WWE NXT Show Weekly Discussion

      Miz/Riley vs MVP/Watson first up was probably the best match of the night. Miz really has found a soulmate with Riley, it cracks me up how alike they are in presentation and energy. After Miz pinned Watson, i wanted to tell Miz and Riley to book a hotel room lol. Despite the geek image, Watson aint half bad in-ring, and like Riley has the personality required for a spot on the main brands. Both Riley and Watson will be in the top 4, no doubt.

      Hennig Jr vs O'Neil was a very scrappy match some botched moves in the second half. It was hard to tell who was messing up. Hennig Jr is decent in ring and has the personality and name value to get into the final 4, O'Neil will be joining Cannon among first 4 the eliminated.

      Cottonwood vs Kaval looked like a squash from the get-go. Again Kaval put on the best individual performance in-ring of the night, gotta love this guys work. Him and Lay-Cool backstage after had me cracking up. Yeah I know it was eye-rolling stuff, but working with the girls is great for Kaval's mike/acting work, and the girls would make that a more relaxed affair than working with the Miz for example on that side of things. Despite being 0-2, Kaval is going to be in the top 4, and the friction between him and Lay-Cool is going to keep the fans interested, and Kaval on-screen more. I'm just waiting for Kaval and Layla to 'get-it-ooooon' lol. Cottonwood at 2-0 looks set to kick on (I guess WWE will be needing a new giant/monster on the roster as the current ones won't be around too many more years). I have no idea what angle JoMo and Cottonwood are working - JoMo has been a bit of a phantom lately.

        Rhodes vs Cannon. Classic match from Rhodes I thought, and the best I have seen since his move to SD. You can tell Rhodes has been working on his in-ring style and how he presents it, and like how he's giving a lot more to the crowd to react to with his 'evil' mugging to them. Good to have Rhodes doing mike work as well again. Rhodes has a clinical/high impact approach like Orton, but unlike Orton he smiles (evilly) while he works lol. Harris...still only seen him in one match so it's hard to get a bead on what he can do in-ring. I had been wondering what angle Rhodes and Harris were going to work, but after jobbing Striker like Rhodes did last week, it looks like Harris is joining Rhodes on the dark side of The Force. That's not such a bad idea as first impression of Harris is as a slob character from Animal House. His perpetual grin will be much more effective with evil intent behind it. Agree with BFP, Cannon did job for this match which ran Rhodes' way 80% of the time, but can't say I am sorry to see Rhodes get the win, and look good doing it.

      Loving NXT without the inane weekly competitons, and praying they don't bring them back later in the series.

      Next weeks show is the first Pro/Fans poll to determine current rankings (no elimination for another 4 weeks), so I won't be running the usual poll. I will get a thread up over the next day or so though, asking folks how they rank the rookies at this point.