WWE NXT on WWE.com
January 12, 2012
Laredo, Texas
Report by: Gregory “Grash” Walek of Wrestleview.com
William Regal and Matt Striker are on commentary this week.
This week’s show features a new intro! All Major cast members, male and female, are featured in a similar manner as you’d see in Raw and Smackdown, but with the Black and Gold of NXT.
“We Are Wild And Young”
Striker opens the Show. Next week is NXT #100. Striker gets things going and brings out Alicia Fox. He’s right to the point to ask about her former rookie, Maxine. Alicia says he tried to sell Maxine on eBay several times as Maxine’s music hits and she enters the ring. She tells Alicia that this is her ring and she was useless as a pro. “It doesn’t who or what I am doing. I get back on my feet.” Alicia responds with, “Funny, I thought you liked being on your back.” Alicia shoves Maxine to the mat. Maxine gets up and says she likes being on top and jumps Fox. Striker calls for a ref and makes a match between these two.
Alicia Fox vs. Maxine
Regal loves Striker’s decision to go with the former Pro\Rookie to start the show. Maxine starts off on offense with a mad intensity. She continues the offensive for several minutes with several high intensity and damage moves. moves. The match ends as Maxine tried to roll up Fox but Fox forcing Maxine to over roll. It’s the pin for the win for the Foxy one.
Winner: Alicia Fox
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Trent Baretta vs. Tyler Reks
Trent is out first and Regal states he’s one to watch in 2012. Reks is out second and has Hawkins (who looks okay after a Funksaurous squash last night). Striker reminds us of the Superglue trick from last week. Reks starts the match on offense. Hawkins is on the outside working the crowd. The crowd is at first a face, but quickly turns heel boos. Trent is able to turn the match out. Reks has to roll out of the ring and Trent does a dive on to him and Hawkins. We get a recap of this move. Reks gets rolled. Trent however hesitates looking at Hawkins. When he gets back in the ring Reks takes control of the match one more. After a minute, Trent gets control but is stopped with a clothesline by Reks. The crowd is cheering for Trent as he slowly works his way up to his feet. He gets his feet up on Reks and it gives him some time to set up a high flying move. Trent blows it and Reks mocks him. Reks goes for a stretch over his arms, but Trent turns it into a roll up pin for the win.
Winner: Trent Baretta
After the match, Hawkins gets in the ring and with Reks’s help does some damage on him. Hawkins has his cane on Trent’s neck as Reks goes to commentary. Yoshi appears. Hawkins sets up for him, but wifs as he tries to baseball bat Yoshi. Yoshi Bonces off the ropes and takes care of Hawkins. Reks is back to the ring, but is too late as Yoshi gets him next.
Backstage
Bateman and Justin Gabriel are talking with each other. Justin asks about Maxine. Bateman says he’s done. He’s confused about the whole Aksana issue. Justin tells him it’s not about hooking up but the email he sent Teddy Long. Bateman pulls out his phone and looks through it. He finds it and says he didn’t send the email. Justin says he needs not to leave his phone at the bar or have his password 1234. Justin laughs as he walks off. Ouch. Bateman yells “Curtis” as the segment ends.
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JTG and Tyson Kidd vs. The Uso Brothers
The Usos enter with their war dance. Which I can’t spell. So I won’t try. JTG and Tyson Kid come out to JTG’s music. Regal says it’s a “travesty” that he has to tag with JTG. Regal says if JTG’s brain were elastic, it wouldn’t be enough to make a jock strap. Tyson starts the match with one of the Usos. The Uso tag in-out early in the match. Tyson quickly gets to the JTG to tag him in. The Uso then proceed to Tag in tag out on JTG. JTG takes over after Tyson takes a punch from the Usos. No the Heels tag in tag out, and getting some extra damage behind the Ref’s back. As Regal calls the Uso from a race of superbeings, it This builds to a hot tag with Jimmy and JTG. Jay has to come in to stop Tyson Kidd from interfering with a drop over the side to the barricade. It sets up for win for the Usos.
Winner: The Uso Brothers
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Raw Rebound
Kane, “Haters Gonna Hate.”
Backstage
Maxine is being consoled by Aksana. Bateman walks up and shoo Aksana off. He then tries to talk to Maxine, but she won’t have any of it. Maxine says she’s going to the top with Curtis and leaving Bateman behind. She’ll come back to see him on the 200th episode. So Maxine eventually walks off, Bateman is left mouthing mocking her. After the segment Striker promotes the main event, A-Ri vs. “Jo-Cu”.
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Royal Rumble Moment
1994 – The Dunkin , Providence, RI.
(That’s local talk for the new name of the Providence Civic Center)
Alex Riley vs. Johnny Curtis
A-Ri is out first. Regal explains he had a huge advantage on Season 2 because the Miz was his Pro. Curtis is out next, and he has Maxine with her. A-Ri starts on offense as Striker makes bad marriage jokes. Curtis rolls out of the ring and gets a kiss from Maxine. The ref gets to 4. Curtis uses his entrance to take control of the match. A-Ri gets a skull crushing finale on Curtis and rolls it into control of the match. He is distracted by Maxine, and Curtis uses it to set up the win.
Winner: Johnny Curtis
After the match, Curtis gets a kiss. Bateman comes out. He tells Maxine to stay out of this “toots.” He then turns to Curtis and says, “I don’t know how she did it” (referring to the email to Teddy Long), but next week this ends.” Bateman makes a gun with his fingers and shoots them at Curtis as he walks off.
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Darren enters the arena in street clothes. Striker introduces a package from 3 weeks ago where he faked his arm injury and calls Titus an “NXT Failure”. Darren calls himself the most dominate figure on NXT. He’s beat everyone, so he’s the badest man on NXT. He taunts Titus and his music hits. Titus is in street clothes as well, and looks pisses. Darren calls Titus a loser like the people in the Arena. Titus say there are dogs in th house, and does his call for a pop. Titus brings some perspective to the situation. He explains it started as a competition. But now Striker has given on Challenges and He doesn’t care about redemption points anymore. Points out it’s just the two of them, so let’s take care of this “Man to Man”. The Crowd pops for it. Darren points out that he’s beaten him, and he can take his powerful stuff and shove it. He tells him that things were better with him complaining around his “stupid kids”. Titus calls him to watch the language. Darren realizes he’s hit a nerve. So he presses the “stupid kid” again. Titus tells him not to bring his kids into it. Darren mocks Titus by calling his kids “two losers”. And that’s it. Titus is now out to give Darren the whole nine yards of pain. Striker gets up and tries to get the twos attention. Titus and Darren are still at it. The refs enter. They can’t stop them. Striker then tells everyone that next week it will be Darren Young vs. Titus O’Neil. AND IT WILL BE NO DQ! The hell with that, Titus and Darren are stil fighting as the refs completely fail at separating the two as it spills out of the ring as the show goes off the air.
Grash Says…
Someone call my Momma, it’s time to dish out my thoughts this week.
#1
For those of you whom have been watching the show regularly. Next week’s episode is your reward. The two major storylines which have dominated the show have now bubbled to a climatic finale. And it all goes down in Vegas. AS for what Happens in Vegas, stays in vegas… Well, maybe.
I’ve grouped episodes of shows before to help explain how the show has grown and evolved in this “season”. With things coming to a head, I’m seeing this 100th episode as the end of the 6th segment and perhaps the introduction to the 7th. I’ve recounted the major events that signified the start and end of each segment.
1) Season 5 Begins – Characters and Pecking Order Introduced.
2) WrestleMania Season Kicks in, NXT loses its main event to help promote the WrestleMania build.
3) Post-WrestleMania, Each Rookie gets a storyline that is developed week to week. NXT starts to drop the reality show trappings.
4) Elimination time – Four Rookies are removed from NXT
5) Bateman Returns and becomes Engaged to Maxine. NXT pushes aside all of its reality show elements, and becomes a one hour SmackDown-type show.
6) Curtis Returns to NXT and mixes the pot with Bateman.
#2
Titus and Darren Young took the main event slot tonight becuase it’s the longest running feud on the show. NXT isn’t big enough for the both of them. From the start of this season, we knew that the conflict at the top was between Darren Young and Titus O’Neil. Both have gone out, developed, came back, and repeated several times. Not that NXT is away from the reality show trappings, the only thing that remains is who comes out on top between the two.
Another interesting thing happened tonight. For all of you out there whom are angst about the trappings of the reality show. Titus laid it all out to you. No one cares about it. Striker is no longer using the challenges. Titus could care less about the Redemption points.
#3
Curtis and Maxine get married in Vegas. Let’s break this down. WWE wedding = hilarious fun. Vegas wedding = Outrageous fun. A WWE wedding in Vegas? That’s going to be wicked outrageously and hilariously fun. And Don’t forget that Bateman is out for blood from Curtis. Next week is going to be important.
#4
Up until this point, we’ve always had a possibility that Bateman could get Maxine back and restore the status quo. With the lead in to #100, one thing has become clear. The door back to the is going close forever for the love birds. The same holds true with the no DQ match. So I’m on watch to see if anyone gets move up to the Blue Crew Roster, or starts appearing there. Given that WrestleMania coming up, it might be official till then.
#5
Maxine vs. Fox was MOTY worth. It was a short match, but Maxine just came at Fox with the hate and moxie. Easily the best match of the show this week.
#6
New Show intro this week. I like the format and style of it. I expected to see this with the launch of the network, but with reports of that being delayed, it makes sense to roll out the new intro now. Plus, we drop the dead weight of talent gone (and cut from the company as well).