NXT reminds me of WCW.
Done gasping? Let me explain myself. A common theme revolving are the WCW brand was uncertainty. Essentially, some writer would come up with a great idea but have no idea where to go with it. For fear that the idea would somehow parallel milk and go stale the longer it was out there, the idea would be thrown on television without a difinitive direction. As time went on, different directions would be proposed and it became very much "book as you go" story development. This trend has been evident to me in NXT as well. It seems to me that someone in creative stood up one day and said "I have an idea! we'll take some developmental guys and pair them with current guys and replace ECW!" Everyone was excited about the idea, but when the question "so where will we go with it?" was asked, an answer was not given. Thus, that unfinished idea was thrown on TV, and since then, ideas have been tossed around and the concept has been in constant flux since. So far, we found out that 8 rookies were paired with 8 pros, there will be voting but pros can't vote for against their own rookie, and finally yesterday, we found out that the first round of voting will be in 2 weeks. It is still unclear what the voting will actually accomplish, but like I said, stay tuned, as the picture should clear up little by little each week. Let's take a look at what was accomplished this week.
The show opened up with a mixed tag match pitting Matt Hardy and the similarly dressed Justin Gabriel against CM Punk and his polar opposite, Darren Young. I'm very up and down on these mixed matches, as on one hand, it's good for these young guys to work with experienced veterans, but on the other hand, putting those matches on television, to the keen viewer like myself, the pacing and smoothness of the match are clearly lacking. It's wonderful to get these guys exposure, but it's clear that their in ring work is nowhere near ready for hte main roster. As much as I like Gabriel's potential, he needs a lot of refinement in the ring. Young is a little farther along, but I'm still not overly impressed with him. Maybe it's the hair, but something is off with that kid. By the way, he bears striking resemblence to the guitar player in The Roots (trust me, watch Jimmy Fallon's show and check it out). Anyway, the match ended when the Straight Edge Society distracted the ref while Punk hit the GTS on Hardy and Young pinned the pro. You know, it's pretty easy to win when you have FOUR PEOPLE ON YOUR SIDE! Of course, the Society was proud of the victory and Young was proud to be part of it, but since Young still hasn't accepted Straight Edge into his life, he was given a beating by Luke Gallows for his trouble. It seems that Punk's group will get victories for their own ego, but won't accept the kid until he changes his lifestyle. It's not completely evident, but if you read between the lines, it's there. I personally think it's more because Young just doesn't come off to me as marketable.
Next, The Miz set up a special match for Daniel Bryan, putting him up against The Great Khali. The only problem with that is that The Miz was nowhere to be found. He wasn't on Raw either so I wonder where he is these days. Short match, as even though Bryan got an early advantage, he could not slay the giant. For good measure, Miz's tag team partner, The Big Show came out after the match and chokeslammed Bryan. The kid is now 0-4 with continual embarassment from week to week. With an impending vote coming, the only way the "favorite" survives is through sympathy vote, because you certainly can't be impressed by his win/loss record. Now, I still like the kid as a worker, though he is quite undersized, but I have to question how getting him killed every week is doing him any good.
Before the next match, we got a David Otunga video package, which is the way to keep guys fresh in the viewer's mind when they don't have a match. This video got me thinking though. Otunga needs to be a heel. The things he was saying in his video scream "too good for NXT" and he should present himself as such. He should feel like he's too good for training, too smart for his mentor, too famous for this low class stuff. He needs to exude a cockiness that no one else can. He has the makings of a great heel, but he needs to open up that side of himself and just allow himself to be hated. I would probably find him less bland if he was able to do that.
Someone I don't find bland is Heath Slater. While I don't think he has fully tapped into his potential yet (and how could he, he's been on TV a month!), the way he presents himself to a live audience screams charisma. I suppose it's perfect then to be paired with "Captain Charisma", and it's clear the captain is teaching his first mate well. In a relatively short match, Slater got the roll up win on "Mr. 1.9 seconds" Michael Tarver. I'm beginning to think the 1.9 stands for how long it takes to beat him. For a guy with great size and supposedly amazing power, he does absolutely nothing for me. In fact, he even comes off looking small, I see no future for this guy unless he severely changes his approach. Slater though is 3-0, and even though Tarver got in a cheap shot after the match, I can't imagine anyone being hotter than the "one man rock band" (It's still a stupid nickname!)
The main event (if you want to call it that) featured Skip Sheffield against Wade Barrett. The most fun part of the match was Barrett's pre-match banter with Regal where he kept talking when Regal wanted to give him advice. Sheffield has the makings of a great comedy act, but nothing more. He has a good body for wrestling but his character is a joke. He proved that by getting his ass handed to him by the more serious Wade Barett. Granted they didn't have much time for the match, but I'm pretty sure it was meant to be short to begin with. Barrett needs to grow into himself, but he has potential as a heel. He's got great side and a cool finisher, but he needs to hone his presence. He has as much potential as anyone ou there.
So as you can tell, the show is still not progressing so much, but we do know that a vote will happen in two weeks. What that vote will do, I have no idea. What I do know is that some guys have impressed me, some have not, but the concept of NXT has gotten very old very fast. Good evidence of that is the declining ratings. WWE better do something if they want to maintain the audience. I enjoy some of these new performers and I like the dynamic some of them have with their pros, but with no tangible goal, it's hard to follow a show merely for the wrestling of inexperienced roookies. I am still holding out hope for this show, but my patience is wearing thinner each and every week.
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