Tag Archive: Rookies

  2. WWE NXT 4/20

    4 Comments

    With the Raw roster stuck in Europe they need to change things up. Daniel Bryan needs to win to show all his problems are based on the Miz.

    We open up with Striker introducing the rookies who are in the ring. Random order. We’re down to three weeks befoe elimination.

    The challenge this week is an American Gladiators thing where you have to knock the other guy off a platform with a pugil stick. They call it Rock Em Sock Em Rookies.

    Slater and Otunga start. Slater wins with a jab to the chest. Skip Sheffield and Wade Barrett are next. They both go off because when Barrett falls he falls forward. Next two are Michael Tarver and Daniel Bryan. Tarver refuses to compete. He then shoves him. And Darren Young and Justin Garbriel last. Gabriel falls off fairly easily.

    In the main event Heath Slater wrestles Chris Jericho.

    We get some pros talking about Wade Barrett.

    Our first match is David Otunga. He’s accompanied by R-Truth who looks to be in very good shape despite being blown up last night. The announcers are really pushing the A-List nickname.

    His opponent is Justin Gabriel. Matt’s out with him and his arm isn’t taped.

    Waistlock takedown hard by Otunga. Gabriel armdrags out of a second attempt. Kick to the gut and a headlock by Otunga. Shoulderblock. Slide under and Gabriel armdrafs him then dropkicks him.

    Otunga crawls under the ropes and snaps one into Gabriel’s face. Neckvice. Discus punch attempt by Gabriel block, and spun into a neckbreaker. Reverse chinlock with knee in the back.

    Gabriel avoids an elbow. Headscissors sends Otunga’s oput and a sommersault senton, which R-Truth enjoyed. Springbaord crossbody. Russian legsweep. Otunga avoids a 450 and then tosses him out. Gabriel leaps over the top into a sunset flip. Otunga wants R-Truth to grab his hands. Truth refuses and Gabriel gets the three count. Truth walks out post match. This follows up the announcers talking about Otunga not listening to Truth’s advice.

    Semis of Rock Em Sock Em Rookies. Skip Sheffield advances over Heath Slater. Darren Young’s hair is even weirder this week, sweeping forward. He beats Bryan.

    Michael Tarver apparently has a match. No, it’s an interview. He’s done being overlooked, and he doesn’t play by their rules. He has no intention to dance on a balloon like a monkey. He’s a bulldog off the leash. He issues and open challenge. Skip Sheffield comes out. Turn your upper lip south and shut your mouth. Here comes CM Punk and the Straight Edge Society. Punk says they aren’t the only ones looking for competition.

    He shows Young’s match with Gallows and Punk raising his hand. Punk believes in the law of the jungle, of competition. He does this to keep them on their toes. He says this just became a Triple Threat.

    Sheffield and Tarver target Young. Sheffield goes over the top. Tavrver ducks his head, eats a kick and gets clotheslined over the top.

    Young is being double teamed with both of them stomping. Shoulders in the corner. Corner clothesline by Sheffield. Tarver with a snap suplex. Belly to Belly by Skip. They start breaking up pins. Young is sent hard into the ringpost.

    Tarver and Sheffield fight. Corner clothesline, big splash. Young tosses Skip. TOrnado forearm and a flying shoulder by Young. Backdrop. He’s going up top. Gallows flips him off and attacks Skip. Tarver misses his knockout punch and Young finally gets to use his finisher, a dragon suplex into a face buster, for the win.

    And now for the finals of Rock Em Sock Em Rookies. Skip won it, but it was close. No, actually it was to close so they’re doing a rematch. Sheffield gets it done decisively this time. He then quotes Keanu Reeves from the movie Hardball saying the most important part of life is showing up.

    Time for the main event. Barrett accompanies Jericho.

    Slater starts pounding away on Jericho but Jericho quickly takes over. Back suplex. Kick to the face. Back elbow. Catapult into the bottom rope. Snapmare, chinlock and half nelson. Slater fights out but gets a dropkick. Misses the Lionsault.

    Clothesline. Running forearm in the corner. Ducks his head and gets a boot, but Slater avoids a clothesline and gets a eneckbreaker. Poke to the eye. Small package and he very cockily prepares for the Walls of Jericho and Slater scores the upset win. Jericho pitches a fit.

    Once again an excellent show. I’m a little surpised Edge didn’t accompany Slater since he and Christian are old buddies. Of course not near as surprised as I am by the Slater victory.

    Young looks to be primed for a rematch with Skip Sheffield next week, since they could easily have Gallows wondering if he just picked the wrong guy to help.

    They tied the end of the Otunga match together with what the announcers had been talking about very well. I think that may have been the first time we’ve seen Gabriel without the 450.

    They seem to be focusing less on Daniel Bryan these days. I suppose it’s to keep him from being to overexposed.

    I was figuring on minor movement of the pros poll but it looks like they could change things a lot when they do it in a few weeks.

  6. WWE NXT results 3/9/10

    1 Comment

    No intro for me this week – let’s go!

    Last week: David Otunga and R-Truth had a bit of a falling out.

    The theme song plays, the pyro goes off, and the broadcast team of Michael Cole and Josh Matthews welcome us to WWE NXT!

    R-Truth and David Otunga make their way to the ring, Truth rapping the whole way. Otunga can care less about Truth’s performance, he walks right past his mentor and into the ring.

    Matt Striker is standing by backstage, and he explains the rules of the show once more. The pros will vote on the rookies – but they can’t vote for or against their own rookies.

    AWESOME!

    The Miz leads his rookie, Daniel Bryan, to the ring. This is a tag team match, which will probably wind up coming down to which team can put aside their differences better. Miz has a pep talk for Bryan. Right now, Bryan is 0-2. He hasn’t proven anything to anybody yet. Last night on RAW, Miz was jumped. This match is very important to him. If Bryan is pinned tonight, Miz will make sure he never achieves his goal of becoming a WWE Superstar. And he’ll have him thrown off of NXT.

    R-Truth & David Otunga def. The Miz & Daniel Bryan

    Bryan starts off with R-Truth, with Truth having the upper hand early on. Otunga gets the tag in and the team of Truth and Otunga start utilizing classic tag team strategy, keeping Bryan away from The Miz. Things get a bit crazy – Bryan and Miz get dumped to the outside by Truth, who dives on them, sending us to a…

    <COMMERCIAL BREAK>

    When we come back, Michael Cole screws up David Otunga’s name, calling him Daniel Otunga. Miz and Bryan are also in control by this point. Bryan tags in The Miz, who admonishes him for showboating. Miz is nearly pinned by Truth off of a rollup, but manages to take control right back from him. Truth causes some separation, and finally manages to get the tag in to Jennifer Hudson’s fiancee. He gets Miz in a pinning predicament, but Bryan makes the save. Bryan tags himself in and turns the tide back into his team’s favor. He locks a heel hook in on Otunga. Will Otunga snap or tap? Miz tags himself back in, and then the two start battling – meanwhile, Truth sneaks in and nails the Lie Detector on The Miz, allowing Otunga to pin the WWE United States Champion.

    After the match, Miz threatens Bryan’s career again, telling him to go away. Bryan feigns punching The Miz, who flinches, before leaving.

    Video: Carlito Surprised Heath Slater by spitting in his face. That wasn’t cool to Slater. Slater says if he had an apple and Carlito was standing in front of him, he wouldn’t spit in his face, he’d chuck it like a fastball at Carlito’s head. He’ll have the opportunity, as he takes on Carlito, NEXT!

    <COMMERCIAL BREAK>

    Matt Striker wants to know how Miz feels about the fact that it was he who lost the match for his team, and not Daniel Bryan.  Miz reminds Striker of all the gold he has.  Bryan comes in, he doesn’t care about Miz’s accolades.  He says that everybody he’s ever been partners with have carried him.  Miz reminds him he’s the pro.  Bryan asks if Miz is so talented, why is he the one who lost tonight?

    Video: Justin Gabriel grew up in the wrestling industry and he’s a martial arts expert.

    Matt Hardy is giving Gabriel a pep talk backstage, telling him to do exactly what he did last week.  Chris Jericho and Wade Barrett come in.  Jericho says he did good last week, but not good enough for this week, because Wade Barrett is Jericho’s protege, and look at the size of him.  Barrett reminds Gabriel that last week, he destroyed Daniel Bryan in less than 3 minutes.  Hardy tells Jericho that his protege will defeat Jericho’s tonight.

    Heath Slater makes his way to the ring along with his pro, Christian.  Carlito heads to the ring with his rookie, Michael Tarver.  Carlito heard what Slater had to say about him, but he should be honored that Carlito spit in his face.  You know how many WWE Superstars faces Carlito’s spit into?  Slater should be begging to get spit at again.  Carlito gets in the ring, takes a bite of his apple, but Slater ducks the spit.

    Heath Slater def. Carlito

    Slater decked Carlito to start the match and then we went to a…

    <COMMERCIAL BREAK>

    Carlito is in control when we come back, but that doesn’t last very long.  Slater holds his own with Carlito, and when Carlito kicks Slater in the face, Tarver cheers from ringside, saying “that boy’s gonna need to go to the dentist!”  Carlito takes control for a few minutes, but he takes some time to talk to Tarver on the outside, and Slater takes advantage.  Carlito hits a spinebuster on Slater, and he goes to grab his apple, but Christian took it away.  Christian tosses it to Tarver, who doesn’t think it’s funny.  Carlito tells Christian to watch what he does to Slater – he goes for a Backstabber, but Slater escapes.  Carlito tries to roll up Slater, but Slater rolls through and pins Carlito.

    Video: Darren Young says this is his destiny.  He thinks the WWE Universe will find him entertaining.  There’s no better feeling than being in the spotlight, and he looks up to guys like Shawn Michaels and Ricky Steamboat.

    CM Punk is discussing Young with the Straight Edge Society.  Young comes in and says he respects Punk’s lifestyle, but wants to know why he can’t live his own.  Punk says he can lead a horse to water, but he can’t make him drink.  Straight Edge can make him a winner, but Young can live his own lifestyle and see where that gets him.

    Up next, Justin Gabriel takes on Wade Barrett in our main event.

    <COMMERCIAL BREAK>

    It’s confirmed that “Be Yourself” by Audioslave is an official theme song of WrestleMania.

    RAW REBOUND: Mr. McMahon defeated John Cena in the main event.  Nevermind the fact that it was a handicap gauntlet match and that the WWE Champion Batista was Mr. McMahon’s last partner, Mr. McMahon pinned John Cena.

    We get a rundown of the WrestleMania XXVI card – Batista vs. John Cena, Chris Jericho vs. Edge, Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker in a no DQ match, Triple H vs. Sheamus, Bret Hart vs. Mr. McMahon, John Morrison & R-Truth vs. ShoMiz – what a hell of a card we’ve got for the show of shows!

    Chris Jericho leads Wade Barrett to the ring and we’re informed that for the first time in two years, this Friday on SmackDown it’s the return of Chris Jericho’s Hi-Lite Reel with special guest Edge!

    <COMMERCIAL BREAK>

    Matt Hardy leads Justin Gabriel into battle, and last week, Gabriel became the first rookie to have pinned a WWE pro, that pro being William Regal.

    Justin Gabriel def. Wade Barrett

    Power vs. speed – that’s what this match is.  Barrett is a big guy who can really hurt you, and Gabriel is a smaller guy – well, compared to Barrett anyway – who can use his speed to avoid being hurt by a bigger guy like Barrett and to strike before his opponent can counter.  The crowd actually starts chanting USA in this one, despite the fact that the only American in this match is Gabriel’s pro, Matt Hardy.  Gabriel manages to squeak out the win, knocking Barrett down and hitting the 450 splash from the top for the victory.

    Jericho attacks Hardy after the match, knocking him out of the ring, then hitting a codebreaker on Gabriel before locking him into the old school Lion Tamer style Walls of Jericho.  Barrett and Jericho are the ones standing tall as NXT goes off the air.

    My Thoughts: WWE did a great job this week and getting me interested in some of the rookies who I didn’t care about at all.  Darren Young showed a bit of personality, Heath Slater showed that he could be a great commodity for World Wrestling Entertainment, and Michael Tarver seemed to open up a bit more this week than he had a couple of weeks ago.  Still the star of this show is Daniel Bryan, and that’s not by accident.  WWE is trying to make that happen, and they’re doing a good job of it – though Justin Gabriel seems to be developing quite a fan base, even if they don’t realize he’s from South Africa and not the United States.  Some people I’ve talked to don’t like the show – I, on the other hand, have really enjoyed it the last few weeks and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next.  See you Friday for SmackDown!