It's elimination week on NXT, so someone's headed back to Florida after tonight's show. Who's going to be on the chopping block after WWE tallies the votes from the pros and WWE Universe? Read on for my thoughts on the show as it happens.
I'm predicting low voter turnout for this season.
Well that's a different opening for the show.
Titus ain't half bad.
Anyone else thinking we'll get a swerve with Chavo being behind it? He is a a heel on TV now.
They're continuing the stuff with Titus, so he's presumably safe tonight.
I could be very wrong, but this seems like they had a change of plans for Chavo for this show, since they went so long with him having issues with Darren's treatment on him.
Hey, it makes sense that they'd want him to be heel on both NXT and Smackdown. It means more for the feud with Sin Cara. The "not many people watch the show anyway" excuse doesn't fly with me, because there's got to be a fair amount of people watching somewhere if it hasn't been canceled internationally. Not to mention that the live crowd would be pretty confused that Chavo's a good guy, but becomes bad on Smackdown.
Vintage Miz clips! Awesome video.
That Kiss My Foot Match graphic... wow. Never thought I'd see that.
Serious Yoshi? That's a new one.
I understand the Rookies not using the Pros' music now- it'd be weird to have both competitors come out to Tatsu's music.
Byron should have Regal as his pro and be called Lord Byron.
Not a bad match.
I see Novak being the first elimination 2 seasons in a row.
The crowd's just like "sure, we'll judge this if it gets us to Smackdown sooner".
Poor JTG has his work cut out for him getting Novak over. The last few lines weren't bad, though.
I had a feeling we'd get Kozlov dancing here.
Are the people in FCW this umm... not good? Conor wasn't bad, but nothing that made me say "yes, this guy should be the one to move on to Season 6".
I'd have rather this been a tag match so we could evaluate the in-ring performances of the rookies. Tonight could be the last time we see either of them in a WWE ring.
Where's Lucky Cannon?
I think we need subtitles for this show.
And the crowd goes "meh". Definitely who I'd cut.
On to my rankings of the rookies. For anyone who read my columns in Season 4, the format is the same: Top Tier is who I want to see more of, Bottom Tier is the "chopping block" of who I'd like to see eliminated, and Middle Tier is those in the middle. Last time refers to the last time they were ranked this season, which is never at this point.
Top Tier:
1. Titus O'Neill (Last Time: N/A)- Titus is really starting to grow on me, and I thought he was one of the worst wrestlers I'd ever seen back in Season 2. He still has a ways to go both on the mic and in the ring, but he seems like he has a good foundation and is on the right path.
2. Lucky Cannon (Last Time: N/A)- We haven't seen much of Lucky in the ring the last few weeks, and that could very well have hurt him here. He's been very entertaining on the mic, even if it comes off a little overdone or unnatural at times. Another guy who has improved a lot since we last saw him.
3. Darren Young (Last Time: N/A)- Darren just barely made it to this tier. Part of me wanted to do 2 per tier whenever possible, but I want to stick to what I laid out earlier. He's more off-and-on from what I've seen. Some weeks he's really intense, and other weeks it's not quite the same. He's not bad in the ring and has a god chance of going higher in the rankings.
Middle Tier:
4. Conor O'Brien (Last Time: N/A)- Conor's improved since last season (though it took me a while to get used to his new persona and how he was working differently in the ring), but I don't think he's good enough just yet to be a threat in this competition from my perspective. He could very well earn a place in WWE in time, but that time's not here yet.
5. Byron Saxton (Last Time: N/A)- I think Saxton's at a big disadvantage this season because he hasn't changed his game up as much as the others have. And he's been gone from the show for the least amount of time. I still like his "presence" and mic work, and he's not bad in the ring, but he unfortunately doesn't stand out as much as he used to. I liked goofy heel Saxton a good deal better.
Bottom Tier:
6. Jacob Novak (Last Time: N/A)- It's rare that I see a wrestler that I don't see much of anything in. Sometimes it's just a case of only seeing them a couple of times in the ring and over a couple of weeks. That's not the case here. I've had more than my fill of Jacob Novak. There's a very clear reason he was voted off first both seasons he was on. They're trying to tell you something, WWE. There's a chance that he turns things around in due time (like Titus and Lucky, who I also weren't enthused with the first season they were in), but it's going to take a lot of work in and out of the ring. If FCW needs to cut someone they don't think has much of a chance of succeeding in WWE, I wouldn't fault them for going with Novak.
That's all for this week. I'll be back for Superstars and Impact on Thursday, and there's a news post coming up later tonight.
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