WWE NXT Review for 3/2/10 by Doctor Money
I’m back for another vintage edition of the WWE NXT Review. I’m tweaking the review a little this week based on the comments from last week’s. Please comment and let me know if you like this way better or last week’s better and that’s the style I’ll use from here on out. Let’s get right into it and see what we have in store this week.
As we start the show our host, Matt Striker tells us that success or failure for the Rookies is based upon votes by the Pros. The pros are not allowed to vote for or against their own Rookie. Ok, well at least they’re making it seem like a competition, because last week it just seemed like we were just going to have a bunch of random matches. I don’t know if I like the whole voting concept, I would have preferred the Rookies earning points for wins, but it’s something. Let’s see how it plays out.
David Otunga vs. Darren Young
This is a rematch from last week; maybe Young can last 45 seconds this week. Cole says that Young requested this match. I didn’t know Rookies could request matches. I love the look on Punk’s face like he would rather have a raccoon shoved up his butt than be here. They got about 9 minutes to work here and it was a nice little match. Young was in control for most of it. He seems like he can wrestle and Otunga just seems like Ezekiel Jackson with a star cut into his hair. The end came when Gallows and R-Truth were arguing on the outside, the referee went to break them up and Punk tripped up Otunga allowing Young to hit some sick looking move. It was a full nelson into a slam where Otunga’s face hit the mat. Good job by these two here. This is how I’d like NXT to be. Give the Rookies decent time to work so we can see what they got.
Winner- Darren Young. **
After the match, Punk, Gallows and Serena leave without Young. Truth goes into the ring to console Otunga, but Otunga shoves Truth and leaves. I’m very interested by the Young/Punk partnership. It’s probably the most interesting behind Miz/Bryan.
We get the Rookie Video Package on Daniel Bryan and then we see him getting worked on by the trainer when The Miz walks in. Miz calls him scum and says despite his “boo boo” he has a match with Wade Barrett. Then Miz slaps him in his injured area. The payoff when Miz finally meets Bryan in the ring is going to be huge. We’re not even half way through the 2nd episode and I already can’t wait for it to end, just so we can see Bryan and Miz wrestle.
We come back from commercial with Striker interviewing Otunga about his match when Truth comes by pissed off about what getting shoved earlier. They brawl for a bit. So, another Pro has a beef with his Rookie. I like the idea of having feuds on the show to create interest, but do all the Pros have to hate their Rookies?
The World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho brings out his Rookie Wade Barrett and we get the Rookie Video Package on him. What’s up with the flower in is overcoat?
Daniel Bryan vs. Wade Barrett
Jericho gets on commentary during the match. Bryan comes to the ring minus his pro. Holy cow! That was a sick running knee that Bryan hit on Barrett. The match is over after 2 minutes. I don’t know if Bryan slipping off the top rope was supposed to happen or was a botch, but the match ended right after that with Barrett hitting a slam out of the fireman’s carry position. Normally, I would get worked up about Bryan getting jobbed out like this, but I’m not too worried about it because it’s all going to build into the Miz feud once NXT is done. Barrett has the WWE size. Next week he needs to get a 10 minute match to see what he’s got. This should be rated a DUD, but I’m going to award it something because that running knee was just so freakin’ awesome.
Winner- Wade Barrett ¾*
After the match Jericho locks in the Walls of Jericho on Bryan, the one with some “stank” on it, to borrow a term from John.
We see Christian and his Rookie Heath Slater in the gym. Slater is talking about how his social networking sites are blowing up. I hope mine are too. Christian tells him he still has to earn the respect on the WWE Universe. I want to state my undivided man love for Christian. If he doesn’t win Money in the Bank then Vince is crazy. Oh wait, he is.
Striker is in the back with Matt Hardy and his Rookie, Justin Gabriel. Gabriel says Matt is a great mentor. Matt says he needs to go pass the test in the ring. Gabriel looks like he should be touring with Justin Bieber. Yes, I just mentioned Justin Bieber in a wrestling blog. I 100% understand if you boycott me next week.
Matt Hardy and Justin Gabriel vs. William Regal and Skip Sheffield
Gabriel and Sheffield were the only Rookies we didn’t get a look at last week, and since my DVR says that I’m 51 minutes into the show, this looks like it’s this week’s main event. Regal is the perfect guy to be a Pro, especially if he’s going to be put into matches with the Rookies. He works that old-school, stiff style and you know he’ll work a little stiffer on the Rookies to show them WWE isn’t all fun and games. They got a little more than 10 minutes to work and it was ok. Matt took most of the punishment and the match was flat when that happened. I like Bieber, uh I mean Gabriel. He’s got that Evan Bourne style. That might not be a good thing because Vince doesn’t seem to like Evan. And why doesn’t Vince like Evan ladies and gentleman??? If you answered Vince is crazy, you’d be correct! I wasn’t at all impressed with Sheffield. It seems like the order of the day is for the Pros to have a problem with their Rookies as Regal was yelling at him throughout the whole match. Justin hit a ridiculous 450 splash on Regal for the win. Big ups to Regal, he is the 1st Pro to get beat by a Rookie, just goes to show the guy is about the business.
Winners- Matt Hardy and Justin Gabriel. *3/4
We go to the back where Striker is with the 6 other Rookies when Carlito comes by and spits apple at Heath Slater. That’s cool. Slater is not happy about getting apple spit on him. I guess those two will wrestle next week. Striker says that’s NXT as the show ends.
Final Thoughts
This was a much better showing than last week. We got 2 matches that were around the 10 minute mark, which is what I like to see because we need to know if the Rookies can wrestle and 2 minute matches don’t tell us that. I don’t like the fact that most of the Pros have a problem with their Rookies. They need to come up with something different to create feuds on the show. Miz and Bryan weren’t the focus of the show this week like they were last week, but that’s ok. As long as Bryan is the one Rookie that is on every week, I’m fine with that, just keep building the heat on the feud every week. They mentioned that voting by the Pros would determine the Rookies’ success, but we didn’t see it. I don’t know when they are going to announce it; it really should be at the end of the show. I was a little disappointed that Cole wasn’t full blown heel tonight, rather he had heel like tendencies. A better show than last week for sure. I just want to note that when I score NXT it’s done with a curve so-to-speak when compared to RAW. RAW is to be held to a higher standard, so if an episode of RAW played out like tonight’s NXT did, RAW would not receive the same grade, and it would almost certainly be lower. I hope that makes sense. Anyway, this week’s WWE NXT gets a 6.5/10.
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What’s a Justin Beiber?
a canadien popsinger. 16 years old or so.
Canadians…that place is all kinds of backwards.
i liked the show this week. last week had the good jericho/danielson match, this week had two decent matches (i use decent loosely as they are rooks). i like the punk/young thing they are doing i still say at the end young shaves his head and joins the SES.
i agree with DocMoney as they really dont need to show all the rookies feuding with the pros. all that will do is lead to a 16 man tag match at a PPV where Carlito or Hardy gets pinned by Danielson or Otunga.
Nice, maybe I’m a stickler for moves and move names. BUT Young hit a full nelson into a one man flapjack. And I believe the “stank” you and John are referring to is the fact it’s The Lion Tamer rather than the Walls of Jericho?
Anywho good job with the review. I don’t know if you read my stuff or not, cause I blast it all over John’s wall (that’s what she said), but I like your style and I reading your reviews and shizz.
Keep up the good work.
Since one-man flapjacks are common, I think it’s safe to just say “flapjack”. I recognized it was a Lion Tamer, too, though I was surprised Chris referred to last week’s as the “Walls of Jericho”. I was hoping he’d tell off Cole for calling it that.
Another promising show. Only thing worth mentioning that I thought was the finisher by Darren Young, it looked sloppy as hell to me, almost as bad as the reverse last week.
Plus, I think the balance of pros/rookies not getting along is fine. What, is it 4 and 4 now? Jericho, Hardy, Christian, Carlito seem reasonably happy. Besides, the pros being bitter and skeptical about these rookies makes sense
Youngs finisher looked like he came up with it before the match.
It’s actually not that rare on the independents. A few different backyard/professional wrestling friends of mine from New Jersey use it or have used it.
Good review but I feel that like last week I like NXT more than you seem to do. The concept is really fresh and the guys overall seem good. The feuds and egos make it interesting. To be perfectly honest, this holds my attention all the way through the hour where as I’m forwarding through Raw, Smackdown and ECW so personally thats a good thing.
My thoughts so far:
- Wade Barret looks set to be a heel at the IC level similar to Drew.
- Darren Young/CM punk is fantastic and I see him joining the SES after weeks of build. But loving this interaction and it’s getting the guy over.
- Daniel Bryan is a potential future main eventer and the Miz is the perfect guy to bring him in. Can see him winning the US title fairly soon.
- Tarver and Gabriel I haven’t seen enough of to judge.
- I see nothing at all in Skip Sheffield or David Otunga (besides his promo last week). Heath Slater needs some sort of change otherwise he will really really annoy me. But with the right gimmick he could be ok.
My overall thoughts are the three guys I think are doing the best (Barret, Bryan and Young) are being mentored by the three “top stars” on the show, guys that are really good at getting feuds over. Perhaps they could swap pro’s at some point. Whoever had Punk and Jericho was going to get over and I don’t think Bryan needed to be with Miz to make him a star, where as Miz could really help someone like Tarver I feel.
I feel the same way about the freshness. Especially coming off ’09 where it was HHH/Orton/Cena for about 90% of the time, I am glad to see some young blood get in there.
Barrett, since he is a big guy will get a push. It will be up to his in ring work that determines how far he goes. Being paired with Jericho is the best move for this guy and will only help him immensly.
My thoughts exactly on Young/Punk. He will be a member of SES before the season is over.
Bryan will be the new Chris Benoit (w/o the off-feild stuff). An undersized guy that gives 120% every match and gets the crowd behind him. Hopefully the WWE lets him open up his cornucopia of suplexes and dammit I want to see the Cattle Mutilation!!
Gabriel looks athletic enough to get over with the crowd and should be able to have decent matches. The big thing is if he can get over with Vinnie Mac.
Slater/Tarver/Sheffield/Otunga all seemed to be destined to become the new Mike Knox/Heindrichs of the WWE. Otunga might be the best of the bunch though because of how comfortable he looks behind the mic. That can carry him a ways. It will depend on who he is paired with outside of NXT.
They say 1 guy will be the winner of the whole shebang and the rest will fade away into obscurity, but some of these guys will hang on.
Completely agree. There will be more than one “winner” of NXT. I fully expect to see Bryan and Barret on WWE TV after the season is ended and think Young looks likely to join them(he actually wrestled quite a good match this week).
Agree with Gabriel too. It isn’t really my ideal style or look but he will get over big with the Bourne/Hardy/Tatsu fans.
NXT has a long way to go and I think a good promo or match can really make some of the ones we’re undecided on too. In fairness the ones that are getting the praise right now have the best mentors and are getting the most screen time.
I’m slightly interested to see more of the Tarver/Carlito vs Christian/Slater rivalries mainly because I think we haven’t seen enough of Tarver to form a good opinion just yet.
In fact I’m interested to see more of all of them.. except that cornfed guy.. he could go and I wouldn’t mind :-)
Match one = Potential. I like the raccoon
Match 2 = Jericho can ring announce, but heel commentary = a bit too forced, but still got people over. Hopefully the Bryan burial is a one week thing. Mr. Bare Knuckles is OK, but he should present himself more like a Kimbo.
Heath Slater in the Gym and with the apple = rent furniture don’t buy.
Regal’s look of utter contempt for the Cornfed Cornhole Guy = Priceless. Even though Regal always overacts, he is still so great at telling a story that it never gets old.
Justin Gabriel = I liked him. Dress him a little less like an alien or a Japanese wrestler with a bad gimmick, and he could do OK.
The Hard-Plowing Cornhole Guy = He will get annoying in a bad way really quickly. Hopefully Vince Doesn’t see something in him that makes him think Diesel, because I don’t want to watch Cornhole on Raw every week. (I will change the channel.)
I really like the show, because they wrestle. I liked getting to know the wrestlers. It is like wrestling 30 years ago where everyone had a distinct personality. I hope it shows with improved. Cole regressed… Hopefully he heels up.
Good Column. I think you can talk about 1 more move per match without getting into the play by play you were criqued about last week.
Dr.$: You could consider adding a poll since the show is based on “voting.”
You could vote on lots of things such as best performer/worst performer, stay on the island/viking funneral, most improved/took a step backwards, something dealing with mentors, ect…. Just a friendly idea to help our friends in Nuevo York.
Good review, I like this write-up style; organized and informative with good thoughts and opinions.
I like Striker as the host, he’s good on the mic.
I’m not sure how to word it but I really like the different camera work for NXT. It’s a slightly different angle/view, almost eye-level with the ring and allows one to see everything better.
Darren Young: outrageous look with the hair, but I think he could tone and down and make it, decent wrestling
David Otunga: please stop mentioning Jennifer Hudson b/c it doesn’t get him over to WWE fans; anyone else think he looks like D’Lo Brown?
Wade Barret: dude is huge (def a Vince guy), need to see a longer match to det current wrestling skill, good potential
Daniel Bryan: saw a little bit of last week and stuff from this week; I think him falling off the rope was a work personally; excellent potential
Skip Sheffield: never really liked a country character gimmick (Festus), but the dude is jacked (6’2″ 270lbs), limited potential
Justin Gabriel: awesome 450 splash, needs more mic and wring exp
I like how the matches move slower since they’re rookies, it really shows us the little things that go on during the match.
I’m very glad WWE is doing this show; it will help big time in both the short and long term. (Lastly, my observations are just that and I relinquish that I don’t know jack about pro wrestling [tech stuff] other then watching it.)
Fuck yeah! Mr. Hudson is PIMP!
Sorry to post again (really passionate about NXT!) but I wanted to agree with CJ H in that I’m really glad they are doing this show.
What I like most, is it feels like a little roster of 16 guys (counting the pro’s), 3 commentators that are as much part of the show as the wrestlers in mixed styles of matches (pros vs rookies, tag matches, rookie vs rookie etc.). You don’t know what to expect because everything is fresh.
It’s just fascinating and interesting TV and it just seems like a great way to make new stars. I have been going off of WWE TV lately and I will say that the Danielson/Miz, Punk/Young and even Jericho/Danielson/Barett scenarios intrigue me no end. I also want to see how the others get on, who’s going to break out and surprise me (Thinking Tarver could be one to watch, although right now he hasn’t impressed).
I’d go as far to say NXT is getting me into enjoying wrestling again. Loving it to be quite honest (although there are of course flaws as they are still training), and I do think your write up is good. Always great to read what other people are thinking.
Amen
I am actually excited for the next episode, and I am starting to think about it during the week.
Thanks creative! Keep Vince locked up in the Bat Cave.
I think the key for this show is for the guys to develop a good personality and skills as a performer out side the ring. These guys are all probaly decent in the ring and some are very good, but we have seen guys who are not great in the ring really develop later.
I was one of those (might be the only one) who complained about the way you did your last week’s column (it isn’t fun reading recalls of the shows when you’ve seen the show). This time it was much much better. It’s fun to point out small things here and there and give your thoughts on it. *thumbs up* Good job.
Much better than last week. Keep up the good work.
Thanks to everyone for all the feedback. Seems you guys like this way better, so this is what will stick.
This show sucks.
Heath Slater’s mannerisms remind me of The Brian Kendrick.
actually come to think of it…
I think I’ll give some thoughts, too:
- I’d have to disagree with you on this show being better than last week. This week’s had two matches that were right around ten minutes, but the first one was confusing in its storytelling, since last week David Otunga came off as a heel while this week Young was working over him while David got the face pops, only for him to pull a very heel move on Truth. As for the wrestling, I’m very familiar with the basic “heel works over the face, face gets false comebacks” formula for the body of the match, but Young-Otunga didn’t really deliver in the false comebacks. Plus, Young’s offense was pretty lame. I thought the ending picked up really well and I liked Punk’s involvement, though.
- I liked the brief Daniel-Miz interaction. Like you said, I’m already really looking forward to them wrestling. Daniel Bryan’s match was appropriate. It furthered the tension between Miz and Daniel, while I think the continued interaction between Bryan-Miz and Jericho-Barrett could act as a bit of a side feud for the storyline between Miz and Daniel. I think a good next step would be for Miz and Bryan Daniel to team against Jericho and his rookie, with Miz leaving Daniel hanging while Jericho and Barrett take advantage. What would be a good idea is to let Daniel build up a huge losing streak (thanks largely to Miz), so that the angle becomes that he isn’t likely to win NXT with so many losses, but then the storyline could culminate with him beating Miz for the US Championship, which would be a big enough feat to get him enough votes to win the competition.
- I liked the main event more than the opening contest. Regal’s offense was good, I liked his interactions with Sheffield, and the finish was very nice. Justin Gabriel and I have the same kickpads, though he should probably get covers for them that match his knee pads and trunks.
- I still think last week’s show was better. Punk’s reaction to Young was put over better then, I think Slater-Christian vs. Christian-Tarver was the second best match so far, and Daniel Bryan vs. Chris Jericho was the fulfillment of a dream for many fans of Bryan Danielson. I like the direction of the show so far.
i think among the rooks, gabriel’s finisher is the most recognizable.
punk is the only one building the feud for young and while he is punk’s 360, i don’t see doing well in nxt. some goes for otunga and tarver.
daniel bryan will awesomize nxt but i can also see slater and barrett alongside gabriel doing something.
sheffield might look goofy but he is solid in the ring. he works stiff but it seems he has a character. i think its about time that wwe gets another cowboy.
loved the show. sheffield’s wwe in-ring debut was ok,his interaction with regal was priceless. considering ezekiels improvement through the work with regal, sheffield will become one class act. i only hope he gets over with the crowd, hes an awesome talent.
Mate 90% of us rate bryan, but do u rly need 2 keep his nuts on ur chin when writing this?
i actually really enjoyed tarvers promo last week. his interview was pretty good and i like his style. otungas great on the mic but stiff in the ring and slaters fucking obnoxious. i remeber skip being on the million dollar tough enough and he made it to the final four when he was going under his real name Ryan Reeves. not to impressed with him. of course bryan is the best but im really enjoying young and tarver as well
You did a good job on the review of the show. I really like NXT it is the best new thing in WWE right now. Does anyone else think Young is a orange version of John Cena with crazy hair. Seriously he looks just like Cena(build wise).
Nice review bro.