Conor O'Brian - the next monster?

[Stopspot]

Conor O'Brian is the current number one contender for the NXT title. He is a wrestler who has had ups and downs on the NXT card as well. He started out as part of the Ascension, a supernatural tag team consisting of him and Kenneth Kameron playing what one could guess was demons or some sort of macho vampires. They ran roughshod as the dominant tag team for a while, feuding with the Usos and all was going well. Then Kenneth got arrested for fighting with a cop and was promptly released. Conor was taken of TV until they could figure out what to do with him and now he is where he is now. In the main event of NXT.

But how far can Conor go with his current gimmick?
It seems that since Kenneth got fired there isn't the exact amount of aura to his gimmick that there used to be. Kenneth did most of the crowd interaction of the two, yelling, growling and snarling to play up their demonic characters whilst Conor was more the in ring guy. The dude is charismatic but seemingly needs to refigure out how to get the crowd to really react to him. That is to be expected since it happens to a lot of tag wrestlers once they go singles.

He also needs to polish his ring work some more in my opinion. He's solid but his main event match with Big E a few weeks back was really boring. Just two big guys clobbering him. The two following weeks he worked with smaller guys like Corey and Bo and that worked out just fine, he seems more at ease working with smaller /lighter guys since he can utilize power moves to greater effect.

Also maybe tweak his character some more. He is still the Ascension but we need to figure out what it is.

I'd currently not bring Conor up to the main roster just yet. I'd give him some more time to figure these things out. Work in the NXT main event to polish it all and then bring him up sometime after Summerslam, Survivor Series at the latest. That leaves enough time to establish him in the under card/midcard as the next supernatural monster leading up to WM31.

What do you think that Conor needs to work on and when would you call him up?

 

[GrammarNazi82]

I can definitely see them waiting a while before bringing him up. For instance, last summer at a Raw house show I saw Rollins perform in a singles match, and now at a Raw house show in January I saw Conor perform. I don't know how long Rollins' performed in house shows prior to that, but it was 5 months after the show I saw before he debuted on Raw. Not sure how long Conor has been doing house shows yet either, but I can see it still being a while before they bring him up. The guy is a beast though.

I haven't watched NXT in a while, but from what I have seen of him he does need to work on improving his in-ring skills. Again, without having seen NXT lately, from the show I attended he got a decent crowd reaction for a new-to-them heel and had good mic skills.

Like you mentioned, part of the problem is the flux that follows after going from tag team to singles, so hopefully soon NXT can decide on how to handle his gimmick and him as a solo character and take it from there, helping him figure out exactly what he needs to do and how best to go about it.

 

[seabs]

Rollins and Ambrose were both doing house shows pre WM I think, ADR did the WM revenge tour as Dos Caras or something similar when I saw the raw show in 2010 I think it was also.

 

[Senhor Perfect]

Rollins and Ambrose were both doing house shows pre WM I think, ADR did the WM revenge tour as Dos Caras or something similar when I saw the raw show in 2010 I think it was also.

Cody sans moustache? :eww:

He looks much better now!

 

[Leo C]

Yeah, they have to work on him a bit more (gimmick, give him matches to adapt as a singles wrestler) before bringing him up. If they do it well he could be big. Didn't really think of that after seeing him in his first NXT season though 1:

 

[Swift]

I like "dark" characters, do I hope so. Would love to see this gimmick in WWE.

 

[Snowman1]

Not sure how far this whole "supervillian" thing will go, but every Superman needs a Lex Luthor... With his ringwork, WWE monster heels aren't asked to do much, and Conor has enough impressive spots to really put himself over as a future star. IIRC he's crap on the mic, but good enough to get himself over. But his biggest quality is his presence/charisma and his ability to just make you feel like this guy's a fucking monster that can't be stopped. Hell, it felt like he did a great job accidentally getting Corey Graves over as a babyface.

My only real issue is that he MUST get a new name, when people get "monster heel" confused with "late-night comedian", that's not a good sign.

 

[GrammarNazi82]

My only real issue is that he MUST get a new name, when people get "monster heel" confused with "late-night comedian", that's not a good sign.

:haha:

 

[Leo C]

Not sure how far this whole "supervillian" thing will go, but every Superman needs a Lex Luthor... With his ringwork, WWE monster heels aren't asked to do much, and Conor has enough impressive spots to really put himself over as a future star. IIRC he's crap on the mic, but good enough to get himself over. But his biggest quality is his presence/charisma and his ability to just make you feel like this guy's a fucking monster that can't be stopped. Hell, it felt like he did a great job accidentally getting Corey Graves over as a babyface.

My only real issue is that he MUST get a new name, when people get "monster heel" confused with "late-night comedian", that's not a good sign.

Nice point on the name. WWE is using waaay too many generic two-part names these days. When it's along with their generic cookie-cutter gimmicks yeah it makes sense, but not in this case.