"WWE NXT" 6-8-10 Season Two Premiere Talkback (Spoilers)

[The Penguin]

Tonight it all begins anew. Eight more NXT Rookies and seven new WWE Pros plus The Miz embark on the second season of WWE NXT.

The new season premiere is in the shadow of what happened at the end of RAW (http://www.toonzone.net/forums/showthread.php?t=269116) where Wade Barrett led the rest of the season one Rookies in a full on assault where they quite literally destroyed the entire ringside area, including John Cena, CM Punk & the Straight Edge Society and the entire broadcast/ringside crew with the exception of Michael Cole who escaped when the former Rookies attacked Matt Striker and Jerry Lawler.


http://library.toonzone.net/talkbacks/wwe.jpghttp://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e92/Shadow0285/NXT3.jpgWWE NXT #16 (#2.1) - Season Two Premiere
Tuesday, June 8, 2010 @ 10 p.m. ET/9 CT on Syfy

SEASON TWO
Meet the eight new season two NXT Rookies and find out which WWE Superstars (and Divas!) they're paired with. Season two of WWE NXT will involve the WWE Universe as the viewers' votes count for 50 percent of the show's outcome! Season two begins Tuesday at 10/9 CT on Syfy.
Season two NXT Rookies and WWE Pros (http://www.wwe.com/superstars/wwenxt/)
Photos (http://www.wwe.com/shows/wwenxt/photos/14631720/seasontwopairings/) | Watch: Part 1 (http://www.wwe.com/content/media/video/vms/wwenxt/2010/june1-7/14637642) | Part 2 (http://www.wwe.com/content/media/video/vms/wwenxt/2010/june1-7/14638904)


Please remember that not everyone reads spoilers for taped programs and direct or side comments about WWE shows that have yet to air are not acceptable in this thread.

[hobbyfan]

Ok, let's start with the ending.

Team LayMe-O with a couple of weak slaps to Kaval starts the beatdown of the new crop of "rookies", a message in response to the massacre of the night before on Raw. I still think Kaval needs to have Layla & Michelle replaced, because they don't fit so well with him at all. Not only that, but when the brawl started, the girls bailed, because there's not much more they could do.

The matches:

I guess John Morrison & Zack Ryder will be feuding on Raw after the last two nights. Morrison's back on the winning track after pinning Titus O'Neil, another guy who has the wrong pro.

I know Dusty Rhodes had a few throwdowns with Mike "IRS" Rotundo in WCW when Mike was a member of Kevin Sullivan's Varsity Club back in the day, so there's some understandable bad blood between Cody & Husky Harris. Apparently, to Husky, the diner would be a better place to be than the gym, and Cody was quick to note how close the resemblance is between Husky & Dusty around the "belly-welly", eef yew weel. ;) :p :D

Can't help it, I gotta get that in there.

We know Miz was a jock in high school, but did he behave the way Alex Riley purports to? Not even Reggie Mantle would've pulled the stunt Alex did, though, sneezing into a live mic.

Doing the math, the 2nd season ends August 24, 1 week before WWE comes to Albany. Nertz.

Thought Striker might get some shots in himself after last night's beatdown, but I don't think so.

Looks like Miz is going to be in the Chris Jericho role this time around, so sure that he has the winner. No, you don't, Mizizzle, at least not now.

Michael McGillicutty certainly has his dad's facial features, despite the darker hair. He'll get some match action in the next two weeks for sure, but they can't rush and goof around this time.

Any chance of Coleslaw being the ringleader's been dissipated, I'm sure, and the acid test would've been had the "graduates" showed up tonight.

When Striker "officially welcomed" the "rookies", I was reminded of when Tommy Dreamer similarly initiated Morrison (John Hennegan) & Matt Cappotelli on Raw after winning Tough Enough 3 7 years ago. Then, it was one man and a kendo stick. Big difference.

[Spike Mcdougal]

I think beating the crap out of the rookies is going to come back to haunt the pros later on but we'll see how that plays out.

Last week I thought Lay-Cool(I cant believe I typed that) as pros might be interesting but after tonight I realized that it's going to be a train wreck. If the tag matches continue next week Kaval is screwed because he'll probably have to tag with one of them and they will refuse to be tagged in and secondly if they do that thing they did on Smackdown a few weeks ago where they talk at the same time and then end on the same word when asked for an evaluation it's going to be really annoying

[hobbyfan]

I think beating the crap out of the rookies is going to come back to haunt the pros later on but we'll see how that plays out.

Last week I thought Lay-Cool(I cant believe I typed that) as pros might be interesting but after tonight I realized that it's going to be a train wreck. If the tag matches continue next week Kaval is screwed because he'll probably have to tag with one of them and they will refuse to be tagged in and secondly if they do that thing they did on Smackdown a few weeks ago where they talk at the same time and then end on the same word when asked for an evaluation it's going to be really annoying

That's the whole point to Lay-Cool/Kaval. They're there to steal his shine, just like Miz hogged the spotlight and made Daniel Bryan look like a tool. Vince needs to get it out of his head that he's not the only starmaker in the business. Preferably yesterday.

[Mesousa]

At least the beatup in the end revealed some foreshadowing this time.

Also, they edited out Matthews being choked.

[Azrayel]

At least the beatup in the end revealed some foreshadowing this time.

Also, they edited out Matthews being choked.

Thats Justin Roberts the ring announcer.


NXT was kinda boring. Percy Watson, Titus O'Neil, Eli Cottonwood, and Husky Harris were not impressive last night. Let's hope Alex Riley, Lucky Cannon, Michael McGillicutty, and Kaval (what is that jacket he is wearing, did he have that on TNA or ROH because I don't remember) do better next week.

The ending just confused me. I can just infer that there will be a war with the rookies and the pros, but more than just the pros the actual wwe roster.

And Lay-Cool looked pretty hot last night.

[SirLemming]

All in all this was not a bad start to the season / continuation of the "invasion" storyline. It was a pretty well-balanced show. 2 full matches, 2 intro videos, one admittedly long (but justified) Raw recap and a storyline/promo segment to cap it off. While the beatdown itself was certainly not on par with the excitement of what happened on Raw, I'm interested in where they're going with this.

The actual wrestling was fairly solid. Cottonwood & Titus's match wasn't great, but it was decent enough, and having the Miz decry it as boring afterward was actually helpful, I think. I'm guessing there's still a little bit of unscriptedness in there. It can be rationalized in kayfabe as "The Miz is jealous", but at the same time I don't think he would've said that about a legitimately good match. So I think it works on multiple levels.

Percy Watson (I'm going to have to keep reminding myself that it's not "Percy Jackson" and Husky had a better match. Even though Husky is not immediately impressive, he pulled off some cool stuff and I think he knows his way around a ring. Percy's gimmick is very weird, but I think it works.

[Jin Kazama]

Percy Watson impressed me just because I expected him to be just terrible, and he wasn't that bad. His gimick works, for some reason. I can't quite place my finger on why. It's borderline, though. It'll be interesting to see how long he can keep it going.

I like that they're keeping the pros on the stage still. It makes it feel more like an actual competition instead of just a show.

[ToonFaithful]

Thats Justin Roberts the ring announcer.
I don't get why everyone thought that was Matthews. Matthews was backstage.

Anyways, I thought the season premiere was awesome. Percy Watson was good tonight I loved the gimmick. Did anyone get a Trevor Murdoch vibe from Husky? The sideburns and everything!

[Fifi Fanatic]

I am going to be completely biased and vote for Husky Harris simply because he's the son of a former Jim Crockett/WCW star. :)

Not a bad beatdown at the end. Not as shocking as the one on Raw, of course. Indeed, you could probably see it coming. I am intrigued by where this is going. If this turns into all-out war between NXT and the rest of the WWE, then I'm all for it. I hope this will be "Invasion done right." ;)

But still... Lay-Cool and the Miz on the same show.... where's the mute button? :p

[Tapout]

That's the whole point to Lay-Cool/Kaval. They're there to steal his shine, just like Miz hogged the spotlight and made Daniel Bryan look like a tool. Vince needs to get it out of his head that he's not the only starmaker in the business. Preferably yesterday.
I'm still intrigued by the Lay-Cool/Kaval pairing because any spotlight stealing they do is because they're clueless, self-centered airheads. Miz doing it to Bryan was a very calculated "I'm better than you because I'm in the big leagues" thing. I also don't think Kaval is going to be promoted as the guy who's busted his ass in the indy's for 10 years, more as a newcomer with a martial arts background.

[hobbyfan]

I am going to be completely biased and vote for Husky Harris simply because he's the son of a former Jim Crockett/WCW star. :)

But still... Lay-Cool and the Miz on the same show.... where's the mute button? :p

At least Miz comes off as having a semblance of a brain. Lay-Cool? Not so much. They think they're in high school. It's kind of like Sharpay from "High School Musical" and London from "Suite Life of Zack & Cody" have somehow gotten together.....!

Mike Rotundo, Husky Harris' dad, 1st gained fame in the then-WWF w/Barry Windham in 1984-5 before going to WCW and developing what would later become IRS as Michael Wallstreet. He was better served, however, in the Varsity Club, IMPO.

[RedNinja84]

After watching thw show today, I have to say Husky Harris stood out the most to me. This guy is old school and actually enjoyed his match. He used a couple of moves and man did he sell MVP's hit. Percy Watson, the missing Dudley Boy, didn't really get to show much in the ring but for some reason he has some charisma. Eli Cottonwood seems raw and Titus didn't have much of a match so I can't really comment much on him. Hopefully we will see the other four in action. Riley, Kaval and Joe Henning should be pretty good to watch.

[hobbyfan]

I think the height Husky got on his senton backsplash might be even higher than even Samoa Joe. Man, that was swank.

Having seen Kaval wrestle as Senshi in TNA, and as Low-Ki doing rent-a-jobber matches on Heat in a past go-round with WWE, I'm more interested in seeing how he handles being paired with a pair of Gossip Girl wannabes. Unfortunately, that pairing will cost him the competition in the end.

[Kenny E. McCall]

I think that William Regal should have remained to be Kaval's NXT pro.

As for Lay-Cool, I think that Savannah would've have been a good rookie, especially when that girl's the ring announcer from Season 1.

Now Cottonwood on the other hand, the Great Khali and Hornswoggle would have been a better fit for that dude!

[Tapout]

I think that William Regal should have remained to be Kaval's NXT pro.That could have worked very well. Regal and Tajiri were great together 10 years ago and they could have done something similar with Regal and Kaval.

[hobbyfan]

That could have worked very well. Regal and Tajiri were great together 10 years ago and they could have done something similar with Regal and Kaval.

I second that emotion. Swap LayMe-O for Will Regal, and Kaval will have a better chance.

[The Penguin]

Wanted to share this from Torch: ABSURDITY OF IT ALL - NXT Season 2 Special: An Absurd Preview Of The New Round Of NXT Rookies (http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/absurityofitall/article_41794.shtml). I thought it was pretty entertaining.


My personal vote went for Kaval and in the WWE Universe vote, I intend to use as many computers as I have access to and vote only for him. Whether he wins the actual competition or just sticks around, I really want him to make it.

We can talk more about this in future weeks, but the thing about the 50% "real" fan poll is that WWE can use the "fake" Pros' Poll to tilt the results anyway they want it. I don't know that I'd be in favor of the fans totally picking the winner and I think it's nice that WWE has set something up to see what the fans think, but they don't have to go with it at all. If Alex Riley is say seventh in the fan poll, the "Pros" just need to prop him up with their votes to keep him going. Anyway...

"Season two is going to be very different than season one..."

I don't know if I like what Striker laid out after (12 weeks? This one is even shorter?!), but I liked the show kicking off with the Pros introducing their Rookies. In the season one premiere, I don't believe we even saw all eight Rookies on the show. Plus, how you got a feel for the relationships early was great, especially Cody Rhodes barely even wanting to introduce Husky Harris (the more I type/hear/read that name, the dumber it sounds). I didn't like Lay-Cool giving Kaval their belts to carry, I'm concerned about where this could be going. Husky getting all excited at the end of the segment and the scuffle it caused was a good way to wrap that up.

I noticed that Cody was willing to volunteer his thoughts on Morrison/Cottonwood vs. Ryder/O'Neil until Striker called on Miz. As a Pro, I think Miz can say whatever he wants, but Cole declaring he should be in the coach hall of fame or whatever was stupid.

"Alex Riley has arrived, and he's runnin' the show." I thought the Alex Riley video was great. I already have a great understanding for who he is as a character which will only benefit him going forward.

So I figured out that Percy Watson reminds me a character played by Eddie Murphy in a bad Eddie Murphy movie. He wasn't bad in the ring, but I'll be interested to see if he is funny annoying or annoying annoying as the weeks go on. Husky Harris (ohmygod, he has the worst name on the entire show) showed me a lot more than I expect him to. Cody Rhodes seemed so sure he could have something there he wouldn't let Striker have the mic back until he had finished.

"It's up to me to continue the Hennig family legacy." I went on record last week that Michael McGillicutty is a horrible name change and that the offspring of Curt Hennig should be as good as a DiBiase or a Rhodes, but it's even worse because everything with "Mike" is Hennig, Hennig, Hennig. He can't appear on-screen without Hennig being said at least once yet it can't be his name. Can't they give him a different first name and a nickname or something if ownership is so important? Maybe this is a test and if "McGillicutty" makes it off of NXT and becomes a WWE Superstar, he can reclaim his family name.

I can understand why they did it, but showing the entire NXT attack from RAW seemed a bit much. I did like the segment it prompted after with Kaval, Lucky Cannon and Eli Cottonwood more or less agreeing with the sentiment, Husky not caring, Alex Riley being a moron, Percy not thinking it was right and Titus O'Neil doing a Michael Tarver impression. I liked McGillicutty taking the others to task (especially Riley), but it would seem that O'Neil talked too long as Striker cut M2 off.

The Pros attacking the Rookies was a great way to follow up on what happened on Monday without Barrett & his boys showing up on the broadcast. This showcased the problem (one of many) with Lay-Cool being Kaval's Pros as others have mentioned.


Kaval (what is that jacket he is wearing, did he have that on TNA or ROH because I don't remember)I'm not an "ROH guy" so I can't help you there, but I'm pretty sure Kaval never had any sort of ring jacket in TNA (at least in his more recent run, I didn't see him as part of Triple X, I've only been watching since FOX Sports where I'm pretty sure he never had anything).

[hobbyfan]

I'm not an "ROH guy" so I can't help you there, but I'm pretty sure Kaval never had any sort of ring jacket in TNA (at least in his more recent run, I didn't see him as part of Triple X, I've only been watching since FOX Sports where I'm pretty sure he never had anything).

Kaval didn't have a special jacket as Senshi, IIRC.

[TnAdct1]

I don't know if I like what Striker laid out after (12 weeks? This one is even shorter?!) It has to be shorter, as Smackdown is moving to Scy Fy in October, and the channel may want to have some time to prepare for "original shows night" moving from Friday to Tuesday.

[The Penguin]

It has to be shorter, as Smackdown is moving to Scy Fy in October, and the channel may want to have some time to prepare for "original shows night" moving from Friday to Tuesday.It doesn't have to be shorter, I thought the first one was made shorter so this one would have enough time. As far as we know, NXT is leaving around the same time as SmackDown is arriving. The official press release says this: (http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2010/WWECorporate-2010_04_13.jsp)

WWE NXT™ will leave Syfy in October as Friday Night SmackDown joins the schedule.

It's more likely that WWE is going to cram in a third season (perhaps with fewer Rookies) than bowing out early to give Syfy time it doesn't really need for anything.