day can only ride this wave of preaching positivity and playing off the “New Day sucks” chants for so long. The Dragons are exciting performers, especially Kalisto, and have a fun gimmick & entrance that the fans are eating up. Arrow is pointing up for the Luchas while the arrow has already peaked for New Day.

Cesaro vs. Diego
Kevin: Cesaro wins.

I hope this is the rise of Cesaro again, I really do. Cesaro is an awesome talent. Easily the most underutilized guy on the roster. But the past says no, it’s not. At least not long-term. If anything, he may get a small push now and then they drop the ball with him again.

John: Cesaro

El Matadores are not a priority for WWE at the moment. Cesaro needs to kick it into high gear and find an attitude for the fans to get behind.
I don’t think that Cesaro will rise in the ranks until he finds his voice on the microphone. The only other option is returning to the tag ranks with a different partner (King of Swing and King of Bad News – Wade and Cesaro) would be the role I’d present to him. Cesaro wins here.

Sean: Cesaro.

Like a few other stars over the last few years (Ziggler and Wyatt, I’m looking at you), Cesaro suffered from being pushed after catching on last year then being forgotten about. Sure, he had tag team success with Kidd and even won the belts- but he is capable of so much more as evidenced Monday Night against John Cena. He’s strong. He’s agile. He’s got an absolutely brutal moveset honed on the independent scene. He might be a victim of bad timing with the crop of NXT talent arriving, but WWE needs to realize what they have on their hands with the European Uppercut Machine before it’s too late. Sure, he doesn’t have the mic skills of a Kevin Owens or CM Punk- but not every main event talent has to be a promo machine. They never should have let him stray from Paul Heyman.

This will be a smaller scale Lesnar/Kofi style match. It’s simply a tune-up for Cesaro and a way for him to connect with the Japanese fans who will “ooh” and “aah” over his unique style. Diego brings nothing to the table, as he and Fernando have accomplished nothing in WWE aside from introducing a small, athletic man dressed as a bull. Cesaro wins in six minutes tops.

Tim: This match can only prove how good of a worker Cesaro is. We know he can go but if he’s able to make this match better and make Diego look better and elevate both guys it shows how valuable Cesaro is.

The guy is a tremendous worker. His microphone skills need a little work but wrestling ability is top notch. I could see him feuding for the IC title with Kidd being absent.

DeQwan: Cesaro wins easily here.

What a waste of talent. Vince believes Cesaro doesn’t connect with the audience, but he puts on great matches. Not the greatest on the mic, but at this day and age that’s really irrelevant. I think once they lose faith in you, no matter what you do, they won’t push you. It took CM Punk leaving for us to get the Daniel Bryan push at Mania last year, so I really don’t think Cesaro will ever achieve what he should.

Shaun: Cesaro will score the victory. I don’t see Cesaro getting much of a push. I can see him getting into the Intercontinental picture -hell the Miz is in it after all- but outside of that, I can’t see Cesaro getting much further than that. Average body and limited on the mic, but outstanding worker. That equates to a mid-carder in WWE.

Bonus Discussion: With Cena, Jericho, Lesnar and the NXT title match between Owens and Balor- is WWE doing their best to promote this card? (I feel like I haven’t heard it hyped up like it should be).

Kevin: They’re hyping it up at a level that’s appropriate for an event that will air at 5:30 A.M. Eastern on their network. The word is that Lesnar is on this card because he wanted to go over to Japan to visit a retired Japanese wrestler, so he figured why not work a show and get the trip paid for? The rest of this looks like your average house show, with the exception of the NXT Championship match. I don’t know when that match was added to the card, but it wouldn’t shock me if the thought process was “Well, if Lesnar’s going to be there, let’s air this on the network. And if we’re going to air this on the network, we might as well have Owens drop the belt here, since Balor came from Japan and we need the belt off Owens.”

John: I feel like they have mentioned on their broadcast, but this is more for the IWC/hardcore wrestling fans that have already bought the network. I don’t imagine a fan would buy the network for this event, if they haven’t bought it for The Royal Rumble/Elimination Chamber, etc.

Sean: I think they have done almost nothing to hype up the card. While nothing about it is traditional with Cena, Lesnar, Jericho and Cesaro tossed on it haphazardly- it does not excuse WWE’s lack of making a bigger deal about it.
Have they explained why any of those wrestlers are fighting their respective opponents? No, and goes to show WWE wants the names to bring viewers and not the substance of feuds. The fact the company has had three pay-per-views in the span of six weeks also does not help any of this. It feels a little too much at times, like UFC these days- but at least NXT for the most part offers something different.
If WWE wants people to buy the network, give them a reason to do so with cards that matter and characters that have actual motives for doing things. It’s really not that hard.

Tim: I applaud the WWE for showcasing more events on the Network even if some of them are crappy shows. This event was certainly not hyped like a PPV, however there really is not much to hype. The matches were just thrown together. To the general audience Lesnar is what people recognize and is what will get the most attention. Balor is also getting plugged because of his previous work in NJPW.

DeQwan: “HAHA, people who have the network get to watch this event and you can’t” – WWE. It’s a smart marketing strategy they are doing to try and make the content exclusive, but with the way streaming is set up, the casual fan won’t care about all the libraries and history of wrestling.

Shaun: They’re doing their best with a limited card in my opinion. They’re doing a nice job of featuring Balor on NXT programming and making sure everyone knows that he is going for the NXT title on Saturday. The other smart thing is making sure people know Lesnar is on it, and not that he’s wrestling Kofi Kingston. The one thing they could have done is feature more promos on Raw or Smackdown, but those shows are intended to be primers for the PPV’s, and in reality this show in Tokyo is nothing more than a house show on a Japan tour, where creative figured would be a good time to have Owens drop the belt and transition fully to the main roster.