Full results from WWE NXT, live from Hershey, PA tonight:
- WWE Pro Chris Jericho and WWE Rookie Wade Barrett defeated WWE Pro Christian and WWE Rookie Heath Slater after Jericho pinned Slater with the Codebreaker
- WWE Rookie Darren Young (with Luke Gallows and Serena) defeated WWE Rookie Michael Tarver (with WWE Pro Carlito) after his goofy full nelson slam
- WWE Rookie Skip Sheffield (with WWE Pro William Regal) defeated WWE Rookie Daniel Bryan (with WWE Pro and US champion The Miz) after hitting a stunner-type move.
A more detailed look at the show after the jump:
- This week's goofy NXT challenge was forcing the rookies to go into the crowd and sell as much merchandise as possible in sixty seconds. This was really a crazy waste of time, even moreso than normal, but now they are doing them over the course of the show rather than in one long segment, so at least they waste a little bit of time over the course of the the show rather than wasting 20 minutes at the start. Skip Sheffield made $60. Daniel Bryan gave away free programs to everybody and didn't raise any money, claiming he's not a capitalist, which Michael Cole ripped him for, calling him a tool. Justin Gabriel earned $210. David Otunga sold $315 in merchandise somehow, though it didn't seem like he sold as much as Gabriel, but he did enlist the help of assistants, saying that celebrities don't do manual labor. They didn't list Slater's total, but he didn't defeat Otunga, nor did they list Young's total. Tarver walked out of the challenge as usual, claiming he's the product WWE should be selling, not the other way around. Wade Barrett also walked out of the challenge, but he took the money he was given for change and walked out with it. With Otunga's win, he chose to face his pro R-Truth next week, the first time a pro faced his rookie.
- The opening tag match was pretty good but short. It's interesting that, after winning his own theme music two weeks ago for winning the "Talk the Talk Challenge," that Wade Barrett has not yet come to the ring to this music, so I guess they either haven't gotten around to giving him that music yet or they forgot about the stip. To be fair, they had a lot going on last week and it might have fallen through the cracks. Jericho pinned Slater, which slows down Slater's momentum a little bit after being laid out last night on Raw.
- After recapping last week's triple threat match with Darren Young, Michael Tarver, and Skip Sheffield, they did a brief backstage skit where Carlito made Tarver carry his bags. The match was short, and saw Luke Gallows interfere on Young's behalf to help him get the win, so I guess the Straight Edge Society is getting along with Young these days.
- This week's NXT fact: NXT has been the highest rated show on SyFy on Tuesday nights since its debut nine weeks ago. Congratulations NXT! They are giving their own show backhanded compliments now.
- They aired the same videos as last week with the pros discussing the rookies. This week, it was Michael Tarver, Justin Gabriel and Daniel Bryant. The pros by and large buried Tarver, although he was offered some praise by William Regal and Chris Jericho for his aggressiveness. They had nicer things to say about Gabriel, though CM Punk had line of the night when dissing Gabriel's pro Matt Hardy, saying "I don't really know what Matt Hardy is going to be able to teach Justin Gabriel besides how to MySpace and Twitter." They did knock his personality, saying he needs work in that department, but had universal praise for his in-ring ability. Bryan was generally praised, although Hardy hilariously claimed that Bryan needed to show personality out there, coming from a man who hasn't shown a bit of personality since Edge stole his girlfriend. Miz was the only one to offer a negative appraisal of Bryan, but of course that plays into their storyline that has been somewhat dormant the past few weeks after starting off hot when the show premiered.
- The main event was originally billed as Miz vs. Sheffield, but Miz backed out, claiming he had a jaw injury after being knocked out by Big Show last week. The match was quite short, with Bryan dominating the first 30 seconds but then eating a clothesline and the stunner to lose in like a minute. It's too bad this didn't have more time, not only because the finish buried Bryan but because it would have been fun to see what Bryan could do in carrying Sheffield to even a decent 5-10 minute match.
I talked about this last week, but the timing issues that have plagued NXT in the past are continuing. There just isn't enough time for them to do the weekly goofy challenges, the three-minute Raw Rebound, and a 3-4 match show in one hour. The matches are horribly rushed and are doing nothing to help get over the participants. The challenges are dumb and aside from the talking challenge in Week 2, have little or nothing to do with what will ultimately make these folks successful. The Raw Rebound is a total waste of time, because NXT ratings show that their audience consists of WWE hardcores, who either already saw Raw or at least know what happened. Going off the air 7+ minutes late every week, often well before the main event is even in the ring, shows that they need to tighten up this show, as folks with DVRs who aren't setting them to go off 10-15 minutes late are going to cut off part of the show. I am trying to remain a champion for this show because I think it can be a good concept, but right now WWE is wasting the potential benefits by structuring the show in a way where most of the segments don't mean anything, making NXT resemble Impact far more than WWE should be comfortable. Even Jericho's loss to Slater last week has already become highly marginalized and Slater didn't really gain anything from it.
This week's NXT rankings:
8) Michael Tarver (0-7, last week: 8) I've run out of things to say. Tarver will not survive the first cut.
7) Skip Sheffield (1-6, last week: 7) Sheffield seems to be gaining some momentum, but I have no idea who would possibly be the second cut unless WWE decides to LOL at the internet and cut...
6) Daniel Bryan (0-9, last week: 4) Yeah, it's time to face the fact that WWE is burying Bryan. Losing in one minute to Sheffield in the main event, even with the "excuse" that he didn't know he would have to wrestle tonight seals his fate. Early on, I could at least see them pushing Bryan through losing by setting up a feud with The Miz, but that has been dialed back in recent weeks, and all Bryan is doing right now is putting over green rookies in 60 seconds. He'll be wrestling Chris Hero in EVOLVE main events by August at this rate.
5) Heath Slater (5-3, last week: 2) I really thought that things were looking up for Slater last week, but then WWE did everything they could to establish that the Jericho win was a fluke and there is no reason to be invested in Heath Slater right now.
4) Justin Gabriel (5-2, last week: 5) Moves up a slot thanks to others moving down, as he was not in action this week. His video was nice, though.
3) David Otunga (4-4, last week: 6) Also moves up, mostly because I think they worked the challenge this week so that Otunga would wrestle R-Truth next week in the main event, as it sure seemed like Gabriel sold more programs. I mean, why go through the trouble of working something like that unless it's for a good reason?
2) Darren Young (7-2, last week: 3) Young actually has the best record out of anybody despite getting completely squashed in week one. Like I said last week, I don't know what anybody sees in Young beyond his body, but he's clearly getting pushed.
1) Wade Barrett (5-4, last week: 1) They have really established Wade Barrett as the odds-on favorite to win right now. They would really have to strap the rocket to somebody listed below him in order for me to change that opinion, and the only guys I could see them strapping that rocket to are Otunga and Bryan (though at this point, thinking that Bryan is going to win this thing seems rather foolish).