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The Taz Show Recap – Camera Work in Wrestling, Were Orton’s Tweets A Work? Which NXT Star Impressed Taz? More!

Block 1:

A listener calls into the show and asks Taz about the importance of camera work in professional wrestling programming. Taz says that the camera work is vitally important to producing quality wrestling programming. WWE’s ‘shaky’ camera style was inspired by ECW’s camera work in Taz’s opinion. Paul Heyman originally got the idea to implement this type of camera work from watching ‘Cops’.

WWE is too heavy with the camera shaking at some points in Taz’s opinion, and he points out that Lucha Underground has their camera work down to a science. He believes that this is a result of Lucha Underground’s camera men working a ‘Hollywood’ style of filming, where they film the backstage segments as if it was a movie.

Taz says that sometimes fans complain about the long backstage promos in WWE, but you rarely hear criticisms of Lucha Underground’s backstage promos. Taz says that fans only complain about long promos when they’re poorly done. Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes cut awfully long promos but they were terrific so they didn’t feel long.

Could A Major Swerve Occur At Backlash?

Thanks to the most recent episode of Smackdown Live, my interest in Backlash has reached new highs. Jinder going over AJ (even though he had help) has made me a believer that he really stands a chance against Randy Orton in their WWE Championship match. The Usos dropped one awesome promo on Breezango, and I absolutely loved it despite my ill feelings toward them. Even Erick Rowan showing just what kind of character he can be on Talking Smack has me excited for his match as well.

While all of these matches are intriguing, it’s the women’s tag match that has me intrigued the most. The newest babyface of Smackdown, Charlotte, will team up with Naomi and Becky Lynch to take on The Welcoming Committee of Smackdown Live. It’s weird to see Charlotte as a face, but it’s a nice change on a show where change is welcome. Natalya and company have made it clear that they do not want Charlotte here, and she shouldn’t be allowed a chance at the Smackdown Live Women’s Championship just because of her past accomplishments on Raw. Technically these women have a point, but they shouldn’t be fighting for the belt either so their opinion is invalid.

Something about this doesn’t sit right with me. Charlotte seems like the person who should be a natural heel, for her entire career. This is why I see Charlotte turning on Becky and Naomi at Backlash.

Alberto Del Rio Feels WWE Is Ripping Off Their Top Superstars

While speaking with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, former WWE Superstar Alberto Del Rio talked about WWE having a monopoly on the wrestling industry. He also claims that several talents that left the indecent promotions have taken pay cuts up to 80 percent and he feels that several top Superstars of the company are being paid nothing.

“It’s horrible for the business, but you cannot blame that company. That company is doing what a company is supposed to do—monopolize, get the best talent from everywhere, and try to destroy the competition. They’re smart, you cannot blame them. The problem is with the talent. Just going there to be there with the promise of being on TV, but not even charging good money for your work, is not good business. We as wrestlers need to remember that this is a business. We started because we love the business and we stay in it because we have a lot of passion for it, but you have to be rewarded for your work. I was there and saw some of the main guys, new top heels, and new top babyfaces, get paid nothing for their matches. The new talent joining NXT is taking pay cuts to work there, sometimes even 80 percent less. You need to be rewarded for your work in a business.”

You can check out the full interview here.

New Match Announced for NXT Takeover: Chicago

WWE has announced that Eric Young will take on Roderick Strong in a singles match at NXT Takeover: Chicago.

NXT Championship Match
Hideo Itami vs. Bobby Roode

NXT Tag Team Championship Ladder Match
#DIY vs. The Authors of Pain

NXT Women’s Championship Triple Threat Match
Ruby Riot vs. Nikki Cross vs. Asuka

WWE UK Championship Match
Pete Dunne vs. Tyler Bate

Eric Young vs. Roderick Strong

The Ross Report Recap w/ Roderick Strong – Strowman’s Injury, Strong’s Road to WWE, Who is Strong’s Dream Opponent, More!

Ross informs that he’s going to be busy this week commentating NJPW events for AXS TV, and he says he enjoys doing commentary for NJPW because it’s very one-dimentional in the sense that it’s a wrestling-heavy product. He’ll also be flying to Stanford on Wednesday to do voice over work for WWE’s UK Special which will air later this week on the WWE Network

From Ross’ understanding, the UK special will be 90 minutes in length. He says he’s quite excited to do voice over work for that WWE special, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t appreciate the other commentary work he does for NJPW or any other promotions. He says that whenever he sits down at a commentary booth he gives 100% and does his best to serve the product, regardless of the style of wrestling.

Ross informs that he will be Chicago this weekend for his one-man show, but as of this recording he has no appearance confirmed for WWE’s Backlash PPV or the NXT Takeover show. He says that it’s certainly a possibility that he has a role on one of those shows, and he’d be happy if that were to occur. He adds that he’s just happy to be home in WWE and have a role with the company.

Ross says that his book will be coming out in October, and he has just finished confirming names to do forewords and add dialogue to it. He says he already has some great words submitted from Vince McMahon, Steve Austin, The Rock and Mark Cuban to name a few.

Why Titus O’Neil Is One of the Best Parts of RAW Right Now

The Titus Brand bandwagon (Brandwagon?) is coming this way, and I am here to say that I will be climbing aboard. The man used to be a reason to reach for the fast-forward button. Now he’s one of the more entertaining members of the roster. It took a while, but Titus O’Neil has found his niche on the roster. But why is the Titus Brand now a big deal? Allow me to explain.

Titus O’Neil Has Always Been Capable on the Mic

After Titus cut that dreadful promo on Raw after Summerslam (you know the one I’m talking about), everyone said he was hot garbage on the microphone. That’s simply not true. When he would work commentary, many praised him for his wit and good speaking ability. He sounded very natural. Barring the return of the Dudleys where he spent a good amount of time yelling incoherently, he was good.

Batista himself has said Titus would make a very good public speaker. I do think Titus is a good speaker. However, he’s better off staying away from those dead-serious promos. The reason the “I want Darren” promo sucked is because you could tell Titus was out of his element. When you watch him trying to earn a spot in the New Day or pushing his Titus Brand, he’s clearly more comfortable and more natural sounding. You have to play to a superstar’s strengths. You wouldn’t make Stone Cold cut a John Cena promo. Roman Reigns should avoid talking like Santino Marella. Bayley should avoid talking at all (I jest).

Now that Titus is having his strengths played to, he’s clearly better off. You can tell that he’s having fun. Dancing with the New Day, stealing Enzo Amore’s intro for himself, and all that jazz.

The Titus Brand Is Hilarious

Of course, humor is subjective, but many people, myself included, enjoy Titus’ segments on Raw. Ever since he moved away from Darren Young and began holding press conferences with Tom Phillips, he’s been a good bit of harmless fun. The “Tussle in Texas” was a particularly entertaining bout. It was hyped up as a legit fight, complete with a tale of the tape. 1 minute later, Titus is pinned after eating a World’s Strongest Slam from Mark Henry.

The addition of Apollo Crews to the Titus Brand will make for an even more interesting dynamic. Clearly Crews isn’t 100 percent on-board with the Brand. Still, he goes along with whatever wacky adventure Titus drags him to. Although O’Neil is very clearly a heel (a heel who just called the state of New Jersey “poor ass”), Crews is not entirely bad just yet. Titus receives all the heat, all while allowing Crews to slowly develop a character.

People have compared the two to LaVar and Lonzo Ball. To those who don’t know, Lonzo Ball is a Drake lookalike who many expect will be drafted in the next NBA Draft. LaVar is his loudmouth father who gets into all sorts of trouble. The comparison is there, and it works. Lonzo just wants to chill and play basketball, but LaVar keeps running his mouth and hyping him up as the Second Coming of Jesus. Same with O’Neil and Crews. Apollo just wants to wrestle and have fun, while Titus spews a whole lot of nonsense.

Reason Rusev Didn’t Appear on SmackDown Live Tonight

WWE announced on last week’s episode of SmackDown Live that Rusev would be returning on tonight’s show. For those who watched the show tonight would have noticed that he never appeared despite being advertised in their 5-point preview on WWE.com earlier today.

Rusev revealed on Twitter that he was at the Nashville Predators’ NHL game instead.

It’s very possible that he is using that excuse as part of storyline. We will keep you updated.

The Taz Show Recap – Raw Analysis, Rollins’ Set For A Big Year, Presentation of Finn Balor, More!

Block 1:

Taz opens today’s show by discussing Braun Strowman’s elbow injury. Taz says that he believes WWE made a mistake by showing Strowman in the hospital bed on RAW last night, as he thought it made Strowman look too ‘human’. He also doesn’t think that Strowman will be out for 6 months like WWE has announced.

He doesn’t think that Roman Reigns will win the Fatal 5-way match at Extreme Rules, because he believes Reigns will go right back into another match with Strowman when he returns from his injury. Taz thinks Strowman’s recovery time will be closer to 2 months than the 6 that WWE announced.

A listener calls into the show and says he enjoyed Goldust turning on R-Truth on last night’s show. Taz says that this is a ‘C’ angle, and WWE needs to have those angles in order to keep everyone relevant. He says that having captivating angles throughout the entire roster is what made the attitude era so successful in his opinion.

Another listener calls into the show and says that both Alexa Bliss and A.J. Styles had good years last year as rookies, and he wonders if that gives WWE the confidence to push talent quicker. Taz says that wrestling  is a work, and Bliss and Styles had good years last year because the company pushed them. If WWE has faith in a performer, they’re going to book them to win more matches than they lose.

SmackDown to Feature Picture-In-Picture Commercials

NBC Universal will be implementing picture-in-picture commercials on their television programming and that includes SmackDown Live.

USA Network tested this feature out last summer after the WWE draft and according to Broadcasting and Cable, the picture-in-picture commercial breaks raised the retention of viewers 13% with the overall rating of the episode by 2%. This will be the one of the first of many NBC Universal show concepts like this to keep the audience engaged during commercials.

NBCU Executive Vice President of Network Partnerships Josh Feldman made the following remarks regarding the change:

“We want to improve the viewing experience for fans with marketing and advertising, versus just having marketing advertising be part of the viewing experience,” Feldman said. “Picture-in-picture improves the viewing experience. That’s the mission of what we’re trying to do here.”

Matt Hardy Says Impact Still Has A Chance To Do The Right Thing

Matt Hardy took to his Twitter account to let Impact Wrestling know that they still has a chance to “do the right thing” when it comes to working out a deal with The Hardy Boyz to use the “Broken” gimmick in WWE.