Cewsh Scouts NXT 2013: The Mentionables

Rick Victor

Cewsh’s Prospect Grade: C

Ready For Main Roster: No

Dennis: Rick Victor was doing well for himself towards the end of FCW, but hasn’t adjusted with the evolution into NXT very well. He’s floundered for months until recently becoming Conor O’Brian’s new partner in a reformed Ascension. He fits this role perfectly, perhaps better than the man he replaced (Kenneth Cameron). The new Ascension puts it together much better than the former Ascension. Victor plays his character well and is competent in the ring. I think Rick Victor, like his partner O’Brian, is not ready for the main roster on his own. However the tag team of The Ascension could do wonders for the Tag Team Division on Raw or Smackdown.

Dennis’ Prospect Grade: C

Ready For Main Roster: As part of the tag team, yes, not as a singles guy.

Psycho: Well, the dude has been mostly non-existent since the last scout report, outside of house show confirmations of an alliance with O’Brian, so…uhh…here’s my report from last year!

Rick Victor has something in him. He has a strong arsenal of maneuvers, and he actually knows how to use them well, but he’s not the most charismatic man. He tries, and he definitely is an oddball of a character, but I don’t think he has anything the fans can relate with yet. He’d make a good midcard contender at this point, but he has a path to improvement before he can deserve some gold on his waist.

Psycho’s Prospect Grade: C+

Ready For Main Roster: No

Mason Ryan

Cewsh: I think we all understand that I’m ever bit the muscle mark that everyone claims that Vince McMahon is. As such, when I first saw Mason Ryan on Raw, when he dramatically helped CM Punk take over the Nexus, I saw something special. Not just in his look, but in the way that he did things. Unfortunately, that didn’t translate to the ring, where he looked hesitant and sloppy more often than not.

I’ve commented before on the propensity of big guys who haven’t previously played physical sports seeming very tentative about hurting people and using their size, and how that’s a thing that many of them never overcome. That renders their size useless. Luckily, Ryan has improved on this hugely, and I continue to see something special buried deep down there. It may come to the surface and it may not, but watch out if it does.

Cewsh’s Prospect Grade: C+

Ready For Main Roster: No

Dennis: Mason Ryan, I feel bad saying this because he’s a real nice guy, but I don’t think he’s gonna get much of anywhere. He’s been showing noticeably more charisma of late, and he of course has a scary-ridiculous look to him. He’s HUGE, and CUT. But his matches are boring. Always. Whenever it’s more than a squash, it’s boring, and that’s a shame. It really is. Unless he improves a little more (I don’t see that happening, unfortunately), he may find himself joining Derrick Bateman & Briley Pierce sooner than later.

Artie’s Prospect Grade: D

Ready For Main Roster: No

Psycho: If this report had taken place while Ryan was a part of the main roster, I would have trashed the guy so hard that he’d smell like spoiled ranch for weeks. He would be lucky to score more than a D, and WWE must have taken note of this as he was removed from television and seemed to wallow in the darkness…until a few weeks ago when he re-debuted on NXT with a whole new resolve. His moves appear to be less dangerous, and he actually knows how to not only play his power role well, but also be a generally entertaining wrestler. His showing in the NXT Battle Royal was phenomenal, and is one of the reasons why that match is worth a watch(That’s a great match, by the way. You should watch it if you haven’t already).

Psycho’s Prospect Grade: C+

Ready For Main Roster: No

Well that’ll do it for this scouting report. We hope you enjoyed our yearly excursion into the the future, and that you’ll recognize a few of these faces when they arrive with great pomp and circumstance on your television screen. If you noticed any of your favorite NXT wrestlers missing from our report, that either means that they were pulled up to the main roster already or haven’t been very active on the shows of late. But don’t worry, there’s always next year!

Let’s have a big round of applause for my three guest scientists who gave up the time that they would have spent curing cancer in order to do this, and a bigger round of applause to you for being both literate and incredibly handsome. Until next time!