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WHY SOME TALENTS AREN'T RUSHED OUT OF NXT WHEN THEY ARE READY, OWENS VS. GOLDBERG, DUAL BRANDED PPVS AND MORE

By Mike Johnson on 2017-02-09 10:00:00

I don't understand why certain talents who are obviously ready to move out of NXT are still there?  What is left that say, The Revival, can learn from the PC?

In certain cases, WWE keeps talents in developmental so that they can work with talents coming up and help them get better, both on screen in NXT and in training with them.   For others, they are waiting for the right creative window.

Any word on the whereabouts of Kyle O' Reily?? Can we expect him to pop up on NXT?

O'Reilly is not under contract to Ring of Honor anymore.  He is deciding what he wants his next move to be, which likely is code word for waiting enough time following his ROH deal expiring before working for WWE, but we will see.

I feel like this is the 90s and we’re doing where in the world is Carmen San Diego, but where in the world is Finn Balor? I have seen no updates about his health or if and when he might be coming back.

Balor is towards the end of his physical rehabilitation and the hope is he'll be back shortly.  My guess is they may actually hold him out until right around Wrestlemania and start vignettes to bring him back around the PPV or just after.

I'm curious about your thoughts on how to book the Goldberg vs. Owens match at Fastlane. One the one hand, you have Owens the champ needing to win because he is the full-time wrestler, is younger and needs to stay strong, and shouldn't lose the title on a secondary PPV. Then you have Goldberg who needs to win because he is being pushed as a bigger marquee name about face another marquee name in Brock Lesnar at Mania, and has been pushed as unstoppable and beating another unstoppable wrestler for the past two encounters. Also, anything other than Goldberg beating Owens in less than two minutes will make Goldberg AND Lesnar look bad if Owens can last longer and have a more competitive match than the former two. If this happens, it will make Owens and the title look bad and assuming this is the closing match, will make this PPV missable. But if Owens beats Goldberg (clean, by disqualification or even with Jericho's help), nobody will benefit and will even make Lesnar, who's not in the match, look bad.

To me, there are two choices.  One, Brock Lesnar gets involved and screws Goldberg or Goldberg kills Owens and wins the title.  The major goal here is to have a big climactic finish to the Goldberg-Lesnar feud and having Owens beat Goldberg in a competitive match doesn't fit that goal.

Do you see the WWE going back to dual-branded PPVs after WrestleMania 33?

No, they are going to keep things as they were.  The next dual-branded show looks to be Summerslam in August, which really should be headlined by Brock vs. Orton in a rematch from last year.

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