No good deed goes unpunished. I waited for hours to get to see a replay of NXT, and we start things off with T-shirts in a giant slingshot. Oh boy. Well, here goes nothing. My review of the 2nd NXT of 2011.
There's not much to say about the slingshot competition. Let's just move on...
Remember that I don't talk about Rookie matches because I look at each talent as a whole at the end of the show.
I think Bateman makes a good foil for Bryan.
I've actually seen the old show "Password". I liked it. It wasn't much like this. This was more like "$25,000 Pyramid". Again, we should just move on... (For those who didn't get the reference, Lanny Poffo was nicknamed "The Genius" decades back. He's also Randy Savage's brother)
That looks like a small restaurant... You'd think that Bateman and Bryan would have shown some signs of not getting a long today after last night's date problems.
Ok, done watching the show. Let's get to the "tier list" of how I see the Rookies after this episode. Remember, Top Tier means I want to see more of them, Middle Tier means I'm not sold on them yet, and Bottom Tier means that I don't want to see them anymore.
Top Tier:
Derrick Bateman (Ranked #1 last week): Bateman didn't get a chance to wrestle this week, and I think that might have hurt him. That being said, he's good with his character and we got to see it progress this week. I wasn't crazy about the double date segment, but I thought he did well with it. And he was able to think on his feet well in Password, which is an important quality in a wrestler. I think he'll be safe next week, and he should be.
Johnny Curtis (Ranked #2 last week): Curtis got extensive time in the ring this week, and showed promise there. I think there's still some room for improvement, but all in all I think he's on his way to being a WWE superstar. He has "it" for the most part, and that's also very important.
Middle Tier:
Brodus Clay (Ranked #3 last week): Brodus didn't really get a chance to do much of anything this week except be at ringside for DiBiase vs. Curtis. I think he has good intensity and some good moves, but I'm not sold on him as a potential winner for this. The "ggyeah" thing's getting a little old too. At least in the sense that he does it too much.
Byron Saxton (Ranked #4 last week): Byron Saxton's shown some good skills as far as having "it" and working the mic well. I really liked him singing for Password. In a company where there are only so many spots, you have to stand out to earn a place, and he's doing that. As far as his ringwork's concerned, I think we need to see more out of him. Maybe he's a little too tentative or something? What we've seen has been good, but I think we need to see more from him in that areabefore deciding whether he should be on the main roster at any point.
Bottom Tier:
Conor O' Brian (Ranked #5 last week): I always feel kind of bad putting someone in the bottom tier, or criticizing them in general. It doesn't mean that I think that the Rookie's bad necessarily, just not good enough to stay in the competition much longer. That's the case here. I'm somewhat entertained by the rat gimmick, but he hasn't shown enough in the ring for me to say that he has a shot of making it to the main roster. He needs to make a good amount of improvement here. Again, he's not bad. He just doesn't really stand out enough. My opinion on him could change after next week's episode, but as of now, he's the one I think should be eliminated then.
And there you have my look at this week's NXT. Next week's post will feature new rankings since it's an elimination show. I'll do more thoughts for Superstars and Impact on Thursday.
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