NXT
Date: May 10, 2011
Location: Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tennessee
Commentators: Todd Grisham, William Regal

This is the tenth week and we still have no word on eliminations so I’m just going to forget about them now.  There’s nothing to note on this show other than the potential of this being the week when Novak fights Regal.  This would be the second week when that is supposed to happen so who knows.  Anyway let’s get to it.

Regal is in gear and apparently it’s his birthday.

Striker is back as a host here and brings out Maryse.  We get a clip of her getting beaten down by Kharma which means we see Kelly in those tiny white shorts which means I smile a bit.  I’m not sure if it’s just my video but the video is going in semi-fast forward.  Striker talks about the Redemption Points which Titus leads with 13.  Naturally this contest is worth six, making the previous few weeks completely pointless.

THERE IS AN ELIMINATION NEXT WEEK!!!!  THANK GOODNESS!!!  This is called King of the Hill and all you have to do is run up to the stage, grab a flag and come back to the ring and sound off an air horn.  Everyone goes at once so this takes like 15 seconds.  The fast forward thing makes it even funnier.  Titus wins, giving him 19 total points with second being something like 7.  Titus gets on the mic and says he doesn’t know where Horny is and no one else does.  He accuses Young of knowing something about it and says if Young doesn’t admit it he’ll beat it out of him.

Darren Young vs. Titus O’Neil

 

Look at these fresh matches NXT is giving us!  They’re still in fast motion here and the times will be just in seconds as I don’t know what else to do.  Young tries to leave but Titus pulls him back, shouting WHERE IS HE.  Young takes over and works on the arm.  I’m not sure if the sound is sped up also or not.  Chavo criticizes Young, saying he wasn’t known in the first season of NXT.  Did no one watch the show?

Some forearms get two for Young.  Crowd flat out does not care.  An electric chair gets Titus out of trouble and gets a gasp from the crowd for some reason.  Chavo again denies that he took Horny as a powerslam gets two for Titus.  A few seconds later a rollup ends Titus, giving him his first loss at 5:22

Rating: C-. Boring match that the fans didn’t really seem to care about.  Titus is clearly being pushed as the megastar of this season but they have him lose to a guy like Young.  I really don’t get that but I’m sure it makes sense in Vince’s mind.  That would of course imply that Vince knew this show existed, so we’ll go with it makes no sense.

Kozlov and O’Brian (sans mustache) do some sambo which O’Brian isn’t that good at.

Conor O’Brian vs. Byron Saxton

 

They’re still moving in fast motion.  I refreshed my browser and all that jazz so I’m guessing the production guys want this show to be over even more than I do.  O’Brian works on the arm for a bit as Regal says Cannon is in the lead in his eyes.  He’s making people notice him which makes sense.

The crowd flat out does not care and there’s nothing at all going on.  Regal points out the lack of fire in the guys too so it’s probably one of them going home next week.  O’Brian stays on offense the majority of the time here and puts on a stepover toehold.  Saxton fights back with a downward stunner and a bulldog type move before a middle rope elbow to the chin ends this at 4:57.

Rating: D-. Regal was right: there was nothing of note here at all.  They flat out didn’t care and there’s no reason at all to care about any of these people.  Cannon is the only one that gets a reaction as Titus gets pops because of the leprechaun and that’s about it.  Boring match all around and the lack of charisma by everyone shows through really badly here.

Saxton goes even more heel by saying Tatsu is too stupid to get that he doesn’t want him as his pro anymore.

Cannon gives Maryse a nice purse and she likes him now.  There’s your romance triangle this season.

Smackdown Rebound is about Christian and Orton from Friday.

We recap Regal vs. Novak, which is old school vs. new school for the most part.

William Regal vs. Jacob Novak

 

Novak has a little Grandmaster Sexay going on.  Novak represents the 3 S’s: street, skills and style.  JTG is heel now apparently and he makes fun of country music to prove it.  Regal sends him to the floor with relative ease.  Crowd cheers for Regal louder than they have for everything else all night.  Elbow in the corner sends Regal to the floor where JTG adds a dropkick.

Novak takes over and a knee lift gets two.  We hit the chinlock for awhile as we talk about the elimination a bit.  Clothesline puts Regal down again.  Striker talks about how good Novak is and I keep wondering what these people are talking about when they say that.  Back to the chinlock which doesn’t last as long.  Regal fights back and takes over with relative ease and the Regal Stretch ends this at 6:20.

Rating: C. Well I think we all knew that was the ending, especially given that Regal was turning 43 today.  Not much of a match but having an actual story really helped this as they had built it up to the point where you wanted Regal to show Novak who the master was out there and that’s exactly what you got.  Can’t ask for more than that.

Overall Rating: C-. The main event was by far and away better than anything else, but other than the announcement that we’re FINALLY getting to an elimination, nothing really happened here.  Horny is missing and after about 8 minutes that wasn’t mentioned again.  Oh and Maryse can be bought with purses.  Other than that, we have nothing here but thankfully someone (please O’Brian!) is gone next week.

Results

Titus O’Neil won the King of the Hill Challenge

Darren Young b. Titus O’Neil – Rollup

Byron Saxton b. Conor O’Brian – Middle rope elbow

William Regal b. Jacob Novak – Regal Stretch

NXT
Date: April 26, 2011
Location: Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina
Commentators: Todd Grisham, William Regal

Somehow this is two months old already.  Two months.  How in the world has it only been two months?  Anyway, we’re done with the draft now so it’s time to focus on the real important thing tonight: NXT!!!  Please, someone tell me there’s an elimination coming soon.  I can’t take these six guys on the show for another month.  Let’s get to it.

Maryse and Striker bring out the rookies and pros.  It’s time to play How Well Do You Know Your Pro.  This is the game where the teams are given a question and have to match their answers.  Is there a reason why the games are always the same and they NEVER come up with anything else?

First question is what is the one thing your rookie does better than any other rookie.  Byron says he speaks better, Tatsu says just wrestle.  Nice knowing you Yoshi.  Connor, with mutton chops, says punish people, Kozlov says fire up.  Young says he doesn’t care what Chavo said and that he thinks he’s a better wrestler than Chavo.  Chavo’s card says wrestle but it’s not a match.  Novak says he makes it look good, JTG says fly, which is apparently a match.  Cannon says this is about him, Kidd says best attire.  Titus says connect with the WWE Universe, Horny says bark.  Novak is the only one with a point.

Question two is if you can’t be a superstar, you should be what.  Regal talks about other jobs he used to have, such as working as a bouncer and wringing out sponges for a one armed window cleaner.  Byron says news reporter and is wrong as I didn’t see the card.  Conor says fighter, Vlad says firefighter which isn’t a match.  Young says he doesn’t care and Chavo says tax man.  Since when does Chavo wear glasses?

Novak says there is no answer because he will be the next breakout star.  JTG thinks hip hop MC.  Cannon wants to know how many times Maryse threw up in her mouth after kissing Yoshi but Kidd says fashion designer.  O’Neil says dogcatcher, Horny says bodyguard.  This ate up ten minutes and managed to make this show even weaker.  Regal again saves it, saying he understands why Cole left this show.  Novak wins with the only correct answer out of ten total.

Darren Young vs. Titus O’Neil

 

Young is being all aggressive to start and we hit the floor with Young in control.  Darren and Chavo are a weird pairing as they’re kind of both heels and yet they’re feuding.  Horny plays cheerleader to get Titus out of a chinlock.  Big old sideslam gets two.  Titus has beaten Young twice this season already so this is billed as a rivalry.  We’re in North Carolina so Young throws on a Figure Four.  Chavo won’t help him though so Young walks into a Low Down to end this at approximately 3:30.  My feed messed up so I missed a few parts but the match couldn’t have been longer than four minutes.

Rating: C-. Decent little match here as Titus continues to be pushed to the moon.  Ok maybe to outer space as I don’t think you can get to the moon from NXT.  Young arguing with Chavo is a nice little touch as it gives you a reason to pay attention to them, which is fine as Young is probably the best all around of these six.  Having a talented pro helps a lot too so they’re probably the best pairing.

Jacob Novak/JTG vs. Vladimir Kozlov/Conor O’Brian

 

The idea of putting a weak guy with a good guy is foreign on this show isn’t it?  Novak calls out Regal again as maybe my previous statement should be retracted.  Novak says Rega’s career is over which makes Regal stand up.  Regal says he’s over 40 and has lived 1000 lifetimes.  However, if Novak thinks he’s going to let a Muppet like Novak tell him what he’s going to do, Novak is crazy.  Regal wants a match RIGHT NOW.  Novak of course says no because he’s in the tag match but he’ll take on Regal next week.  I guess the big brawl of a feud is penciled in.

Novak and Kozlov start us off as Regal is eerily calm.  O’Brian and Kozlov send Novak to the floor as we take a break.  Regal calls JTG a waste of space and one of the worst people in the WWE.  Preach it brother man.  Back with JTG hitting a clothesline for two on O’Brian.  O’Brian fights back but stops to hit Novak like a good man but JTG takes over again.  Novak hammers on him a bit as Regal talks about lighting Novak on fire in the middle of winter and using his burning flesh to warm his hands.  Vince….about that offer for help for any employee…

The rookies hit the mat as we hear about how impressive Novak has been lately.  Regal takes credit for that which is saying a lot as I’ve become more and more bored by him week in and week out.  Naturally the two guys that are joined at the hop this season get to work the majority of the match.  O’Brian gets a DDT to break the momentum and it’s off to Vlad.  JTG gets involved and everything breaks down.  Novak fights off a double team and hits a big boot to O’Brian to end this at 6:45.

Rating: D+. I know this is getting into a good bit of personal bias, but I do not care about these two anymore.  Novak is trying with the whole Regal thing but it’s nothing.  If they let Novak go over Regal it’ll help him a bit but at the end of the day, Novak and O’Brian have no point being here and yet they’re never thrown off and are even brought back.  I don’t get it at all.  Match was just kind of there anyway.

Raw ReBound recaps the Draft of course.

Someone has destroyed Maryse’s purse so she rants to Tatsu in French.  She blames Lucky and goes off to check on her shoes.  Tatsu comes up to Saxton and asks if he’s seen Lucky.  Saxton gets annoyed with Tatsu not being his pro and says Tatsu can come to the ring for his match with Cannon.  Good to see Saxton showing some serious nature.

Byron Saxton vs. Lucky Cannon

 

Saxton takes over to start as we hit the floor.  The crowd is SILENT.  Do you know how hard it is to kill fans in North freaking Carolina???  Big boot gets two for Cannon.  Triangle choke by Cannon gets him nowhere.  We hit the chinlock as Todd talks about Tatsu and Kidd going to Smackdown along with Regal, meaning they can hang out together.  Regal goes into a rather depressing speech about having no friends.  Grisham says the two of them get along.  Regal says in total deadpan that they don’t.  This was almost saddening.

Saxton makes his comeback and gets two off a shot from the middle rope.  Rollup gets the same.  We reference Gorgeous George and Chanel #10.  Kidd breaks up a pin attempt so Yoshi takes him out.  Cannon takes out Yoshi so he can tell Maryse he had nothing to do with this.  Yoshi comes in for the DQ at 5:44.  Saxton beats up Yoshi and gets beaten up by Cannon post match.

Rating: C-. Not terrible here but this was more or less the Maryse match rather than Cannon vs. Saxton.  That being said, it’s hardly a bad thing as she’s far more interesting and charismatic than both of them.  Match was only there to set up the finish which is ok, but it gets annoying after awhile.

Maryse might be impressed by Cannon.

Overall Rating: D. This didn’t do it for me at all.  They seem like they’re just going in circles at this point with nothing at all coming to help this show.  O’Brian needs to go as he has nothing going on at all.  Even Novak has something to do here.  Still no mention of an elimination as I really think it’s going to be one winner and no eliminations throughout the season.  It’s never been this far into a season without one so maybe that’s what they’re going with.  Anyway, bad show here but there are at least some stories coming together, which would help this show a lot.

Results

Jacob Novak won the How Well Do You Know Your Pro Challenge

Titus O’Neil b. Darren Young – Sitout Spinebuster

JTG/Jacob Novak b. Conor O’Brian/Vladimir Kozlov – Big boot to O’Brian

Lucky Cannon b. Byron Saxton via DQ when Yoshi Tatsu interfered