It’s damning to call a wrestler’s in-ring work “sloppy,” but the word inexorably pops into my head whenever I watch O’Neil. I don’t mean that he looks dangerous, and I’m certainly not accusing him of injuring people, like Ahmed Johnson. In the words of forum poster chibet, O’Neil looks a bit like “a teenager who is learning to grow into his huge growth spurt.”
I’ve been a bit harsh in my assessment of O’Neil, but one thing that I should point out is that he has already improved to an extent that I would not have believed possible a few years ago. When he first appeared on NXT season 2, O’Neil was terrible. If you watch the video package containing the Pros’ frank assessments of O’Neil’s abilities, they are harshly critical of every aspect of his performance. But everyone underestimated how hard that man would work. He clawed his way back into the WWE, and in the meantime has improved more than any NXT alum (please note that I’m not saying he’s better than Daniel Bryan, Wade Barrett, or Bray Wyatt. Those were all very strong in-ring performers before they ever appeared on NXT). In some ways, then, chibet’s statement about O’Neil looking like an adolescent can be taken nearly literally. He is still learning his way around the ring, and he is absolutely getting better with each trip down the aisle.
