NXT
Date: June 21, 2011
Location: Giant Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania
Commentators: Todd Grisham, William Regal
It’s week whatever here (It’s week whatever here) and there are no signs of us getting done with this show yet. We have three people left in the forms of O’Brian, O’Neil and Young. Other than that there isn’t much else going on here, which to be fair can be said nearly every week around here. Let’s get to it.
We open with a recap of Lucky Cannon’s stuff over the course of the season. I think this is the same video we opened last week with. Cannon kind of reminds me of Kelso from That 70’s Show. At least they’re not airing the wrong episode because there’s the elimination from last week.
They’re still wild, but after being on this season for this long can you still classify them as young?
There’s another elimination next week.
Here’s Horny with Titus to open the show. Apparently the small one has some business with Maryse. And here she is to at least make the show more fun to look at. Horny mumbles a lot and Titus translates. Apparently Horny has a surprise for her and has her hold her hand out. He puts a box in her hand and it’s a ring pop. I haven’t had one of those in years. She insults him for it because she’s not nice anymore. The ring is thrown in his face and she leaves him all upset.
And of all people here’s Zack Ryder. He was the pro for Titus on NXT Season 2. Decent reaction but not exactly the explosion that you would expect from what you read about him online. The tall people compared Ryder and Horny’s merits as Pros and Ryder threatens to fist pump Titus’ face. Striker makes the obvious main event.
Vladimir Kozlov/Yoshi Tatsu/Conor O’Brian vs. Chavo Guerrero/JTG/Darren Young
Regal goes into another rant about JTG, saying he’s been waking up half an hour earlier so he can hate him that much longer every day. Young and O’Brian start us off. This is about as riveting as you would expect them to be if you’ve watched their matches all season. Conor runs him off after awhile and here’s Chavo. Regal apparently had Chavo’s first match in WCW.
Conor is holding his arm kind of funny after a bit so here’s Yoshi to fight JTG. Regal talks about losing a bet about Cannon last week but not having any money due to the women he has to pay for. Koz comes in and cleans some house. Powerslam gets two for Kozlov as Regal praises him. Vlad cleans house and Conor helps out a bit as we take a break. Back with Vlad getting two on Chavo off a powerslam.
The rookies beat on each other for a bit with the main work being on the knee of O’Brian. Off to JTG and this goes on way too long. They’ve been working on his knee for five minutes now. Everyone gets in a lot of time on it with JTG on it at the moment. Conor gets some shots in but Chavo gets a drop toehold to take him right back down.
After about eight minutes of O’Brian getting beaten on (seriously) it’s close enough to a tag to bring in Yoshi. He cleans house and hits a spin kick to take JTG down. Shining Wizard gets one as everything breaks down. Koz gets a pretty nice double suplex on Chavo and Young to send them to the floor. And never mind as Tatsu kicks JTG’s head off for the pin at 15:20.
Rating: C-. They’re trying so hard to make us care about O’Brian and it’s almost a guarantee he’s making the finals if not winning the whole thing, just so we can see him next season again. I never once wanted to see him make the tag, which at times I often do in these matches. He flat out isn’t interesting and that’s all there is to it. Way too long here.
We’re told that the votes messed up last night and Sin Cara actually should have faced Bourne. That explains a few things. They’ll have a match on Raw to make up for it.
Raw Rebound is about the Punk segment last night.
Tyson Kidd is talking to Lucky Cannon on the phone and says there won’t be a recount. He says he has to go because he comes up on I guess you would call it a shrine in a locker with candles and all that jazz. There’s a Yoshi Tatsu action figure in the middle and Yoshi comes up, saying not to touch it. Kidd leaves and Yoshi puts a Hershey bar in front of it (huge pop. Remember the town they’re in) and bows to it. I have no idea what to say to that.
Titus O’Neil vs. Zack Ryder
Regal has a quick thing about Ryder also: his old partner Dave Taylor had a hand in training Ryder. Ryder charges straight at him which gets him beaten up. Grisham actually mentions the Youtube show and the Internet Championship. Titus gets a headlock on for awhile and then runs Ryder over. Horny bites Ryder on the license plate on his tights, allowing O’Neil to get a school boy for two as we take a break.
Back with Ryder taking over after a knee lift. He chokes away a lot as I guess he’s still a heel on TV. They need to pick one or the other, because he’s constantly changing back and forth. Off to the chinlock as Regal points out that Horny is the only person that keeps Titus going. Ryder gets a running facewash in the corner which has a proper name that I can’t think of. It only gets two and it’s back to the chinlock. They get back up and here’s the comeback for Titus. Ryder hits the floor and goes after Horny, prompting a brief bit on the floor. Back in, O’Neil walks into the Rough Ryder for the pin at 8:30.
Rating: C. Not bad but kind of long here. The reaction for Ryder was ok at best which isn’t really that surprising. He’s ok in the ring but not particularly good. Also interesting to hear them actually acknowledge his Youtube show and a nice little change of pace. The match itself was just kind of there and not that interesting.
Overall Rating: C-. Not a horrible show here and thankfully we get it down to the final two next week. If the matches were a bit better this could work overall. The same old issues come up again here: everyone has faced each other time after time and there’s no one caring about anything. The season almost has to be winding down soon though so at least we can get a fresh batch next season. Not horrible overall tonight though.
Results
Yoshi Tatsu/Vladimir Kozlov/Conor O’Brian b. Darren Young/JTG/Chavo Guerrer – High Kick to JTG
Zack Ryder b. Titus O’Neil – Rough Ryder
