NXT – August 16, 2011 – Now With More Ex Rookies!

NXT
Date: August 16, 2011
Location: Rabobank Arena, Bakersfield, California
Commentators: Todd Grisham, Michael Cole

 

We’re on the way to the sixth month of this show. I would make a joke about this show getting close to being able to having a baby but I’m not sure it’s a joke anymore. I’d expect more hijinks tonight with everyone talking about nothing in particular and nothing at all being mentioned about the show moving forward in any way at all. Let’s get to it.

We open with AJ, Titus and Horny in the ring. Is this the face faction now? Titus talks about Horny looking for true love and says he has something to say to AJ. Horny babbles a lot and Titus translates. Apparently Horny wants to propose to her. Oh give me a break. And yes, it’s a Ring Pop. AJ says it’s not about size (make your own jokes) but about the size of Horny’s heart. But she just said….oh never mind.

 

Bateman interrupts and says this is disgusting and that it’s not a soap opera. Titus tells him to leave and insults his jeans. Make fun of his win/loss record, beat him up, get more points than he does or whatever else you can think of, but INSULTING HIS JEANS??? YOU GO TOO FAR!!! Bateman says he’s not sure which one is the leprechaun and which is the troll. Horny goes after him and Bateman runs. AJ is alone in the ring and some chick jumps her. It’s a now blonde Maxine. THEY’RE BRINGING BACK THE DIVA ROOKIES NOW????? To be fair she looks much better without the black hair.

 

JTG vs. Tyson Kidd

 

Heel vs. heel? Really? Works for me I guess. Kidd has promised us something special next week in Calgary. JTG grabs a rollup for one a few seconds into this. The crowd is silent. Like creepily silent. JTG is wrestling face here despite being heel for the last 4 months or so. Then again is anyone paying attention to things such as that? Kidd speeds things up and gets some kicks to the head for two.

 

JTG hits Jay Lethal’s belly to back suplex into a neckbreaker for two. Half of the Lethal Combination gets two. Think he’s been watching some TNA/ROH stuff lately? JTG yells to the crowd but gets caught in a horribly botched looking rolling half crab (think Lance Storm)…and he taps at 3:10. That was unexpected. I guess JTG is a moderate face now.

 

Rating: C. The botch near the end hurt it a lot and the ending came almost out of nowhere. Also JTG suddenly being face is just weird as nothing happened other than Vladimir being released. Not sure what the point of this was but I guess it’s just to set up the whole YOSHI IS COMING thing. Granted that sounds like a really bad Nintendo ad but this isn’t the most well thought out show.

 

Post match some music starts for a bit and a Japanese/Chinese character (as in a written word) appears on screen. Does Japanese have written characters? Yeah we know: Tatsu is coming back.

 

Striker says he lost last week and he’s not making any excuses. Young vs. Striker II tonight. If Young wants respect, he has to earn it. Surprisingly good promo.

 

Matt Striker vs. Darren Young

 

Striker….strikes away to start. Well he lives up to his name I guess. He works on the arm and fingers to start but gets rolled up for two. Double clothesline takes both guys down but Darren is in better shape at the moment. A neckbreaker on the apron is broken up but Young gets something like a release belly to back onto the apron which looked good. A chinlock is broken up by Striker going after the leg. Why don’t more people do that?

 

Striker fires off and is getting all ticked off. He’s really improved in his long layoff. Striker takes Young down and gets two as Young gets his foot on the rope. This referee > HHH I guess. Young goes for that fireman’s carry into a gutbuster but Striker counters into a Backstabber for two. The fans go silent so Striker screams at them to wake them up. He tries La Majistral (and yes I know that’s probably not the right spelling) but Young rolls through into that gutbuster of his for the pin at 5:05. That was a good ending.

 

Rating: C. Striker continues to look good all things considered, but where does this lead? If Striker wins then Young looks even weaker than he already does. If Young keeps beating him, he’s beating up an announcer/host who came out of retirement a few weeks ago. I don’t get what the point of this is but the matches have been the highlights of the show recently. The ending here was cool.

 

Here are Bateman and Maxine. They’re holding hands so there’s your latest couple in WWE. Bateman wants the people to respect her and calls her his girlfriend. Maxine says Horny can’t handle a real woman like her. We’re just getting started according to her. Heaven help me.

 

Derrick Bateman vs. Titus O’Neil

 

For those of you that want something completely different I suppose. Regal and Grisham quote Bobby Heenan to liven things up a bit. Titus hammers away with power stuff to start as is his custom. Oh and there’s no Horny or AJ in sight. Bateman gets a dropkick for two. Bateman keeps hammering away while Regal talks about his turtle running away and the turtle (Speedy) getting mugged by some snails. This is the Gorilla Monsoon/Jesse Ventura formula of “we’re so bored we’ll do anything short of first degree murder to keep from falling asleep”.

 

The match is really boring, namely because we’ve seen them fight so many times already. Bateman controls for awhile until Titus starts channeling his football days and tackles Derrick a few times. Shoulderbreaker gets two. There’s the fallaway slam and Bateman hits the floor. Titus tries to get back in and Maxine trips him, letting Bateman get a rollup pin at 6:17.

 

Rating: D. It’s just boring. That’s the problem with this match: it’s just boring. It was so obvious that Maxine was going to cost Titus the match the entire time that there was no point in watching the whole thing up to that point. This story just keeps adding chapters for the sake of adding chapters and none of them are interesting. Thus is NXT.

 

And now we get the entire Alberto vs. Rey match from last night because NXT only has enough material to fill in 40 minutes. I have no idea if this is clipped or not but I’m not watching it again so here’s the review that I wrote for it live.

 

Raw World Title: Alberto Del Rio vs. Rey Mysterio

 

The new champ rolls out in a bright red Ferrari. Rey is the hometown boy so he gets a huge pop. It seems to be the Undisputed WWE Championship now. We continue the old school weapon checks but don’t even get big match intros. Fast paced stuff to start but it’s pretty basic. Rey sends him to the floor as we take a break. The bell rang at 10 until 11pm so they don’t have a ton of time.

 

Back with Rey in a body vice and he pulls half of the mask off. Alberto takes him up to the top which doesn’t work at all as Rey takes him down with a tornado DDT. Wicked one too. Spinning cross body gets two. Rolling sunset flip gets two. Rey gets taken down for a bit but takes to the air, sending Alberto to the floor. Gorgeous Asai Moonsault takes both guys down.

 

Seated Senton hits and he gets Alberto into the 619 position. Alberto takes his head off with a clothesline though and complains when it only gets two. Tilt-a-whirl backbreaker gets the same result. Corner enziguri gets two. Rey grabs a rollup out of nowhere for two to break up the armbreaker.

 

Dropkick puts Rey down and he goes for the arm again. Rey reverses into an electric chair position and into a rana for the 619 position. The call connects (hate that term but whatever) and it’s top rope splash time. Jerry declares it over which seals Rey’s fate. The splash hits knees and Alberto gets a small package for the pin at 12:50.

 

Rating: C+. Pretty good match here and Alberto wins clean which is something that he certainly needs. These two have chemistry and this was no exception to it, which is probably due to them having so many matches together over the past year. Good stuff here and it worked rather well for a TV main event.

 

Since a 13 minute match took 6 minutes to air, yeah it was clipped. We also get the close to the show with Cena saving Rey.

 

Post match Alberto goes for the arm and snaps it on the rope then puts the armbreaker on. Cena runs out for the save and wants a mic. Post match Alberto goes for the arm and snaps it on the rope then puts the armbreaker on. Cena runs out for the save and wants a mic. He rants about how much his weekend sucked and is all kinds of serious. he says Alberto cashed in a briefcase and got lucky. One days he’s going to have to defend it (kind of like he just did?) and if it’s against Cena, he won’t be so lucky. Serious Cena works very well and this was one of those moments.

 

Overall Rating: C-. The matches were ok, but the same complaints as always here: what is the point of ANY of this? Bateman now has some chick with him that hates AJ because….because AJ is a face and Maxine is a heel I guess. There’s nothing to see here as has been the case for the last three months or so. More of the same as always.

 

Results

Tyson Kidd b. JTG – Half Crab

Darren Young b. Matt Striker – Fireman’s Carry into a Gutbuster

Derrick Bateman b. Titus O’Neil – Rollup