NXT: February 15, 2011 – Best Show This Season? Maybe.

NXT
Date: February 15, 2011
Location: Valley View Casino Center, San Diego, California
Commentators: Todd Grisham, Josh Matthews

It’s another week of NXT after a good show last week if I remember it correctly.  I don’t think there’s an elimination tonight but I could be wrong.  Either way the final three are here now and two of them are entertaining enough.  After last night’s return of the Rock I’m in an optimistic mood about WWE at the moment so let’s get to it.

And NXT isn’t playing on WWE.com.  It says the video I’m attempting to watch isn’t available right now and to please try back later.  Ah there it is.

Striker is in the ring with the rookies and next week is an elimination.  Then the next week we’ll have the finale.  Good to know.  The first challenge this week is the Smash and Grab Challenge.  There is a piñata above all of their heads with NXT Dollars inside.  You have to break the piñata and run the dollars up to their respective pro.  The Pros are “coaching”.  As Josh says, “coaching what?  How to hit a piñata?”  They keep moving the piñata and Curtis, who is going first, can’t hit anything.  He takes off the blindfold for a bit and after putting it back on can’t break the piñata.  This is so stupid.  Curtis gets zero.

Clay is up second and BLASTS the piñata after about a second comes off the clock and takes all his time to get all the dollars he can.  He jogs up the ramp and cashes it in with plenty of time.

Bateman says his strategy is to hit the piñata hard then run the money to the pro.  Bateman says stay classy San Diego.  I never liked that movie.  Clay got $4,800 NXT Dollars.  Bateman hits it but can’t break it so he grabs it and pulls it down.  Clay wins more or less by default.  I’m officially stupider having watched that.

Clay vs. R-Truth next.

R-Truth vs. Brodus Clay

 

Truth takes him to the floor quickly and hits an over the top dive to take over.  Back in and it’s all Truth here.  He tries a monkey flip because he’s an idiot and is launched off.  Clay gets a suplex and it’s off to the nerve hold.  Truth gets a jawbreaker and a dropkick to the knee to break that up.  A middle rope dropkick misses though and a splash ends Truth clean in 2:50.  Yep Clay just beat a guy that could get the world title shot at Mania this Sunday perfectly clean.  Eh it’s not like this show is paid attention to anyway.  No rating as it was more or less a glorified squash.

Bateman vs. Bryan, as in rookie vs. pro, later.

Mania ad.  That song is slowly growing on me.  The chorus is catchy.

Time for Challenge #2.  There are three stools in buckets.  Above those are other buckets which apparently has unpleasant stuff in it.  Ah apparently it’s trivia and if you lose you get messy.  Here are the categories and each have three questions, each with 100-300 dollars each.

80s

90s

Title History

Wrestlemania

Divas

They manage to screw up what decade is which as Brodus picks 80s and the question is about Smackdown.  No one knows who was in DX and won the Jesse the Body Award (Rick Rude).  These questions aren’t that hard if you think about them (in 1994 this superstar won the WWE Title for the first time in 11 years).

The questions are a bit harder here, such as which Diva managed the most wrestlers to championships (Sunny) and who is the only wrestler to win the WWE Title in a cage match (Batista).  This is fun.  They’re not saying the score but apparently Brodus wins.  The other two are slimed.  Todd: YOU CAN’T DO THAT ON TELEVISION!  10 points for those that get that reference.  That gave Brodus three more immunity points for a total of 5.

We recap the Rock’s return which literally had me shaking and I wasn’t even a big Rock fan.  Obviously for the sake of time they clip this down but they show a good deal of it.  They air this like it aired last night, as in not a video package with music etc.  We get his entrance, talking as Dwayne, making fun of Miz, the e-mail and running down Cole, the talking about Cena and ripping him apart, the swearing and the ending.  They aired almost ten minutes of this.

Daniel Bryan vs. Derrick Bateman

 

Good deal of time for this match.  Yeah they take a break before Bateman’s entrance.  I thought they would.  They shake hands to start.  Ziggler cracks jokes and it almost sounded like he said something about ROH but I’m not sure.  Test of strength to start and Bateman bridges out after being taken to the ground.  Ziggler says he’s the champion now (again I think as he’s not being focused on).

All Bryan to start as Ziggler makes fun of Ricardo’s Spanish.  It’s just Maryse, Ziggler and Ricardo this week up there.  Bryan gets out of a wristlock and gets two.  Crowd doesn’t seem too interested.  Ziggler wants to know who they’re supposed to root for.  Ricardo: “Not the Chargers.”  Bryan works on the arm as is his custom.  Bateman outmoves him though and sends him to the floor.

Suicide Dive has Bryan in trouble as we…don’t take a break.  Ok yes we do.  I think Todd tried to send them to one too early and had to talk a bit more to get them there.  Apparently Ziggler said “This isn’t ROH so don’t shake hands.”  I love little lines like those.

2-21-11 ad which allegedly shows two men.  I’ve heard about a dozen different reasons and explanations as to why it’s either HHH, Taker, Sting or some combination of them all.  My take on it: we’ll find out in six days so stop wasting my time talking about a shadow that might not be the Undertaker that you think is on the steps outside of a house.

Back with Bryan in control again.  Bateman says he’s learned his lesson as Bryan kicks him in the back.  Bryan says elbow and then hits an elbow to take Bateman down.  He goes up and gets a nice reaction for it.  He misses the headbutt so it’s a moot point but nice posing.  Big clothesline by Bateman for two.  Bateman gets a pair of rollups for two each.  Bryan tries the LeBell Lock and Bateman lifts him up into kind of a powerbomb for a long two.

Good match so far.  Bryan takes him down but Bateman goes for the LeBell Lock.  Bryan rolls through the hold and gets a SICK version of it of his own for the tap out at 8:50.  Surprisingly quite good match from these two here and by surprising I mean Bateman’s part.

Rating: B-. Good stuff indeed here as Bateman showed a lot here.  This was a good match from both guys as Bryan was having to work a bit out there.  I like the chemistry these two have as they work well together both in comedy bits and in the ring.  I think Brodus is going to be around for awhile so giving Bateman the win is something I could live with.

Overall Rating: B. I know that’s probably high but this was one of the more enjoyable shows in a very long time.  The opening stupid challenge is the only part here that was stupid.  You had a squash (kind of) in the first match and then a fun trivia game and the Rock video, closing out with a solid main event.  Yeah this was good overall but I won’t mind it when this show is over.  Good show and one of the best of the season so far.

Results

Brodus Clay won the Smash and Grab Challenge

Brodus Clay b. R-Truth – Splash

Brodus Clay won the Trivia Challenge

Daniel Bryan b. Derrick Bateman – LeBell Lock