NXT – October 5, 2011 – Go Back To Tuesdays

NXT
Date: October 5, 2011
Location: Mississippi Coast Coliseum, Biloxi, Mississippi
Commentators: Jack Korpela, William Regal

After last week’s newest tag team debut in the form of Hawkins/Reks, there’s an actual tag division on this show which is more than most of the WWE and almost all of TNA can say right now. There are no Pros left and that’s certainly a good thing. It’ll be interesting to see how the walk out from last night will affect the show, but I’ll bet it’s not much at all. Let’s get to it.

Oh and this show is now on Wednesday and we were told that…..oh a good never after the show aired. I read it on a tweet on WWE.com. Nice job guys. Nice.

Two new developments today: first of all if you go to the NXT page it offers you the 9/27 show but if you go to the full episodes tab you can watch today’s show. Also, it offers you an option of voting for rookies. As in potential eliminations. That hasn’t been an option in MONTHS.

Here are Hawkins/Reks to open the show and we get a quick recap of them beating down the Usos last week. They’re invading the show tonight because everything is in chaos. Hawkins apologizes to the fans that watch the show, saying they’re not going to see O’Neil or Tatsu because it’s the Hawkins and Reks Show. Reks says that last night (the video is dated the 5th but Raw was on the 3rd) they walked out on HHH on Raw. He’s tired of opportunities being handed out and squandered. They’re sitting on the top ropes for this so it’s kind of a different looking thing.

Here come the Usos in street clothes. They talk about the lack of respect that Hawkins/Reks have for everything including the ring, the people and HHH. The tag match is made and the Usos clear the ring with a double superkick to Reks and a simple toss to Hawkins. How exactly has Hawkins, a former tag champion, never had an opportunity? I guess that’s in the whole pay no attention to it part of history.

Titus O’Neil vs. Derrick Bateman

Regal says he was torn about walking out on Raw. Titus takes over with his power game and gets two off a side slam and a shoulder block. Regal talks about Maxine’s uncle who is a defrocked abbot who teaches chimpanzees to ride unicycles and on Sunday mornings piddles around in flea markets. Can we just get an hour of Regal’s stories? Bateman takes over with a dropkick but gets a delayed two. The idea here is that Titus is off because there’s no Horny to coach him. Titus starts his comeback but Maxine gets in his way as he tries to go up top. Bateman goes for the knee and that stupid falling bulldog ends it at 5:06.

Rating: D+. Boring match here but at least there was an idea to it. Titus losing that fast makes the bulldog look better, but at the same time it’s still the falling bulldog. Is that really the best they can come up with for him? Also, I can’t believe we actually saw two Rookies fighting each other. It’s almost like this is a competition show or something.

The Raw ReBound eats up about five minutes

JTG and Young make fun of Yoshi for his makeup. They leave and Yoshi goes up to the makeup table but it’s missing. All that is left is a mirror with the letter H and the number 8 (hate) crossed out. The word CHEA is underneath it. So this is what this show has come to? JTG vs. Yoshi Tatsu. Oh me oh my.

Yoshi Tatsu vs. JTG

No paint for Yoshi today. JTG runs immediately and the chase is cut off as he hides behind Darren who has the makeup/paint. Yoshi kicks Darren upside the head and is like GO BACK TO BEWITCHED BOY! The distraction lets JTG take over and he pounds away. Off to a chinlock as we hear about JTG running through the streets of Brooklyn to show he’s not afraid. It also shows he’s an idiot but that goes without saying. Yoshi starts firing off the kicks and the chops because he’s Asian and that means he has to be a martial artist. Top rope spinwheel kick ends this at 4:50.

Rating: C. This was fine. It’s a traditional heel vs. face match and that’s all it tried to be. I kind of like that: there was a quick story made up with JTG as the bad guy and Yoshi as the good guy and the good guy got his revenge on the bad guy. It’s bare bones storytelling but that’s all it really needed to be. I liked it.

Video on Mark Henry who is big and mean.

Daniel Bryan vs. Heath Slater

The announcers talk about almost nothing but the walkout (trademark probably coming soon) but Bryan is his usual submission based self. Bryan hooks Slater’s feet in a surfboard position but jumps up and drives Slater’s knees into the mat. We talk about Regal training Bryan and Regal mentions he let him go on his own to avoid falling into some of the snares Regal fell into.

Now we talk about the end of the PPV because the match isn’t all that interesting. On the floor Slater is sent into the barricade and Bryan hits the running knee off the apron. Back in Bryan fires off a kick and shakes the ropes like Ultimate Warrior. A running dropkick in the corner gets two. Slater starts a comeback but walks into some kicks and a Regal Stretch for the tap at 5:43. Regal: “That’s the first time that move has been seen in 8 years.”

Rating: C-. This was really boring. I think it’s because Slater is officially a jobber to the stars and there’s almost nothing interesting in his matches anymore. Part of that is because of his name I think: what is a one man southern rock band? It tells you nothing about the character. I mean, something like Macho Man tells you he’s tough and Hulk sounds like someone big and imposing. One Man Rock Band says…..what exactly?

Usos vs. Curt Hawkins/Tyler Reks

We’ll call that Jey starts with Hawkins. Jimmy comes in and cheating takes him down. There’s almost no time left in the show so this isn’t going to last long. Hot tag to Jey who hits a Bubba Bomb and the running hip smash to the face for two on Hawkins. A double assisted Samoan Drop (Alley-Us, pronounced like the team’s name) gets two. Jey goes up but is slammed down by Hawkins. A top rope elbow ends the Usos at 4:53.

Rating: D+. Another boring match here in a string of them tonight. These five minute matches get a lot of people out there but there’s nothing interesting about them. I’d assume this is to keep up the tag title chase meaning something but don’t these teams need to compete somewhere else besides here on NXT? There are four teams here and I’ve seen one on Raw or Smackdown. That’s kind of missing the point isn’t it?

Overall Rating: D+. I wasn’t thrilled with this one and the biggest factor I can attribute that to is the Bryan vs. Slater match. It took time away from other matches and didn’t really add anything at all to the show. Bryan and Slater haven’t been parts of the show in months and the match felt like it was thrown in there to take up space on a shot that was a bit crowded already anyway. This was a step down from recent weeks.

Results
Derrick Bateman b. Titus O’Neil – Falling Bulldog
Yoshi Tatsu b. JTG – Top rope spinwheel kick
Daniel Bryan b. Heath Slater – Regal Stretch
Curt Hawkins/Tyler Reks b. Usos – Top rope elbow to Jey

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