WWE NXT week three

Yeah I know, wrestling. Not even obscure Japanese wrestling featuring Japanese guys hitting each other with Honda engine blocks, either. But American professional wrestling- “ewwww” is what I’d probably hear most of you say if I were talking about this in person versus writing about it on the internet.  Big deal, it’s my blog. I’ve enjoyed wrestling for longer than I’ve known most of you. It’s something that makes me happy and satisfies my need for heroes and villains. I mean, it could be worse: I could be watching something totally rigged and appealing to the lowest common denominator like American Idol or The Bachelor.)

Last week’s entry on this show was so popular that it garnered a staggering zero comments on my blog, but I’m still in love with this show and I hope that my cheerleading of it will get one of you hipster doofuses to watch it. So because it’s Tuesday, it’s 10:00, it’s wrestling time and nobody demanded it it’s my ode to the terminally out of step and completely dumb world of professional wresting. So here goes my wrap up of WWE NXT.

This week’s show starts off with a tag match pitting R-Truth and his newly nicknamed David “A List” Otunga against The Miz and Daniel Bryan.  Otunga has tear away faux designer jeans over his trunks. Say what you will about Otunga’s ring abilities, but everything the guy does before and after the ring bells is pretty damn spot on. He’s like the anti-Daniel Bryan, who seems to be able to more than take care of himself in the ring.  The Miz does a great job pumping Bryan up as the big underdog babyface for the match in a quick interview before the bell.

So far the booking on this show, despite a few things that I hate (like seemingly every mentor and rookie having a beef with each other) is spot on and smart. This match is telling three stories- Otunga’s beef with his mentor, the continuing Miz/Bryan issue (which feels like the “plot” of NXT so far) and the impending tag match at Wrestlemania featuring R-Truth and his partner John Morrison against The Miz and the Big Show- all at once. It’s solid and smart booking reminiscent of old school NWA shows I’d watch on Saturday afternoons as a kid.

The match itself was darn good. Otunga even looked like he knew what he was doing, showing off a pretty good fired up baby face offense off of the hot tag from R-Truth.  Daniel Bryan came in and was allowed to showcase his offense a bit also. The match ending angle with The Miz wanting the glory of the win and costing his team the victory, first by tagging Bryan as he had his finisher locked into Otunga and then by being pinned after an in-ring scuffle with his partner was grand.  Also of note was the ending confrontation between the two partners that showed Bryan pretending to swing at Miz and the Miz’s chickenshit flinch was amazing. The Miz is playing his role perfectly on this show, and any stardom that Bryan receives after this show is over will be due to The Miz being so giving here.

Next up was an interview with Heath Slater, who about as vanilla a babyface as I have seen in the WWE some time.  God I can’t stand him.

The show did another little vignette spotlighting Justin Gabriel. I love these little vignettes because they allow the wrestlers to showcase their personalities all while showcasing their in-ring ability. I wish the WWE would use all of these for their wrestlers.

Next up is a match between Heath Slater and Carlito. Carlito is the mentor of Michael Tarver. The match was as okay as a bland babyface versus and equally bland heel.  Not to mention that they had Slater win with the less than inspiring rollup pin.

Another vignette starring Darren Young followed by a backstage segment featuring Young’s mentor CM Punk. It’s starting to feel like Young’s storyline will be his turn from a good time loving party boy to a holier than thou straight edger aligned with CM Punk and his Straight Edge faction. If this is handled correctly it could be a great storyline.

The main event was a match between the two most impressive wrestlers so far on NXT, Wade Barrett and Justin Gabriel. Both of these wrestlers have great looks and play their respective roles (as the pretty boy high flyer and the gigantic British striker very well. The match kept a pretty good pace, with Gabriel showing off his speed and contrasting it nicely with Barrett’s slower, plodding and power based offence. Completing the awesomeness of the match was Chris Jericho’s screams at the announce table which totally brought back memories of Jim Cornette on the NWA television shows of my youth.  Gabriel won the match with a beautiful 450 splash, but the post match beatdown by Jericho was wonderful.

All in all the show was solid and only had one part that I could do without- the Slater segments. The storylines moved forward and there were plenty of matches set up for next week. Here’s hoping that the next show can continue this pace.

Until later, be good.