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So..Apollo Crews?

5K views 46 replies 42 participants last post by  Bret Hart 
#1 ·
Why WWE dont push this guy? he is super bland and smiles a lot but that´s not his faul. We know very little about the guy even though he is a very good wrestler and has "The Look".
Why do you think WWE are not pushing this guy and creating storylines and exciting angles for him? At this point he is not a jobber but not a mid-carder even Baron Corbin has a bigger role than Apollo.-
 
#8 ·
He's maybe not getting pushed at the same rate of guys like Reigns, but he's still working his way up the card. He wins more than he loses and already has a clean PPV win over a former WWE Champion (vs Sheamus at MITB). Smackdown is definitely the right place for him as he would be more likely to get lost in the shuffle over on Raw. On Smackdown he will probably get an IC title run in the coming months as I imagine WWE are pretty hot on him judging by how quickly he got called up.
 
#11 ·
To be honest, the way they're managing him right now in terms of wins/losses is for the best, he's a relatively constant feature, has a decent win record, but it's not going over the top. However, they really shouldn't start properly giving him a big push until he makes necessary improvements. He's a fantastic athlete and has an impressive moveset, but he has no character to note of, and worst of all his matches have next to no semblance of psychology. I don't know whether it's the WWE themselves telling him to not bother selling much but it's very noticeable at times.
 
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#16 ·
Yup, that's a problem. I'd like to assume that nobody told him to do that, but with WWE you never know.

If he just did that on his own someone still should have caught him backstage and said, "What is wrong with you!! You just got beat up! Wipe that damn smile off your face! You got the crap beat out of you by a 260lb guy! You are hurt and angry! No go out there and make everyone believe it!"

If they don't have anyone backstage to catch that kind of stuff and straighten it out - then they should.
 
#19 ·
Yeah, he should have stayed in NXT a good bit longer. Dude has a hard time selling, and standing out from the rest of em. Plus, I really don't like that finisher simply because it looks hard for him to execute in a quick paced match leading to the finish. Gonna need character and a defining feud. vs Sheamus definitely wasn't that.
 
#21 ·
"Vince, I'm nervous.."
"Son, whatever you do, just keep smiling, we're a family friendly product, the kids will love it"
*Fails to smile in a future segment, and is subjected to a dancing gimmick*
With that being said, Apollo knows the repercussions of not following the bosses orders, can you blame him?
 
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#24 ·
He was called up way too early. He isn't really special in the ring and he is bland outside of it. As it stands he is a solid midcarder who could be more than that if he got more time in developmental.
 
#25 · (Edited)
Crews is getting Sheamus/Roman/Ziggler like booking. Being pushed like a face, who never shows any weakness, and no one ever gets the better of them in anything even.

The only way Crews will lose is tag matches, handicapped, or they will have a match where something happens, much like when AJ was easily going to beat Cena, and The Club joined in, so Cena as far as WWE goes "technically didn't lose to AJ".

^-This is seriously how WWE thinks you build stars, that if you continue that booking, they will somehow magically show character, and build a following....DURP.


Becky, Ambrose, Bayley, and Bray, all examples ofo losing shows more character, that they don't need "Vince's top star treatment" to get over (I could say same for Cesaro, but he never got as over as those 4 are).

There are examples, like Rusev and Seth, but they had very interesting things going on during their title reigns and the winning was part of their character. Rusev won cause he showed major dominance as the foreign invader, while Seth won cause he was using heaters and was chicken shit.

Roman wins for no reason, same thing was for Sheamus, hence why he never really crossed over into the "respect" category, nor did either one become super popular. If someone like Del Rio was a villain in Ninja Turtles movie, he'd get uber over.
 
#26 ·
I guess they're just trying to figure out what to do with him, both character-wise and storyline-wise. He had a pretty decent program with Sheamus until it came to an abrupt end.

My guess is that he either gets a manager/mouthpiece in the near future, or we see him chucked in a tag team for a while until he develops a character.
 
#28 ·
Developmental did a really shitty job as far as Crews goes.

They catagorically failed to create/bring out an engaging persona. He could be capable of 720 standing corkscrew shooting star press, and with the depth of personality he has right now, still nobody would give a shit.

NXT and the performance center are not fulfilling their purpose, and WWE's desire to push certain stars ASAP is another significant factor, as it's historically always been worse for the performers in question in the long run.
 
#32 · (Edited)
The first part is entirely true but I wouldn't say it's so much the fault of the training staff/P as much as management pushing Apollo through when he clearly isn't ready. People complain about lack of direction for NXT call ups but he is the only one who has no discernible character whatsoever. Even the Ascension have more character!

Pushing people fast has always been worse? Taker Angle, Lesnar off the top of my head. I know people don't like him on here but even Sheamus was very over with casuals in his initial run and even more so in his face turn before his losing streaks and terrible booking. He is still one of there most popular guys internationally.
 
#33 ·
All the interesting veterans are locked up in their respective programmes. Or are so overused to push younger talent (Kane, Big Show) that they can no longer be considered interesting at this point.

The less than 5 years veterans are still considered 'projects' and won't be used to push him. So he's stuck.
 
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