NXT – April 5, 2011 – Chavo vs. Horny CONTINUES!!!

NXT
Date: April 5, 2011
Location: Time Warner Arena, Charlotte, North Carolina
Commentators: Todd Grisham, William Regal

This is week number five and now we’re back to the regular kind of NXT shows where we only lose 10 minutes a week to the main show building stuff.  The season needs to get moving along though as we haven’t heard about an elimination yet and I can’t take much more Jacob Novak.  Anyway this is kind of a new year show in the WWE logic so maybe the energy from last night will carry over here.  Let’s get to it.

Now that I’ve found what city this is in, we can get going.  WWE.com recently redesigned, making it a lot harder to

We bring out the rookies and go over the scores.  O’Neil has 9 points, Young has 7 and everyone else has zero.  The first challenge is a trivia game.  The idea is a category is named and you have to give an answer in that category as we go down the line.  First up is Wrestlemania 27 winners.  Young says Bret Hart right off the bat and is gone.  Cannon asks where Matt’s girlfriend was last night because Cannon does.  O’Brian can’t come up with anything.

Next category is 2011 HOF inductees.  We have Novak, O’Neil and Saxton left.  Novak is gone because he repeats Bob Armstrong.  Category 3 is name any former NXT rookie.  After saying themselves they list off the Nexus and this goes on for awhile.  No girls named yet until Titus repeats Saxton and gives Saxton the win and 4 points.  I’d bet almost anything on him winning whatever match he’s in tonight.

Titus/Horny vs. Young/Chavo tonight.  Yes, it’s Chavo vs. Hornswoggle again.

Jacob Novak vs. Conor O’Brian

Kozlov’s arm is in a sling.  Conor works on the arm to start as we talk about the color of Novak’s tights.  Now he works the leg.  I think this is supposed to be a long running feud on NXT.  The problem with this is that Rat Boy is the far better of the two, which coming from me you know isn’t a good thing.  Novak takes over with various stuff and gets a neckbreaker for two.

We hit the chinlock with O’Brian in trouble.  Regal talks about the NXT guys going around at Mania weekend and picking the brains of legends and pros, which is a good job by Regal of playing up the whole “they’re rookies” thing.  Regal insists he never threw European Uppercuts but rather British Uppercuts.  While he goes on about that, O’Brian rolls Novak up for the pin at 4:15.

Rating: D. Again, these two are just there.  It’s the problem with this entire show and the majority of the WWE farm system: these guys are just people.  There’s nothing distinguishing the vast majority of them other than Cannon being the ladies man or whatever he is.  This is definitely the biggest proof of that as these two are the most generic people I can remember this side of Johnny Curtis.  Dull match from these two as usual.

Cannon comes up to Tatsu and says he’s sorry for last week and that he thinks Maryse likes Tatsu.  He points out that Maryse is right over there so Tatsu should ask her out.  Tatsu does, apparently not caring that DiBiase is right next to her and gets beaten up as he should.  Maryse yells at Ted but Ted says Yoshi couldn’t afford Maryse, which makes Maryse leave with him, seemingly willingly.

Long video on the Hall of Fame class of 2011.  Carey was gracious at least and acknowledged he didn’t do much.  Why Bob Armstrong is in there is beyond me.

Kozlov brags to JTG about how his rookie beat JTG’s rookie.  JTG says Novak’s rookie is generic.  JTG’s rookie is Jacob Novak if you’ve forgotten.  This is like some weird argument at a little league game.  They make an unspecified wager on who can make their rookie look better first.

Darren Young/Chavo Guerrero vs. Hornswoggle/Titus O’Neil

Make this quick.  The rookies start us off as we debate whether or not Titus should ever tag in Horny.  Titus has an incredible look but he looks like he’s had a total of 9 seconds of ring time.  Horny doesn’t want a tag so it’s Titus vs. Chavo.  We hear the history of Chavo vs. Horny as my head shakes.  Chavo does what he can but he’s not a miracle worker.

Horny tags himself in and the pop is of course big.  Horny wants Young and what the leprechaun wants the leprechaun gets.  Young gets on his knees as we waste a lot of time.  They actually do a test of strength and Horny kicks him in the ribs.  There’s the tag back to Titus who gets a powerslam and barks.  Chavo gets knocked to the floor which is called a tag and Titus lays down for the frog splash.  Horny bites Chavo’s leg and hides under the ring to prevent the move.  Young comes at Titus but walks into the Sky High (I heard this was called the Clash of the Titan but I’m not sure) to end it at 4:30.

Rating: C-. For a comedy tag match this wasn’t too bad.  Titus isn’t as bad as he was in the second season as he now has a big power move like he was needing badly.  Horny was there for the kids and that worked fine.  Not horrid here but it’s nothing I ever want to see again.

We get the full Rock/Cena thing from last night.  I’m not sure if they’re going to make it all the way to Wrestlemania and I’m not sure if it’s a great idea, but it’s certainly something worth paying attention to.  Rock saying he respects Cena and getting booed for it does not come off as a good sign at all though.  Fashion advice from the Tooth Fairy is still a good line.  I still don’t get the Corre’s involvement or why Booker laughed when they came out.

Yoshi Tatsu vs. Ted DiBiase

Well at least this has some build to it.  We also get Tatsu’s awesome song so that helps a lot.  Regal talks about fighting a hunchback over a tattooed dwarf, incorporating a Percy Sledge song in the same sentence.  DiBiase takes him down quickly and gets a double stomp off the middle rope.  Regal says getting rid of Maryse would enhance his career.  Grisham says that Tatsu would like to have his samurai sword pierce her heart.  Wouldn’t that kill her???  He also calls this a Haku as Regal said it was poetic.  And then Ted goes off on Tatsu and gets disqualified for beating on him too much at 2:00.  Ok then.

Maryse yells at DiBiase so DiBiase says it’s NXT or him and she has a week to decide.

Overall Rating: C. This was probably the best show this season but I’m not sure how much that’s saying.  The matches weren’t anything great but the pacing was better, they kept the challenges to a minimum and the comedy was a bit better.  Not a good show but FAR less annoying this week, which is a huge upgrade for them.

Results

Byron Saxton won the Hot Seat Trivia Challenge

Conor O’Brian b. Jacob Novak – Rollup

Titus O’Neil/Hornswoggle b. Chavo Guerrero/Darren Young

Yoshi Tatsu b. Ted DiBiase via DQ when DiBiase repeatedly punched Tatsu

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