On This Day: July 5, 2011 – NXT: Starring The Not So Ready For Prime Time Players

We’re at episode 18 here and I’m truly starting to wonder something. I’ll be at the Smackdown/NXT tapings on August 2 and I’m honestly not sure if the new season will have started yet. This is already the longest season of the show so far and now all of a sudden we have three finalists instead of two. This could go on for awhile. Let’s get to it.

We recap the eliminations this season and the return of Derrick Bateman and his pro Daniel Bryan from last week. I still don’t get how this is fair or really needed.

Striker and Maryse bring out the rookies and pros. We go over the Redemption Points with Bateman of course in third place. Time for the Talk the Talk Challenge with the topic of why should you win. Young talks about how unfair it is to put Bateman back in after Young has spent 17 weeks working to get here and now without a pro.

Titus says he’s dominated the competition all over and actually makes it rain redemption points. That was kind of funny. Bateman says O’Neil said his football team is better than the local one. Bateman says he and Bryan are the best things to happen to the internet since kitten videos. He gets booed loudly and Titus wins, further proving that these Redemption Points are totally pointless.

We get a quick recap of Yoshi freaking over the broken action figure last week. Can’t say they’re repeating stuff with that one.

Yoshi Tatsu vs. Tyson Kidd

Well it was great last week so I can’t complain on a rematch. Grisham says it was five stars. The show is on the internet so that fits perfectly. Yoshi fires off some kicks (actually called Kawada kicks by Regal) and we go to the floor for a bit. Back inside Tyson hammers him down in the corner but can’t get a rollup. They head to the apron and Kidd blocks a suplex.

Kiss manages to kick him off the apron back first into the post. We take a break to talk about That’s What I Am which really shouldn’t stun me. Back with Kidd working on the back until Tatsu reverses a suplex into a cross body for two. Kidd hits a suplex and locks on a double chickenwing on the mat. Yoshi fights up and chops away including a kick to put Kidd down.

Tatsu goes up so Kidd tries the Kurt Angle run up for a (vertical in this case) suplex but gets dropped. Spinwheel kick catches Kidd in the hands so badly that Regal has to say it didn’t really hit. That gets two and Kidd dropkicks the shin. That sets up a Moss Covered Three Handled Family Credenza for the pin at 9:09. For those of you unfamiliar with the general insanity of Perry Saturn, it’s a fisherman’s suplex but instead of bridging back you spin the guy around like a neckbreaker.

Rating: C+. Well it wasn’t bad but to say the other match was better is a huge understatement. Too much resting going on here and nowhere near enough near falls to make this one work. Not bad, but given what they did last week it was going to be pretty hard to top it here. Still good though.

Profile on Derrick Bateman, who really shouldn’t have been eliminated last season, especially not while Johnny “so bland that white paint on growing grass calls you bland” Curtis was around.

Horny is still trying to give Maryse flowers. They happen to be dead and include Twizzlers and banana peels. She says that should get him a kiss but she hits him with the flowers instead. Titus can’t console him.

Titus O’Neil/Darren Young vs. Daniel Bryan/Derrick Bateman

According to Todd, Bateman was supposed to be part of this season but tore his MCL. Bateman and Young start us off with Bateman sending him to the floor. Off to Bryan for a little Nexus on Nexus violence. DB and DB work on Young’s arm but he’s able to fight off Bateman and bring in Titus.

That doesn’t last long and neither guy really gets anything going. Back to Young for a chinlock. Grisham says Regal could make a burning orphanage sound funny. When I woke up today, I didn’t think I’d hear that line. Titus slams Bateman down as the beating continues.

Young doesn’t do as well, allowing the hot tag to Bryan. He hits a running dropkick in the corner to Young, followed by a suplex and swan dive headbutt. Bryan backflips out of a suplex and staggers into the corner, tagging Bateman which I’m not sure was intentional. Bryan takes out O’Neil and Bateman grabs a headlock and drives Young’s head into the mat like a Skull Crushing Finale for the pin at 6:22.

Rating: C. Just a tag match here and not a very interesting one at all. The Bateman finisher was pretty weak an dit’s pretty clear that they’re going to have Bateman vs. O’Neil in the final two, assuming there is a final two. Nothing special here, but then again Bateman never was anything special in the ring.

The last 13 minutes of the show are used to completely reair the Vince/Cena closing segment from last night, which was good but I don’t want to see it all over again just 24 hours later.

Overall Rating: D+. Didn’t like this one at all as the whole show felt like filler. No mention of another elimination so based on the track record of this show so far, that means we’ll be here at least two more weeks. I was only half kidding earlier when I mentioned August 2 but it’s looking more and more possible. Didn’t like this as both matches were pretty bland and ¼ of the show is a segment from Raw. Nothing to see here at all.

Results

Titus O’Neil won the Talk the Talk Challenge

Tyson Kidd b. Yoshi Tatsu – Fisherman’s neckbreaker

Derrick Bateman/Daniel Bryan b. Darren Young/Titus O’Neil – Headlock into a facejam to Young

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