NXT – January 4, 2011

NXT
Date: January 4, 2011
Location: Tucson Convention Center, Tucson, Arizona
Commentators: Todd Grisham, Josh Matthews

It’s the first elimination week for this season which is the best thing that could have happened as the show is being dragged down by the awful guys they have on here.  I can’t imagine it’s not O’Brian or Novak that is gone tonight.  I fell asleep before the show came on so this is being written after the show and I had it spoiled for me by accident although I can’t say I was stunned with the result.  Let’s get to it.

We open with a montage of the rookies interacting with their pros and how it’s the first elimination tonight.  Nothing we don’t know in other words.

Wow these guys have been wild and young for awhile now.  Shouldn’t it be tamed and older by now?

Striker is on the stage with the rookies and announces that the winner will get a tag title show with their pro.  Tonight there is a Pro’s Challenge in the form of a battle royal.  The winning pro will have the option of trading their pro if they so choose.  Cool.  Before we start though, Ricardo Rodriguez comes out and offers to take Alberto’s spot for some reason.  Ok then.

Battle Royal

Immediately Bryan picks Ricardo up and puts him in an airplane spin for a mind blowing 30 seconds.  The other pros stand around and cheer Bryan on, saying how long can you do that for.  Truth takes mercy on Ricardo and throws him out.  It’s DiBiase, Bryan, Masters, Ziggler and Truth in there if you’re not familiar with the Pros.  Ziggler puts out Bryan and shouts that Bryan has no idea how good that felt.

DiBiase gets a low bridge to put Truth out.  Sorry for the lack of commentary here as it’s hard to talk about battle royals.  Masters tries to put DiBiase out so Ziggler comes up behind them and dumps both guys out to win at 3:50.  Yeah it was rather short but I think that was the point.

Rating: C. Yeah there wasn’t much to this at all so we’ll just call it right in the middle.  Ziggler more or less dominated this, getting rid of three of the five eliminations including the second biggest star in the match in Bryan.  It was way too short to get a fair grade so the C isn’t saying it was average but more along the lines of I have no idea if it was good or not.

Ziggler talks about how he never liked Novak and trades him for Saxton.  That’s certainly an upgrade.  Then again the coat is more valuable than Novak so it’s not like an upgrade is hard in this case.  Novak vs. Saxton next.

Byron Saxton vs. Jacob Novak

Novak starts off all aggressive prompting a funny reaction from Ziggler who shouts WHY DIDN’T YOU DO THAT WHEN YOU WERE WITH ME?  This is rather boring and the crowd certainly seems to agree with me on that point.  Ziggler keeps screaming things at Saxton and is definitely the most entertaining part of the match.  Novak is one of the least interesting characters I’ve seen in a very long time.

There’s nothing interesting about him at all and his time on offense here is putting me to sleep, which is saying a lot as I slept for a long time earlier tonight.  Saxton makes a comeback while Dolph tells Novak that he sucks.  This match is setting records for clotheslines used.  Saxton reverses a suplex into….uh….I’m not sure to call it.  He hooked a Tazmission looking hold and rocked Novak forward and then backwards into a mat slam with Saxton sitting out the other way.  It was pretty stupid if you didn’t get that but it ended this at approximately 5:40.

Rating: D-. Just boring beyond belief here and it took me a long time to sit through the nearly six minutes this received.  Saxton would definitely be better suited as a mouthpiece or a backstage character as he doesn’t have much to offer in the ring.  Very bad match and dull beyond belief.

Curtis is talking to Truth about how they can work together as a wolf pack roaming through the Arizona desert.  Truth doesn’t know what Curtis is talking about and Curtis isn’t sure either.  Curtis vs. Clay is later.

Raw Rebound is about the cage match and doesn’t mention the whole WORLD TITLE MATCH or anything like that.  Not important at all.

We get a clip of the way too excited Bateman talking to Bryan.  Bateman offers his advice on the love triangle with the Bellas because he was called Dr. Love in high school.  Bryan: “No you weren’t.”  Bateman: “Ok no I wasn’t but I still know what I’m talking about.”  Funny stuff.  There’s a double date next week.  Bateman says they’re about chicks and AMERICA, as he pulls a random flag out from behind him.  I’m liking this guy a bit more every week.

Ziggler and Saxton affirm their love for each other with Ziggler telling Saxton to stay away from Vickie which is no issue.  There’s a battle of the mic competition later.  Apparently it’s next.

Time for the Battle of the Mic.  To update the immunity point standings:

Curtis: 5
Bateman: 3
Novak: 1
Saxton: 1
O’Brian: 0
Clay: 0

Good thing Clay has that thing called talent to get him through this safely.  Naturally this is worth four points so that the previous weeks mean far less.  Basically this is a talk-off.  First up is Clay vs. Curtis.  Clay talks about how funny it was to see Curtis go through that table last week at him hands.  Curtis says it was funny that time when he hit Clay in the mouth, which hasn’t happened.  Curtis naturally pops him in the mouth.  The crowd picks Curtis and Brodus is eliminated.

Bateman vs. Saxton is next.  Bateman says that Saxton’s voice destroyed ECW and says that Saxton is the lovechild of Carlton Banks and a shorter Carlton Banks.  Saxton’s reply is that no matter what, he’s still better than Bateman.  Both of these were really bad and Saxton is out.

Novak vs. O’Brian is next and I need a stiff drink.  Novak talks about the rat thing and plays up the whole rat thing.  O’Brian makes a bunch of stupid jokes but the delivery is definitely better.  O’Brian wins this by a mile as he definitely should.

Round 2 is where you have to insult both guys.  Curtis makes fun of Bateman’s haircut.  He says he likes rats so he has nothing to make fun of for O’Brian.  Striker likes rats too.

Bateman says that Curtis looks like he belongs on To Catch a Predator.  Conor is a lot like Conan, minus the talent.

O’Brian makes Your Mama jokes and somehow these are the funniest lines in the whole thing.  O’Brian wins it and he actually should have.  Curtis has the immunity points lead still though.

Johnny Curtis vs. Brodus Clay

Remember that Curtis hit Clay just a few minutes ago.  Clay runs him over to start and the beating is on.  Curtis gets him to the floor where DiBiase yells at the big man a bit.  Brodus uses some of those supelxes to take over.  I like this guy pretty well I think and he’s definitely the most interesting guy on this season as I’ve said before.  Clay keeps using basic power and we hit a nerve hold.

This is such a change in night and day as compared to the other one on one match as the fans are into this and there’s an energy here that is very refreshing.  Curtis fights his way up and takes out the knee and hits a spinwheel kick to take over.  A top rope shot to the head gets two.  For some reason he goes after DiBiase though and a Tongan Death Grip Slam (more or less a chokeslam) gets Brodus the clean pin at 3:32.

Rating: C+. Not a great match at all but the energy in it was really fun.  Brodus is very fun to watch as he mixes things up very nicely out there.  The Tongan Death Grip is a move I wouldn’t mind seeing dusted off and who better than Clay to use it?  Decent match and one of the more entertaining ones so far this season.

Post match Striker asks Clay what fuels him and he says it’s because he’s tired of being cast aside and is the marathon….whatever that means.  Elimination is up next.

Curtis says that Clay should go home tonight.  To the shock of absolutely no one, Novak is gone first.  It’s a crushing blow but he got to have this be a learning experience.  Ziggler makes fun of him almost the whole time which is rather funny.  The next elimination is in two weeks and the points are set to zero.

Ziggler makes fun of Masters again and does his pose thing.  Since apparently hitting him in the back is too complex for Masters he tries the full nelson on him and the IC Champion escapes to end the show.

Overall Rating: C+. Better show than previous weeks by miles and miles, but the most important thing is that Novak is gone.  Everyone else compared to him is a great save for maybe O’Brian so that’s a nice break indeed.  Aside from Novak’s match there wasn’t anything completely horrid here so this was overall a decent enough show.  Two weeks can’t get here soon enough to get rid of rat boy though, despite him showing some decent delivery here tonight.