WWE: 5 NXT/NXT UK acts for Raw and Smackdown
2) Grizzled Young Veterans to Smackdown
The reason I chose a video with a promo from Zack Gibson is due to one main reason: the tag team picture on Smackdown is just so bland like unseasoned chicken. Gibson on the mic, alone, turns that bland chicken into something like mesquite or hickory-smoked chicken.
Beyond that, Gibson is an absolute technician in the ring. He works an old-school heel style so well. One of the more entertaining things in GYV matches is when he backs away on his rear, Ric Flair style, pleading with the faces not to inflict more punishment.
His facial expressions are just hilarious.
His partner, James Drake, is someone I’ve called the most underrated wrestler in all of WWE. He can do just about everything in the ring at a high level; his mic work needs help, but I did say wrestler, not talker.
As a team, going back to legitimacy, they bring that as former NXT UK Tag Team Champion. They also were part of what I consider the best triple threat tag team match ever when they faced Gallus and Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster at NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff.
The Smackdown men’s tag team division really, really needs an injection of charisma and new blood. Gibson’s mic prowess and his ability to dig at fans, plus the skilled work in the ring by both Gibson and Drake, brings just that.
His promos will force the other teams to raise their level on the mic, and should result in some if not good, at least memorable interactions on the mic.
Gibson and Montez Ford? Should be hilarious. Gibson and Otis? I can just see Gibson’s frustrated reactions now. Gibson and the Mysterios? You just KNOW Gibson is going to say something so condescending as a show of “respect” to the elder Mysterio.
Gibson and the Tag Team Champion, Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode? I mean, it might cause a face turn, but Gibson could run a whole set on their sense of “style,” their terrible nickname (Dirty Dawgs, really?), how Ziggler only yells in his promos, and so on.
Again, they can go in the ring. They do all of the little things right, like cutting off the ring, telling a story with their facial expressions, working a limb, selling an injury, etc.
Do yourself a favor and just queue up some GYV segments and matches. Then you’ll see why they’d be awesome on Friday nights.