So, NXT has arrived. The next step in Sports Entertainment? Here are my views on the show, which I watched before work this morning!
The show opened with a shot of all the NXT Rookies. From Jennifer Hudson’s fiancé to the black guy with ridiculous hair that looks like John Cena. As they stand there The Miz enters and looks them all up and down, stopping longer on Daniel Bryan. Miz pulls Bryan out of the line and introduces him as an “Internet Darling”. He actually openly admits that the guy has had a long and successful career internationally before arriving in the WWE. Something that I don’t think the WWE have ever done, from personal memory anyway.
Miz asks Bryan if he’s ready, Bryan says he is. Miz challenges Bryan to go to the ring and introduce himself, wanting him to show charisma. He says Bryan can even go to the ring to The Miz’s music. Bryan jokes that this may be hard for him. I’m already liking the pairing of these two, which I never thought I would.
So, Bryan gets to the ring and introduces himself. He even goes so far to apologise to his fans for being “stuck” with The Miz, stating he’d rather have been teamed with William Regal. Great, I’m loving this, get the pro/rookie pairing hating each other, this could be fun. Miz comes out to insult Bryan who retorts with jokes about Miz being on the Real World and having a Fohawk. Miz says he needs a catchphrase. Miz rolls out his own incredibly deep “I’m Awesome” catchphrase and about 50 fans join in. Bryan jokes about how crap that catchphrase is and comes up with his own “when you wrestle me, you either tap or you snap.” Miz looks pissed and ends up slapping Bryan before leaving.
For the first ever NXT segment I think it was… to use some idiots simple catchphrase… awesome. Instantly made me a Daniel Bryan mark.
Ok, so the show set up… Matt Striker is your host/interviewer and Michael Cole is on commentary with Josh Matthews. Surprised to see Cole on there to be honest and had all but forgotten Matthews existed.
After the first break Striker is interviewing Bryan. Bryan says he slaps harder than The Miz. Striker plays down his indy career saying it means nothing in the WWE, but praises Bryan’s confidence. Josh Matthews is playing up his indy roots while Cole is talking them down. It sounds like they’re making Cole a heel announcer?
And then they drop the bomb. Main event? Daniel Bryan versus… The World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho!! Holy mother of god… I’ve wanted to see this match for ages! I think this whole first part of the show makes things clear that they’re planning to push Bryan.
Match 1:
Ok, finally a match. Michael Tarver & Carlito against Heath Slater & Christian.
Christian Slater (see what they did there?) get the win after Christian pins Tarver. Tarver was poor in this match while Slater was mildly better. I won’t go into full match details, but don’t expect Tarver to be the one making it to the full roster any time soon.
Match 2:
Darren Young (with the Straight Edge Society) vs. David Otunga (with R-Truth)
R-Truth on the mic for the entrance… What’s up? What’s up? Crap and pointless match, that’s what’s up. Seriously, this one lasted all of 25 seconds. Young is a party boy that’s been paired with Mr Straight Edge, which is odd in itself, plus his hair is ridiculous and he looks like a black John Cena. Otunga is going to marry Jennifer Hudson, he goes to Hollywood parties, he’s been to the Whitehouse twice this year, he studied law at Harvard, but he can’t deliver a proper spinebuster for toffee.
Match 3: MAIN EVENT
Daniel Bryan (with The Miz) vs. Chris Jericho (with Wade Barrett)
Jericho refuses to be introduced by the ring announcer and wants Barrett to do it. Barrett tries to suck up to Jericho, in his Manc accent, but Jericho wants a plain intro. The match itself was good. Bryan shows good skills (bar some poor punching) and takes a big bump when a dive through the ropes to the outside is turned into a kind of powerslam into the announce table by Jericho. Not sure if that was deliberate or if Jericho got scared and tried to get out of the way. He’s either a genius or a chicken. Bryan almost makes Jericho tap, but Jericho ends up winning with Walls of Jericho THE LION TAMER!!! Not seen it performed like that (with the proper neck crank) in ages! That was vintage Jericho!
Miz enters the ring to beat down on Bryan after the match. Cole talks trash about Bryan, cementing his role as a heel announcer. But it still sounds like the same old whiny Michael Cole to me. Lawler is the only WWE announcer that can do the heel role well.
Next week: Matt Hardy & Justin Gabriel
Ok, so the show’s over.
I thought NXT was supposed to be a reality show. I almost didn’t watch it because of that. Let’s make things clear now… this is NOT a reality show. What it is… is one of the most entertaining WWE shows I’ve seen in a long time.