NXT
Date: February 15, 2012
Location: Save Mart Center, Fresno, California
Commentators: Josh Matthews, William Regal

Fifty shows. We’ve somehow hit FIFTY shows. There have been 104 shows in the history of NXT and nearly half of them have been in this season. Anyway, nothing of note has been happening lately as the rookies (can you be classified as a rookie in your second year on the show?) have been losing more lately other than Titus. Oh and Hawkins/Reks beat up Striker last week. Let’s get to it.

Here are Hawkins and Reks to open the show. Hawkins says it should have been their moment but instead it wasn’t. Reks says they should be on the main shows instead of begging for matches here. Hawkins runs down Striker and wants to know what a host does around here. The NXT roster is full of talented superstars so it needs change. He pulls back his vest and reveals an Obama style shirt.

Here’s Striker who says this is all ridiculous. He’s given everyone a chance to shine. Hawkins says come here and say that but Striker says he isn’t as stupid as Hawkins looks. Striker has called an old friend to help him. Call him a substitute if you will. And it’s Regal. Regal is now in charge of things, at least for tonight. Hawkins has a match right now and Reks is banned from ringside. Reks: “Why me?” Regal: “I don’t like you you scruffy thing. Go and have a bath or something.”

Curt Hawkins vs. Tyson Kidd

Awesome sequence to start as Hawkins throws him over the top but Kidd skins the cat. Hawkins slides under him and Kidd teases a dive. He lands on the apron and runs to the post, jumps around it and catches Hawkins in a hurricanrana. That looked great. Kidd is looking more muscular now. Hawkins rams him into the apron and we take a break.

Back with Hawkins getting two off a suplex. Hawkins is wrestling in the shirt which is a better look for him. Hawkins works on a chinlock which is broken pretty quickly. Kidd fires off some kicks and sends Hawkins to the outside. Tyson hits a slingshot dropkick and a running knee smash off the apron which gets two back inside. Hawkins counters what looked like a suplex into an inverted DDT for two.

Kidd goes to the apron and tries a sunset flip but spins in mid-air to land in a reverse victory roll for two. He tries a Rocker Dropper but Hawkins suplexes out of it which also gets two. We go to the corner and Kidd fights out of a superplex attempt. In a great and subtle move, Kidd uses a victory roll (ala Bret, who Regal said Kidd had been training with) into the Sharpshooter for the submission at 7:37.

Rating: B. I really liked this match and it was very entertaining. When you give young and talented guys some time, this is what you can get. I loved the victory roll part at the end with the Bret nod, which is a fine lesson in what an announcer can do. Regal set that up and the ending to the match paid it off. Perfect.

Titus O’Neil vs. Yoshi Tatsu

The way the announcers are talking, Regal is permanent boss. The power controls to start this power vs. speed match. Titus yells at Yoshi that no one cares about Yoshi because it’s all about Titus. Yoshi takes more punishment but avoids a charge in the corner and fires off some kicks. A running knee to the chest gets two. Not that it matters as Titus hits him in the back and a very good Clash of the Titus gets the pin at 3:22.

Rating: C. This was Titus’ best performance as a heel so far. The Clash looked great and he had some mannerisms that would make you believe he was a jerk instead of the same guy but frowning like he’s been for the last few weeks. I could get into the idea of Regal sending guy after guy to fight him until it’s Regal himself in a big match.

Titus yells at Regal that he wants competition in the form of Alex Riley. Here’s Riley who says he’ll come say it to Titus’ face. Alex says let’s do it right now and Titus rolls to the floor to escape.

Alicia and Kaitlyn want Bateman and Maxine to break up. Kaitlyn insists they’re just friends. Curtis comes up to hit on them. A guy with flowers and candy comes up after the girls leave saying he’s looking for Bateman. Curtis says that’s him and there’s a card for Maxine. He says it’s like stealing candy from a Bateman.

Percy Watson vs. Michael McGillicutty

McGillicutty has a big beard now. Michael takes him to the mat to start but Percy nips up. I don’t think the crowd knows who Michael is. Whoever he is he hooks a quick chinlock and Percy is in trouble. Percy comes back with a modified version of the spinning DDT Rock did when he was Rocky Maivia. A dropkick and clothesline put Michael down but the Heisman lands on knees. Not that it matters as Persecution ends this at 4:02.

Rating: D+. The announcers build this up as some huge victory but both of these guys lost on their season of NXT. To be fair though, McGillicutty has had some success in the WWE while Watson has been on NXT the entire time. Not a terrible match but Watson needs something to do other than just being athletic.

Maxine finds a box of chocolates addressed to Kaitlyn and signed by Derrick. She isn’t happy.

Raw ReBound is about Cena/Kane/Ryder.

Kaitlyn is on commentary for this.

Derrick Bateman/Justin Gabriel vs. Heath Slater/Johnny Curtis

Kaitlyn says that she and Bateman watch Full House together. Justin and Curtis start off and Curtis is kicked to the outside. Bateman dives on Curtis and we take a break. Back with Slater working on Justin’s knees. Apparently Curtis has been asking Regal if he was breastfed. Ok then. Curtis works over the knees as Regal hits on Kaitlyn. Justin gets two off a quick rollup. There’s the hot tag to Bateman and he cleans house. Everything breaks down and the falling bulldog (the Sweet Meat Sizzler according to Kaitlyn) gets the pin on Slater at 5:37.

Rating: D. Very uninteresting match here and that’s the problem with the main event stuff (if you can call it that) on this show: it’s BORING. Bateman and Curtis have a good story going with Maxine and Kaitlyn but they’re so terribly uninteresting and bad at acting that there’s nothing that makes me care about this at all. That’s a big problem, or at least it would be if more than 5 people watched this show.

Post match Maxine comes out and hits Kaitlyn with the chocolates. She rams Kaitlyn into the barricade and Bateman tries to stop her so she shoves him too. Bateman carries Maxine out as Curtis smiles.

Overall Rating: C+. This was a good episode for the most part. With the new directions the show has been going in there’s an improvement and that’s helped a lot. However as I said above, Bateman and Curtis are less interesting than dried paint. When you have hot women fighting and you can’t make the guys they’re fighting over interesting, there’s something wrong with them. Good ideas, not the best execution this week.

Results
Tyson Kidd b. Curt Hawkins – Sharpshooter
Titus O’Neil b. Yoshi Tatsu – Clash of the Titus
Percy Watson b. Michael McGillicutty – Persecution
Derrick Bateman/Justin Gabriel b. Heath Slater/Johnny Curtis – Sweet Meat Sizzler to Slater

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NXT
Date: October 19, 2011
Location: Mexican Sports Palace, Mexico City, Mexico
Commentators: Jack Korpela, William Regal

Obviously we’re in Mexico now and we only have two people left. The Young suspension may be a blessing in disguise as it might give them an opening to round out this season after the thirty two weeks they’ve had so far. After last week there aren’t any major loose ends that need to be tied up so maybe there’s a means to an end now. Let’s get to it.

We start in the ring….WITH A CHALLENGE??? Striker has a rope and there are flags around the ring ropes (not the one Striker is holding). It’s a capture the flag challenge. There are only O’Neil and Bateman left. This is worth 15 points to really make sure we make the rest of the challenges before this worthless by comparison. They both have on weightlifting belts and there’s a rope attached on their backs. Whoever can get the most flags wins. And after about 15 seconds Bateman jumps Titus and leaves him laying. Titus wins and the main event tonight is Titus/Percy vs. Bateman and whoever Bateman picks.

Tyler Reks vs. Yoshi Tatsu

Hawkins is limping to the rings with Reks. Reks and Hawkins complain about the injury and Reks sounds nothing like his looks would make you expect. Reks overpowers him to start so Tatsu chops away. Yoshi snaps off a spinwheel kick to take over so Reks, being a modern WWE heel, hides. Reks takes over again and the fans don’t seem all that impressed by him.

An O’Connor Roll doesn’t work for Tatsu and Reks works on the back a bit. Tatsu responds by hitting a big kick to the head…and never mind as Reks beats him down all over again. Yoshi dodges a charge and Reks’ shoulder hits the post. That allows Tatsu to go up top for the spinwheel kick and the pin at 4:33.

Rating: C-. Not much of a match here but it was fine. This was very basic as they were keeping things simple, primarily due to there only being about 4 and a half minutes to work with. Tatsu’s new look hasn’t meant much of anything, but at least he’s not talking about an action figure anymore.

Post match Reks and Hawkins beat down Tatsu but the Usos make the save. I smell a 6 man.

AJ has a note in the back when Kaitlyn comes in. It’s from Horny and he says leaving is the best decision he ever made. Kaitlyn says it’s from Maxine. Kaitlyn, who looks a lot worse with light blonde hair, fights Maxine next.

Kaitlyn vs. Maxine

Both of them look good but Kaitlyn looks better with darker hair. She has great legs though. Maxine is in essence in a swimsuit. Here’s your Maxine fact: her aunt is a careless maiden from Guadalajara who is engaged to a one legged Elvis impersonator who does a great version of Blue Suede Shoes. The match is your usual basic stuff here that isn’t very good.

Maxine hooks something like a dragon sleeper but Kaitlyn falls into the ropes. The fans here do not care at all. All Maxine so far but I’d rather look at Kaitlyn in gold so I’m not paying attention to the match here. Kaitlyn takes over with her horrible looking offense. She hits a Bubba Bomb and then a full nelson with her legs to make Maxine tap (with her foot) out at 4:48.

Rating: D. It’s your usual bad Divas match and more proof that AJ was the best choice for the 3rd season winner. Kaitlyn looks great in tight gold shorts and other than that, she’s about as worthless as anyone else you’re going to find on the roster. Not much here overall and the girls just aren’t that good. Granted this is on NXT so it’s not like anyone is watching them.

Video on how insane Raw has been lately and how its been in chaos, even dating back to Punk winning the title at MITB. This eats up like five minutes.

Kidd turns down Bateman to be his partner. Maxine comes up to yell at him for not being here. She leaves and JTG comes up to agree to be his partner. Oh my.

Percy Watson/Titus O’Neil vs. JTG/Derrick Bateman

Bateman vs. Watson gets us going and Watson shows off a bit. We go to the mat with a headlock as Regal explains exactly where the arm is supposed to be for it to hurt the most. Leave it to an old villain to know that. There’s a double tag and JTG gets his head kicked off. That was a nice touch because I don’t like JTG. O’Neil has black and pink on for breast cancer awareness. That’s always cool.

The good guys double team JTG for awhile and rule the ring as we take a break. Back with Bateman hammering away on Watson which doesn’t work all that well for him. They head to the floor and Bateman hits a missile dropkick off the apron which gets two back in the ring. Off to JTG again who hammers away a bit more. A spinning neckbreaker gets two. Watson tries to fight back and the fans react to it.

This match has somehow been going on for ten minutes. It’s one of those matches where nothing has been going on at all but it’s been happening if that makes sense. Titus finally gets the hot tag that we know has been coming for awhile now. Bateman breaks up the pin but misses a top rope cross body. Clash of the Titus ends this at 10:41.

Rating: D+. The match was pretty boring but the problem with it is that it summarizes the main problem that these guys are having anymore: there is no reason at all for these matches to take place. If we’re just waiting around for the end of the show and the matches don’t really count towards records or standings or anything, what’s the point? I mean, how many times can O’Neil pin Bateman before it stops meaning anything? I think that’s the question they’re trying to answer.

Overall Rating: C-. Not a horrible show but at the same time it reiterates the same issue I just went into: this show is chasing its own tail. We’re no closer to finding a winner of this competition than we were two months ago and the only thing that has really changed is that Young is gone and that’s not even because of the show but rather him being Wellnessed. Young will be able to return in about two and a half weeks and he’ll probably be brought back and we’ll be right back where we were two weeks ago. Such is the life of NXT I guess.

Results
Yoshi Tatsu b. Tyler Reks – Top Rope Spinwheel Kick
Kaitlyn b. Maxine – Full Nelson Leglock
Titus O’Neil/Percy Watson b. JTG/Derrick Bateman – Clash of the Titus to Bateman

 

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