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To start, there have been numerous comparisons between new generation and old generation wrestlers for quite different reasons: gimmick, charisma level, in-ring skills, future outlook.
I will focus on all of the latter and say that if I have to make a comparison between Alex Riley and somebody else, it would be someone who just departed from the company. In an indirect way, this can be looked at as a passing of the torch.
I'm talking about comparing Alex Riley to Shelton Benjamin. So here it is:
1) Shelton debuted as a legitimate athlete with a jock-like mentality who would show off his skills and boast for his in-ring accomplishments. Alex is a full fledged jock who likes to boast in the ring as well and put himself over for his accomplishments afterwards. In addition, they were both mentored as they debuted and showed very similar characteristics to their respective mentors, though the mentors themselves are nothing alike.
2) Have to give the edge to Riley on the charisma scale, although not everyone will agree on that. Riley has his share of critics and sceptics who don't see that "it" factor whatsoever. So was with Shelton Benjamin. However, upon his face turn he started acting more confident and showing an "it" factor charisma-wise. He did some better mic work, still nothing like Riley has, hence the reason I'm giving Riley the edge on the charisma scale.
3) The in-ring work goes to Shelton Benjamin, despite his botch pro reputation. But come to think of it, Alex Riley might have been on NXT season 1, had he not botched a move and broken his own nose. He didn't do well for himself resently, either. That wound to the back of the head may not be fully healed yet. The difference between the two being Riley got himself injured by botching moves. On another note, may be accidental, but check out the end of this vid at about 10:22. I was personally like: "WTF!? Somebody else of this stature does that besides Shelton!?" when I first saw it. And then, Dusty Rhodes made the same argument.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sgms68he-34
It's not always like that, though. I mean, Alex doesn't always get himself injured when botching, while he does botch his own share. 9:07 is the point.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWJJ_NWnMwo
4) Future outlook. Can only predict. Or maybe not? How about comparing in order to have argumentation in the prediction? Shelton Benjamin got off to a shaky start, winning and losing, but always staying on top somehow. Well enough to earn himself a tag team championship reign very quickly. Riley has had no problem staying on top of things because of his great performance, looking too good - win, loose or draw. What’s more, being around Kurt Angle, Shelton got to add a little extra entertainment value to his character, taking a bit of Kurt’s comedy approach which was there all the time. That naturally became a part of Benjamin & Haas’ adapted gimmick. In the very beginning of season 2, people started suggesting that Riley has that natural comedy approach to his character, comparing him with Kurt Angle. And that has stayed - both serious and funny at times in a unique way, which can easily convert from heel to face. I feel that eventually it will happen. Much like Angle’s ego was obviously too big to let him remain patient with someone, Miz is self-centred and a turn is easily in the works. It can occur at any given moment. They’ve teased possible issue problems a few times already, in fact - every time they had the opportunity. Even when the first poll was revealed, judging by Miz’s face. So this leads me to believe it may even be right after season 2 ends, if Riley loses, or more likely, after Alex becomes Miz’s lacky, just to get a contract somehow. I can see the face turn being for Riley, as Miz is too strongly build up as a heel, plus turning someone with a lower status face against a more established heel gets the new babyface much more overness and crowd reaction than it does if he makes the other man turn face. Cause if the higher ranked man turns face he is sure to bury the heel. So, it would make sense for Alex to make the face turn, have a short feud in a ‘heroic’ effort, stick around a bit on Raw to get over enough, so he can go to Smackdown in the draft and quickly become midcard champion, in this case - Intercontinental champion. Again, Benjamin took the same time and effort en route towards getting himself over before rocketing into an explosive singles run.
In conclusion, I strongly hope I’m dead wrong about one thing - going down the same road Shelton Benjamin did with his constant midcard role. I just hope the mic skills pay dividend for Riley. Both Alex Riley and Joe Hennig have so far been my favourite up-and-comers in the past few years and I’d hate for either of them to end up in the directionless midcard role for good. What bothers me is that NXT itself is a show which outlines every error on the way, preventing any chances for the guys to have a strong initial build up. There are loses, there are failures and they kayfabe have no contracts, which makes it look like they don’t deserve them just yet.
The floor is now yours.
I will focus on all of the latter and say that if I have to make a comparison between Alex Riley and somebody else, it would be someone who just departed from the company. In an indirect way, this can be looked at as a passing of the torch.
I'm talking about comparing Alex Riley to Shelton Benjamin. So here it is:
1) Shelton debuted as a legitimate athlete with a jock-like mentality who would show off his skills and boast for his in-ring accomplishments. Alex is a full fledged jock who likes to boast in the ring as well and put himself over for his accomplishments afterwards. In addition, they were both mentored as they debuted and showed very similar characteristics to their respective mentors, though the mentors themselves are nothing alike.
2) Have to give the edge to Riley on the charisma scale, although not everyone will agree on that. Riley has his share of critics and sceptics who don't see that "it" factor whatsoever. So was with Shelton Benjamin. However, upon his face turn he started acting more confident and showing an "it" factor charisma-wise. He did some better mic work, still nothing like Riley has, hence the reason I'm giving Riley the edge on the charisma scale.
3) The in-ring work goes to Shelton Benjamin, despite his botch pro reputation. But come to think of it, Alex Riley might have been on NXT season 1, had he not botched a move and broken his own nose. He didn't do well for himself resently, either. That wound to the back of the head may not be fully healed yet. The difference between the two being Riley got himself injured by botching moves. On another note, may be accidental, but check out the end of this vid at about 10:22. I was personally like: "WTF!? Somebody else of this stature does that besides Shelton!?" when I first saw it. And then, Dusty Rhodes made the same argument.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sgms68he-34
It's not always like that, though. I mean, Alex doesn't always get himself injured when botching, while he does botch his own share. 9:07 is the point.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWJJ_NWnMwo
4) Future outlook. Can only predict. Or maybe not? How about comparing in order to have argumentation in the prediction? Shelton Benjamin got off to a shaky start, winning and losing, but always staying on top somehow. Well enough to earn himself a tag team championship reign very quickly. Riley has had no problem staying on top of things because of his great performance, looking too good - win, loose or draw. What’s more, being around Kurt Angle, Shelton got to add a little extra entertainment value to his character, taking a bit of Kurt’s comedy approach which was there all the time. That naturally became a part of Benjamin & Haas’ adapted gimmick. In the very beginning of season 2, people started suggesting that Riley has that natural comedy approach to his character, comparing him with Kurt Angle. And that has stayed - both serious and funny at times in a unique way, which can easily convert from heel to face. I feel that eventually it will happen. Much like Angle’s ego was obviously too big to let him remain patient with someone, Miz is self-centred and a turn is easily in the works. It can occur at any given moment. They’ve teased possible issue problems a few times already, in fact - every time they had the opportunity. Even when the first poll was revealed, judging by Miz’s face. So this leads me to believe it may even be right after season 2 ends, if Riley loses, or more likely, after Alex becomes Miz’s lacky, just to get a contract somehow. I can see the face turn being for Riley, as Miz is too strongly build up as a heel, plus turning someone with a lower status face against a more established heel gets the new babyface much more overness and crowd reaction than it does if he makes the other man turn face. Cause if the higher ranked man turns face he is sure to bury the heel. So, it would make sense for Alex to make the face turn, have a short feud in a ‘heroic’ effort, stick around a bit on Raw to get over enough, so he can go to Smackdown in the draft and quickly become midcard champion, in this case - Intercontinental champion. Again, Benjamin took the same time and effort en route towards getting himself over before rocketing into an explosive singles run.
In conclusion, I strongly hope I’m dead wrong about one thing - going down the same road Shelton Benjamin did with his constant midcard role. I just hope the mic skills pay dividend for Riley. Both Alex Riley and Joe Hennig have so far been my favourite up-and-comers in the past few years and I’d hate for either of them to end up in the directionless midcard role for good. What bothers me is that NXT itself is a show which outlines every error on the way, preventing any chances for the guys to have a strong initial build up. There are loses, there are failures and they kayfabe have no contracts, which makes it look like they don’t deserve them just yet.
The floor is now yours.
