Love is in the air on NXT. Last week, NXT rookie Derrick Bateman proposed to former NXT rookie Maxine. And she said yes! There's also a competition going on. Bateman's opponent and chief rival Titus O'Neil is also looking to become a breakout star. Joining them will be others on the WWE (and FCW) roster all looking to cut their teeth in the "new WWE". Read on for my thoughts on the show as it happens.
I love this show. Even more after that video package. So ridiculous!
And Darren's still in the intro as a rookie. We'll see his fate when his suspension ends next week.
"Too hot for TV". I like it.
Well done by these 3.
Titus is much better when he lets loose and has fun.
Is someone writing promos for these people? These are a lot better than I've heard from them in the past.
How'd that fish get through security?
Finally seeing Johnny Curtis again. Let's see what he can do. I like his new, less generic look.
Fine start.
I think they should avoid using cliches in Curtis' matches after those videos he did months back. Getting squashed by In fact, they should probably pretend his "other debut" never happened.
Both men working over the leg. Good.
Why can't other commentators share Regal's viewpoint about who should be focused on?
I don't think I've ever seen that countered like that. Good stuff.
Tag Team Titles, we comin for you Us!
AJ's even adorable putting up her dukes. I love Maxine's ring gear there. Fits her sinister personality.
Pretty good WWE/Muppets package.
They're not really teasing an AJ/Kaitlyn feud are they? They work so well together!
Kaitlyn's fun. I wish her ring gear matched her personality.
Good little story here.
THAT FINISHER!!! She's starting to impress me beyond "doing well for someone with not much experience". Tamina was fine as well.
If there are only 2 people left in the competition, of course they're the front-runners. We'll see if that's the case next week if I'm not mistaken.
Playing a video game while eating popcorn doesn't work so well.
Regal lost me on that one.
Interesting hair-pull move.
I love AJ's dropkicks. Or whatever they should be called.
Note to self: Google Curtis Mayfield.
Bateman's dropkicks are pretty tight as well.
Titus is a little off here.
CATFIGHT!!!! Come on, Joey Styles.
Well put together match.
Good stuff this week.
Time for rankings. Remember that 1 is basically so bad they shouldn't even be here, 2 still needs a good deal of work to be ready for this, 3 is in the middle of the pack between ready for the main roster and needing a serious overhaul. 4 is close to being ready for the main ready, and 5 is pretty much completely ready for the main roster.
Derrick Bateman- 4. Bateman has really come into his own as of late. His work with Maxine is something that I could eventually see working on Raw or Smackdown. At LEAST something like Superstars above NXT. I think he could very well be close to a 5 in the coming weeks, and that's a hard one to reach. I'd put him close to the middle of A range (5 is pretty much A++). He's getting there.
Titus O'Neil- 4. Titus seems to be getting a good deal better, but isn't at Bateman's level. He still has some awkward moments, but continues to grow. He's still a work in progress, but I think he's getting there. He's much better on the mic than he used to be. If he can smooth out his in-ring performances, he MIGHT be something to watch. Somewhere in the B range.
That's all for this week. I'll be back tomorrow for Superstars and Impact Wrestling. A news post will be up later. Thanks for reading!
Any idea what the company is going to do with Young not only in the competition but also in the future? It really would have been interesting to see how he would have faired in this competition. It is truly a shame he ended up getting suspended.
ReplyDeleteHe was very wrong for taking PHD's, but people make mistakes, as many of the current stars on the two major brands have been suspended as well and haven't been penalized majorly. Given, they were already on major brands and not on NXT, but Young has just as much to offer than arguably half of the stars on those brands. I find it hard to justify penalizing him for a mistake so many others have made; especially with this competition being 35+ weeks long SO FAR.
I don't necessarily believe Striker when he said it was down to two and have never been a fan of him (maybe there are other sources out there), so I'm not positive if Young is even out of it. You mentioned the competition was down to two; are you positive? What are your thoughts?
I haven't heard much of anything on him since his suspension period. I'm taking that in a "no news means good news" way. If they wanted to release him, surely they would have done it by now?
ReplyDeleteThe rumor going around is that it might have been for synthetic marijuana instead, but that could just be hearsay. The story goes that that used to just be something they fined for, but is now counted as a violation.
I'm not sure what you're trying to argue about him being penalized. As far as I know, he's got the same kind of suspension that Slater and Bourne currently have (and others have gotten in the past).
I don't know about his status as far as the competition goes (and I haven't heard anything on it outside of the show). They're sending mixed signals at best. He's on the intro and the website, but Striker's said a time or two on air that it's down to two. I assume that's what he was told to say by management (or Creative?). His suspension should be up in time for next week's episode, so if they decide to pick up where they left off he'll be there.
I think to some degree his competitors getting 4 weeks "free" to perform without being judged against him is punishment enough as far as the competition goes, but it's not up to me. I'd like to see him back next week to see how he fares with the sort of "new roster" the show has.
Maybe they're making it a surprise and are acting, for all intents and purposes, as if he's not even around until his suspension is up. I guess we will have to wait and see what happens. Like I said, I can't really take Striker credibly. Any word about the next elimination?
ReplyDeleteTo be more clear, I meant it as if they actually take him off of the competition because of the suspension, I'd consider it unfair. Even though Bourne and Slater are on the main rosters, Young shouldn't have to be taken out of the contest for similar violations. This is especially when the contest is 35+ weeks long.
I actually thought of that, but they'll need to explain where he's been. To me, the performer was suspended but not the character if that makes sense. Like how Two and a Half Men didn't say that Charlie Sheen didn't sign a new contract. They wrote off his character.
ReplyDeleteHonestly if they bring him back next week I don't expect we'll get anything in that regard. There are barely "rules" about NXT anymore. They just kind of do what they want. More on that in a minute.
It wouldn't surprise me if THEY (management) don't even know when the next elimination will be. The show's basically become a place for people they're not using elsewhere to work as opposed to a competition.
And what are they even competing for? A WWE contract or to become a breakout star (or both)? They haven't mentioned NXT Season 6 in a while.
One thing that confuses me is how they're competing in NXT, and they're not featured on the Superstars page, but are able to walkout from Raw and compete on Smackdown. Percy and Maxine never "got contracts" but they're in the same boat. Maxine's been in a Divas shoot or two, but wasn't in the battle royal on Raw or on the Divas section of WWE.com.
Anyway, rant over. I see what you mean now. I can see why they would take him from the competition, but agree that it would be unfair since he was already punished. Though I have the feeling that if they do remove him, it'll be because they don't know how they want to fit him back into the puzzle. Out of sight, out of mind kind of thing. That seems like what happened to Maryse.
Given that his suspension's up soon, it's likely that something (even if it's small) will be said about it before NXT. I might just see that it's done and his status on NXT is up in the air, though.
Very good points there. Your rant is justified. At this point, anything is truly possible on this show. They are really making NXT like another version of "Superstars". I, like you, find it fairly stupid, because NXT was created as a competition for one person to be the next star. I liked it better when Superstars featured the stars that weren't on regular programming and NXT was more of a competition. It is VERY hard to view it as a competition now with all of these wrestlers who aren't on the two brands often to keep popping up on it. It's very hard to understand it.
ReplyDeleteAt least when Raw was being debated about how "vote of no confidence" was in place, it still was easy to understand the purpose. That purpose was to provide quality programming based on the viewer. We can't logically understand the purpose of NXT now and it's a shame. For some reason, I get a thrill in competitions like that, because it's always up in the air in terms of who is gonna win. The other brands are basically predictable in terms of who is gonna win the matches (I could correctly pick like 19 out of 20 match outcomes correctly). But, all of that thrill is gone. It's a shame.
I guess they think that now that there are the Supershows, not as many people get chances to work on TV in front of larger audiences. I really enjoy seeing some of the people we don't get to see as much and them getting experience, but it makes following the concept of the show kind of confusing. I look at it like all of the other people on the show are "guests".
ReplyDeleteI can kind of go either way on which I'd rather see as long as they let us know what's going on and don't just randomly change things. The NXT concept as a whole is pretty neat when they actually put effort into that part of it.
At the end of the day, whatever lets us see the younger stars of WWE is good by me. It's refreshing seeing them instead of the same old, same old at the top of the card. That's another story, though.
I used to really be like that as well. I still am to a degree (when things are particularly monotonous), but I'm much more interested in whether the matches and stories involved are good. Winning's only part of the story.
I will say that I think the competition's more open now than it was a month or so ago. I'm pretty curious about how things will go when Young's back in the mix to compare Bateman and Titus to.