NXT - Take Two.

Author - MrCraiggy

Okay, so, Tuesday has once again been and gone, and that means another episode of WWE's NXT program. This means it's the second part of my NXT play by play updates.

I'm writing this as I'm watching the show, so everything I write is as it happens in my eyes and there may be contradictions to things said previously in this update. That being said, I am also issuing a SPOILERS warning for this update.

So, last week's show ended with Titus O'Neil being eliminated, and my man Husky Harris is now trailing in 7th place after the poll last week. Needless to say I'm a little curious to see if he's going to actually stay on the show, being one of my two picks to win (Michael McGillicutty is currently 3rd.)

Okay, for starters, our host Matt Striker is asking the Pros what they thought about last week's elimination. Obviously, they ask Zack Ryder, as it was his rookie that was eliminated and I have to admit, now that Zack Ryder's gimmick has been explained to me (Thank you Jon) I do have a bit more respect for the guy, but still not wowing me. Then they ask John Morrison, who as mentioned in the last update, the crowd (and myself) adore. He takes a verbal shot at The Miz (They used to be tag team partners/friends but then Miz turned heel(bad)) and Miz bounces back with some mock laughter, which is fun. The Miz incidentally is really impressing me at the minute with his heelery.
Then our Rookies are introduced and make their way to the ring, now with their rank on their name when it comes up on screen too. This is also met with Michael Cole spouting his apparent catchphrase for this season when referring to Eli Cottonwood as a 'strange dude'. A little on this before we continue; myself and my friend Sam (Check out his blog at http://glassbeard.blogspot.com) have come up with the WWE drinking game, and one of the rules for Michael Cole is whenever he spouts his catchphrase of "Vintage", take a drink. This phrase of "strange dude" seems to be creeping in as a possible future rule.

Striker talks to a few rookies about their ranks, including Husky, who talks about Striker of all people knowing how dangerous he is (Husky attacked Striker two weeks ago as the show was coming to a close.) and if Striker thought he should be 7th. The mic then passes to Riley, who kinda fluffs his slot by saying Mr. MacMahon (Owner of the WWE) is his boss, when technically speaking, none of these rookies have officially been hired by the WWE yet, well, storywise anyway. This is actually picked up quickly by Michael Cole, so points to him there, for once. Also, Riley plays up the bully angle again by mocking Kaval's height (Kaval's our current #1 slot). Kaval then gets a chance to come back on the mic, and seriously, I want to take this moment to make a point. Even if you're not a wrestling fan, watch any of this series of NXT and pay close attention to Kaval. Like I said last update, this guy is tiny. I mean, he's shorter and lighter than me! But when he speaks, he's got this deep, echoey voice that you just do not expect to come from a guy that small. Check it out! Anyhoo, he takes a shot at Riley by saying that it's the fans who voted too, and all those people can't be wrong, yadda yadda, usual face mic-work, which is good to see, but nothing special.

Now, this is interesting. This week's challenge is to cut a promo, which basically means the rookies are given only forty seconds each (Ten to think, thirty to talk) where they're given a random topic which they have to then talk about. This was hit and miss last season, as a lot of last season's rookies didn't have much microphone experience, but this season has a lot of potentially good talkers, so I'm excited now.

Oh dear. Percy's up first... *sigh* Okay, here we go. His topic: Glasses... Meh, okay, he worked he mic okay, but we knew he could do that already. He still annoys me though. "I've got two words for you" Yeah, and I've got two words for you Watson, and they're not "Oh yeah!", they're the ancient words of D-Generation X, so Percy, my two words for you, suck it!

Right, Kaval, not the best talker in the business, but not bad, and as mentioned, awesome voice! His topic: Chicken. This should be amusing... Not a bad little spot (Sorry, short jokes aside) talking about how the WWE has no room for chickens, and how he's not one. Again, it's what I expected, but nice.

Eli's turn. Not got high hopes for this... But he may surprise me. His topic: Moustaches. Okay, that was funny. Eli, who's not struck me as much of a talker, turns the topic of moustaches into a bit about how moustaches are for real men, and how he can grow the best moustache of the rookies. Nice!

MMG next. His topic: Breath. Okay, not a bad little spot, talking about his background again, Grandson of a legend, son of a champion, by the end of NXT, he'll take our breaths away. A little bit of a copout, but they let it slide.

Now it's Husky, so I'm obviously excited. His topic: Doorknobs! (I should probably explain this, but I won't.) Okay, more of a rant about being 7th after saying he used a doorknob to get into the building. A little shaky on his delivery... My high hopes for him are not boding well, I think he actually may be voted off people. Thankfully this isn't an elimination night.

Okay, Lucky Cannon's turn. He won last week's challenge, so here we go. His topic: Deodorant. Not bad! Not bad at all. Saying how deodorant is for smelly, sweaty people, but how deodorant also needs those people. He then says that he is the deodorant and the WWE is the sweaty person, how the WWE needs him and he needs the WWE, not a bad little bit.

Okay, A-Ri, Alex Riley. His topic: Pidgeons. We already know Riley can talk, so this should be funny. More witty banter, more bullyish put downs. Yep Riley's good on the mic.

Ugghhh... Percy 'won', despite the crowd cheering a hell of a lot louder for Kaval... Great. This means that on next week's NXT, Percy gets his own chat-show segment... Somebody find me something solid to hit my head against please?

Anyway, on with the show! And we have our first match of the night, Percy against MMG. No prizes for guessing who I'm voting for... I'd like to take this moment, to say once again that Percy is good in the ring, and on the mic, he is a good worker, it's just that he annoys me. I can acknowledge his ability, and do infact respect him for it, but my personal opinion prevents me from liking him.
Okay, as expected, a good match from two good in ring workers, and thankfully, MMG won. Percy got in a little bit of offense, but it was pretty one sided. Neither rookie used their finishers (Percy's DDT or MMG's swinging neckbreaker) and MMG won it with a very athletic sunset flip. This raises MMG's stats to 4 matches, 4 wins.

Then we have a video segment of the Pros talking about Titus including a few of them mocking his trademark call, which you may remember I referred to as sounding like a horny wildebeest. This got me laughing as John Morrison says it sounds more like a Walrus, and The Miz went along the lines of "Really? that's his highlight reel?" and then back to John Morrison mocking his field goal taunt, again something I pointed out last time. Needless to say, I liked this segment, beautifully capped off with "Dashing Cody Rhodes saying that Titus should brush his teeth. Priceless!
We then get a replay of Titus' leaving words to the WWE Universe, which, say what you want, I feel was actually probably the most genuine and inspirational segments I've seen in a long time, telling people that yeah, sure, life is hard some times, but we still have to do what we can to, as Titus puts it "Make it a win". For what it's worth, we all know that Titus did not impress me, but his ideals, his message to the fans, that was admirable, and so credit where it's due for that.

More singles action again, this time Pro vs Rookie, The Miz vs Kaval. Now, unless WWE are going to really put a lot of fuel for a push behind Kaval, it's safe to say that Miz is going to win this. But here we go anyway.
Yep, Miz with the win, though Kaval got in some nice offense and almost hit his finisher, but it was safe to say that they're not letting a rookie beat a pro just yet.

One thing I have noticed this episode is actually letting whoever's by ringside cheering on, they've actually been standing on the apron of the ring instead of on the floor outside. Odd. Serves no real purpose. Just pointing out the difference.
We now have a video segment where the pros are talking about Eli, and much of the same thing, the pros are saying what I did last time. Sure he's big, but he's clumsy and awkward. A good bit of mentoring from my man John Morrison will sort that out though.

Okay, so now we're on to our main event of the night, a tag team match between the team of Mark Henry and his rookie Lucky Cannon and "Dashing" Cody Rhodes and his rookie, Husky Harris. This is probably going to be an above average match, and hopefully Husky'll continue to show his stuff. But first, we get the usual plug of what's happening in the rest of the WWE world, sorry, Universe... And then another video segment, this time about Husky Harris. Needless to say, most of the pros are saying he's great, so I dunno, this one could go either way people. I hope things change around and he does a lot better.

Anyway, the match! Short. This would be the word to sum up this match. Short... But good. Cody and Husky showing some good team psychology, Husky getting some solid moves in on Mark Henry, Cody getting the win on Lucky Cannon.

All in all, not a bad show. Could still go anyone's way. As for this style of review, the 'as it happens' style, I'm not sure it works textually, so if I was to do this again, I'd definitely have to do a video segment... Something to consider for the future...



This is Mr Craiggy, signing out.

NXT and all characters and trademarks are property and copyright to the WWE.