Breitmann Tuning » the tension level of this confrontation, and the NXT

Its an exciting time for Formula One, with new owners Liberty Media outlining a bold new vision for the sport. Though some seem worried about the new owners Americanising F1, ESPN looks not at what F1 can do for the U.S. but what the U.S. can do for F1.Game PassF1s viewing audience -- both at live races and those watching broadcasts -- is dwindling. There are many reasons for this, but the falling TV audience is largely down to the slow shift away from free-to-air TV. In Britain, Sky Sports recently announced it will have the exclusive rights for F1 from 2019 onwards -- meaning British fans will only be able to watch live races behind a paywall from that point. That will align the UK with Spain and France, which follow the same model, and is likely to be replicated elsewhere in Europe -- which accounts for around 60 percent of F1s current audience. There are many solutions to this, and one of them might be across the pond.The NFL and NBA are exemplary in taking their sport to the fan, rather than making the fan come to them. NFLs Game Pass costs ￡139.99 but guarantees you every second of every game (including the play-offs and the Super Bowl), interview, training session, documentaries and pretty much any NFL game to have happened in the last 10 years. Compare that to the hefty amount to pay for Sky in the UK, for example, which spends much of its time between races (and even during race weekends) showing re-runs of this years races or old interviews. Fans have no say what content is on but with Game Pass you watch what you want, when you want, and theres plenty of it. The model is replicated by the NBA -- a quick comparison between the NFL/NBA and F1 websites show the glaring difference the latter needs to address.To its credit, F1s recent social media input has been much-improved but the sport has seemed scared of embracing the very fans it is also confused about losing in such big numbers. American sports are all about taking themselves to the phone or laptop of the viewer rather than expecting fans to pay a lot of money for a limited amount of third-party content -- its about time F1 started doing the same.Color RushF1 should be the pinnacle of cool in sport. Its fast cars and beautiful people at glamorous locations but in recent years this seems to have been lost somewhat. Just look at the state of modern-day car launches compared to the ones of old. Nothing says sexy quite like a press release with renderings of your new car, does it? F1 appears to have gone backwards in recent years on that front. The NFL is one sport willing to think outside the box. Color -- or should that be colour? -- Rush is one example. The idea is simple -- teams wear match-up specific uniforms which are garish, alternate versions of their usual kits. Each team now has a kit for this purpose, giving the NFL perfect social media fodder and plenty of viral opportunities. Ditto to the throwback jerseys, which will see a team pick one week to wear a kit from a previous season in the NFL.? Imagine this in F1.A Mercedes running the inverted colours for Malaysia, with the green of sponsors Petronas for its home race, or Ferrari running a throwback livery for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, or McLaren-Honda going red and white for the Japanese Grand Prix. The latter two, especially, would create enormous hype and attention. In the modern age of social media, this is what fans want to see. Red Bulls camouflaged livery for winter testing last year is a good example -- an image that probably reached a lot of people who didnt even know that testing was taking place in Barcelona that week or otherwise have no interest in F1.This idea would also help the problem F1 seems to have recently of bland, unappealing liveries. Four of the teams run predominantly grey/black schemes which just do not look great on the race track. Haas is one of them. The teams sponsors are likely to get a fair amount of exposure in Austin this year but how much more would they get -- especially in America -- if they unveiled an unashamedly over-the-top star-spangled livery for that event? It may sound incredibly simple, but sometimes the key to winning fans over is getting them to say Wow, thats cool. And funky liveries are much cooler to the casual fan than an MGU-H, new brake duct or a 60-place grid penalty...A lotteryOne thing which keeps sports like the NFL and NBA so enjoyable is their changeable nature every year, with the Draft and Draft Lottery acting as a great leveller season on season. Now this isnt something that can be replicated for drivers in F1 but the idea could be used elsewhere -- for example, in shaking up the calendar. As Kate Walker has suggested on ESPN before, F1 should consider a lottery draft for places on the calendar. If the season is going to keep getting longer, then why shouldnt it look different every year?For example, imagine not knowing where five of 2017s races will be until December. To make the end-of-season trophy presentation actually mean something other than a black tie event for a handful of guests, this would be a perfect time to hold a draw. Much like the Champions League, the season champion could pick names out of a hat to hold the races which have put themselves forward as candidates. Imagine 2017s European Grand Prix at Magny-Cours, or an African Grand Prix at Kyalami, or a second U.S. Grand Prix at Dallas, Laguna Seca or Long Beach, assuming all were brought up to FIA standards, of course.Variation keeps sport interesting and this is something American sports are constantly reinvigorated by. Its a win-win -- old circuits get to pay for a one-off race, while fans get the chance to see F1 at new circuits and drivers get to visit circuits theyve never been to before. Each season looks vastly different as a result. Baku was a special event this year, ditto Mexico last year, but the gloss and interest of new events can be quick to wear off if fan numbers drop off in the following years.An event away from the eventTheres been a lot of talk about spicing up the whole format of the current F1 weekend. Theres a lot that can change, but how about something that actually doesnt have any ramification on the season? The NBA holds an annual Slam Dunk Contest for players which now crowns an annual champion. It has no bearing on the season as a whole but is popular with fans, and did include fan voting to determine the winner until several years ago. It gives players additional bragging rights and gives lesser-known players a chance to create superstar status but, most importantly of all, it gives people another reason to watch other than who might win on Sunday -- especially if that question has only two probable answers...F1 seems like the perfect place for this kind of competition. Last year Christian Horner suggested the revival of the Procar series, which saw F1 drivers race against each other in one-make machinery at grand prix weekends. This lends itself to celebrity drivers, or drivers from other series, pitting themselves against one another in equal machinery for what ostensibly would be competition with a bit of fun added to it as well. Imagine Lewis Hamilton going up against Jeff Gordon and Tom Kristensen, for example, or Mika Hakkinen rolling back the years to take on Kimi Raikkonen as part of a ten-lap sprint race. You know youd watch it. If an idea is exciting to think about, then fans are going to want to watch it and thats something F1 cannot say about the current product.Americas GameF1 has an incredible history -- a mix of tragedy, bravery, legendary drives and quirky characters. The job of F1 should be to tell this story to the masses, rather than relying on individual television channels to do so. Again, America is great at doing this. I will use NFL as an example. The excellent A Football Life documentaries follow retired players and coaches and tell their life story, using footage of their career and interviews with friends, colleagues and family. This is often available in the Game Pass mentioned above and is perfect for filling a weekend without NFL -- think of all those quiet F1 weekends or summer breaks you could be spending watching a historic F1 race or documentary of your choosing at the click of a button. It doesnt just have to be old history, either.The NFL also runs a documentary called Americas Game at the start of each season, telling the story of the Super Bowl winners campaign through the eyes of three key people. The Hard Knocks series is also excellent - following a team through training camp ahead of the season. Its an intimate story of a team and, though F1 teams would understandably be worried about revealing potentially secretive information to rivals, a documentary series following that seasons championship contenders would be perfect material for the end of a season or the start of the next one. It could then be used by F1 to justify the cost of something like Game Pass, and give fans more reasons to pay to watch just F1 rather than opting against purchasing a channel just to see racing once every two weeks.Yeezy Boost 350 v2 Beluga 2.0 Grey/Bold Orange . Woodson said during a radio interview Thursday that the Knicks Carmelo Anthony doesnt get the same calls as other superstars. Fake Yeezy 350 Mens . Fernandez, coached in Toronto by former two-time Olympic silver medallist Brian Orser, scored 267.11 points and is the first champion to successfully defend since Russias Evgeny Plushenko in 2005 and 2006. http://www.yeezys350cheap.com/ . Barcelonas entertaining victory ensured the defending Spanish champions retained their share of the league lead with Atletico Madrid two rounds ahead of their meeting in the capital. Real Madrid needed a late goal by substitute Jese Rodriguez to earn a 3-2 victory at Valencia to stay in third place and three points behind its title rivals. Wholesale Yeezy 350 v2 Static . After dropping their final six games of December, the Wild opened the new calendar year with four consecutive wins. Following a loss to Colorado on Saturday, Minnesota rebounded the following night to blank Nashville 4-0, but then had the tables turned on them Tuesday. Fake Yeezy 350 Citrin . Zvonareva, who won the tournament in 2009 and 10, couldnt handle her opponents big groundstrokes in only her third event back after 17 months out with a shoulder injury. Zvonareva made her comeback in January in Shenzhen and played in the Australian Open but lost her first matches at both tournaments.One year ago, NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn took a surging brand and elevated it into another stratosphere. The show featured several in-ring classics, including a showdown between Bayley and Sasha Banks that was widely recognized as one of the best matches of the year in any company.TakeOver: Brooklyn, NXTs first ever special outside the confines of Full Sail University, completely changed the future of NXT. Live event tours under the NXT banner expanded well beyond Florida, where they had largely remained the last few years. Two further TakeOver specials -- one in London and one in Dallas during WrestleMania weekend -- were made possible by the success of TakeOver: Brooklyn at the box office and through the overwhelmingly positive response from fans.These are the kind of expectations that NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II has to live up to.Of all the contracted superstars that appeared on this show one year ago, only Bayley, Samoa Joe, Tye Dillinger and Blake and Murphy remain on the NXT roster. Joe and Bayley have two of the four most prominent spots at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II, but the rest of the card bears little resemblance to its predecessor.That being said, all three title matches are based around compelling stories that have been given ample time to grow over the last few months of NXT broadcasts.Shinsuke Nakamuras ascension to the status of No. 1 contender for the NXT championship has been compelling to watch, and the conflict with Samoa Joe is reaching its peak at just the right time. Bayleys return to the scene of her greatest triumph is contrasted by her current struggles against Asuka. And as for the NXT tag-team championship showdown pitting The Revival against Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano, the latter have been well-positioned as underdogs who are still fully capable of taking the next step, thanks to their exploits in the ring both with and against each other in the last few weeks.The rest of the show offers a pair of debuts that should be crucial to how NXT proceeds in the future. With the departures of top-class talent like Finn Bálor, Kevin Owens, Sasha Banks, Charlotte, Sami Zayn, Becky Lynch and American Alpha, there has been a need for new talent to step up and take over the top spots.Bobby Roode is making his long-awaited debut against another newcomer, Andrade Cien Almas, in what should be a strong showcase for both superstars. Ember Moon makes her first NXT appearance against Billy Kay, in a match that could go a long way in determining whether one or both of them can provide a well-needed shot in the arm for the depth of the NXT womens division. With the recent departures of Nia Jax, Carmella and Alexa Bliss -- and the high likelihood that Bayley will soon get a promotion of her own -- the opportunity to stand out right away is there for the taking.Heres a deeper look at the four matches that have had extended builds towards Saturday nights conclusions in Brooklyn -- the three championship matches, as well as the culmination of the ongoing feud between Austin Aries and No Way Jose.NXT championship: Samoa Joe vs. Shinsuke NakamuraNXT has made a habit of taking dream matches that no one thought were possible -- due to geographic, contractual or other seemingly impassable barriers -- and making them a reality. That trend continues in Brooklyn in the NXT championship match, as Samoa Joe defends his title against Shinsuke Nakamura.Since his debut at NXT TakeOver: Dallas, Nakamura has had high-profile matches against Zayn, Bálor and Austin Aries, but each of those matches has only had a small build with most of the hype generated by the spectacle of seeing the match itself. Each of those victories helped tell the story leading up to this championship match in Brooklyn, but for the first time since his debut, Nakamura has been given the chance to tell a well-rounded story with Joe.It has taken some compelling twists and turns along the way as Samoa Joe, who was very vocal about not getting a fair shake in his pursuit of the title when Bálor held it, tried denying Nakamura a rightful chance of his own until general manager William Regal stepped in and made the match.Nakamuras style is unlike that of anyone in NXT -- or the world, to be quite frank. His seemingly violent strikes are deadly serious, but his ability to be an eccentric has also been on full display.Theres no denying @ShinsukeN is RELENTLESS in his pursuit of the @WWENXT Championship vs. @SamoaJoe! #NXTTakeOver https://t.co/NSgGe6QuzA- WWE (@WWE) August 19, 2016This has the makings of an incredibly stiff match, and with both competitors owning compatible styles of in-ring work it has the potential to stand up among some of the biggest and most revered matches in NXT history if all goes according to plan.NXT womens championship: Asuka vs. BayleyEvery time Bayley had to jump another hurdle on the path to her first NXT womens championship victory, an opponent would bring out an aspect of her personality or her repertoire in the ring that we previously didnt know was possible.dddddddddddd As she dispatched all three of her fellow Horsewomen on her way to victory in Brooklyn, or in defenses against Banks and Nia Jax, each match pushed her to be that much better in order to secure victory.Will @itsBayleyWWE somehow find a way to defeat @WWEAsuka for the @WWENXT #WomensTitle this Saturday? #NXTTakeOver https://t.co/93iaV8iDJT- WWE (@WWE) August 18, 2016All of this went by the wayside in Bayleys showdown with Asuka at NXT TakeOver: Dallas, as the undefeated Japanese superstar took everything Bayley had to throw at her and then some. By reducing Bayley to an unconscious heap in the middle of the ring, Asuka sent her opponent spiraling to the back of the line and, worse yet, left her incapacitated for several months.Bayley had to prove herself, step-by-step, all over again. She has added an edge to her personality in response to Asukas dominance that not even Charlotte or Sasha Banks could bring out, and it has led to the kind of depth that many feel was the final missing piece of the puzzle before Bayley could successfully move on to either Raw or SmackDown.Asuka has the makings of a long-time champion in NXT, and Bayley seems to be on her way out of the door, but both women have the opportunity to prove just how much each of them have earned the lofty positions theyve reached. Bayley has proven her ability to get the best out of her opponents -- her matchup with Banks in 2015 serving as the best evidence of that -- and this match has all the makings of another potential show stealer.NXT tag team championship: The Revival vs. Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny GarganoIt has been quite a run for Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa. The two independent wrestling veterans got paired together as a tag team at an NXT TV taping in 2015, and over the course of the last year, each has proved that they not only belong in NXT full-time with their work in the ring, but that theyre deserving of the tag-team championship match that awaits them in Brooklyn.That has been especially clear in their performances the last couple of months. Gargano and Ciampa defeated the Hype Bros, TM 61, the Vaudevillains and the tag-team champions The Revival (twice, I might add) in matches that were chock-full of compelling spots and great storytelling. The match that really put the pair over the top, however, was a singles match against one another in the first round of the WWE Cruiserweight Classic.In a match that many cited as the best of a strong first round of the CWC, each man proved how viable he was as a single competitor -- and simultaneously proved how in sync they can be as a team.The Revival shocked the wrestling world in regaining their tag-team championships in American Alphas first title defense after TakeOver: Dallas, and the two-time champs have been revitalized since putting the gold back around their waists. Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson are as old school as modern wrestling gets, and the combination of their win-at-all-costs style and high-level mat wrestling ability has taken them a long way in NXT.Making Gargano and Ciampa jump through hoops to get this match has worked wonders in raising the tension level of this confrontation, and the NXT tag-team championship match should be a great proving ground for all four individuals come Saturday night.No Way Jose vs. Austin AriesGetting a comedy-based character over with the crowd is one thing, but successfully taking on a more serious edge as a competitor once that happens is a far greater task.With a name like No Way Jose, and a character that turns everything into a dance party, Jose had a long way to go to excite the Full Sail crowd and get them behind him, but in his first few months on-screen, he has made quite a bit of progress in that regard.No more Mr. Nice Guy for @WWENoWayJose as he takes on @AustinAries THIS SATURDAY at #NXTTakeOver: Brooklyn! https://t.co/GDv3EYjeKp- WWE (@WWE) August 18, 2016It remains to be seen if the Brooklyn crowd will be equally into No Way Jose, but having Austin Aries across the ring will certainly be a helpful step in the right direction. Aries is the most natural bad guy in NXT right now, and with a nice assist from No Way Jose, Aries has gone over to the dark side quite successfully after ending the pairs dance party in a beat down.This match will be a true test for both competitors. For No Way Jose, this is a far greater stage than he has ever been on. For Aries, its a chance to prove to WWE fans (and brass alike) that he can live up to the moniker of The Greatest Man That Ever Lived. ' ' '