You could say it also reminds you of the New Blood vs. ECW Originals thing WWE had going for a while. It's not exactly a new concept to pit a group of young wrestlers against a group of veterans, but you can't fault them much since 90% of the storylines you see are rehashed out of something you've already seen. That's just the way things work, only so many ideas can be original before the pool dries up.
The production quality has definitely taken a step up in their transition to HD. Something that used to annoy me to no end was their pyros, especially the fact that the smoke from them would linger like a cloud for five minutes, seems they installed some vent fans when they redesigned things, which is good.
I'm not sure who is worse though, Scott Steiner, or Mike Adamle. I seriously want to turn my TV off anytime Steiner reaches for a mic. If they wanted him for their "Hitman," they should have left him the silent stand in the back of the group until a fight breaks out type. Alwell.
As for the "shootish type comments" giving them a different niche than WWE, I would have to disagree with you there. The Batista/HBK feud had some "shootish type comments" thrown back and forth between the two. Triple H likes to toss them out too. Then there was Jeff Hardy/MVP as well.