WWE NXT on the Syfy Network
Taped 3/22/10 in San Jose, Calif.

[Q1] The opening video aired and it is still eight NXT rookies trying to accomplish one dream. Maybe tonight we will find out what that dream is. Fireworks ilt up the stage; Michael Cole and Josh Mathews welcomed us to the show...

The host of the show Matt Striker, cut a host-like promo backstage and said next week would be the most important week yet. Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel made their entrance. William Regal accompanied Wade Barrett and Skip Sheffield to the ring...

1. Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel (with Christian) defeated Wade Barrett and Skip Sheffield (with William Regal in 5:29. Cole said the rookies would be judged by record, strength of opponent, "It" factor, and one other attribute.

Barrett and Sheffield exchanged multiple tags and Gabriel took a lot of offense from his opponents. Slater took the hot tag and popped the crowd a bit. Chaos ensued and Barrett accidentally hit Sheffield with a big boot. Slater pinned Barrett for the win...

Twill's Two Cents: The match was just there; not good or bad. There were some timing mishaps and a couple of sloppy moments, but that is to be expected. Slater did wake the crowd up so that was a definite positive for him.

Tonight's main event was hyped and a video package featuring Daniel Bryan was shown. He mentioned being trained by Shawn Michaels and there was a lot of cool footage of him. He said he would one day main event WrestleMania... [C]

Twill's Two Cents: Nice video for Bryan, but he is the last guy that needs it. They need to let us know who these other guys are.

[Q2] A hype video for WrestleMania 26 aired with the better of the two theme songs (not the Diva Search song)...

The WrestleMania 26 main event, The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels, was showcased with a long video package. I'm guessing we'll see that one on Sunday too. A graphic for the match was shown... [C]

Twill's Two Cents: I expected a lot of video packages on this show and I could watch classic highlights of the careers of Taker and Shawn all night.

A Hall of Fame commercial aired and featured Ted DiBiase and Bob Uecker. DiBiase has to be the headline guy with Stu Hart right there with him...

A Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon graphic was shown and it was followed by (Surprise!), a video package. The timeline of events leading up to the Bret vs. Vince match this Sunday were featured and the song playing was very somber (does anyone know the song?)...

Twill's Two Cents: I like the videos and all, but shouldn't they have saved these for Mania? I'd be surprised if they make/made different ones for Sunday.

[Q3] A video package hyping C.M. Punk's rookie, Darren Young, was shown. He was portrayed as a babyface. He mentioned Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat and Shawn Michaels as two men who inspired him growing up... [C]

The WrestleMania recall took a look at Mania 21 in Los Angeles. Money in the Bank debuted that night. The thing I noticed most about his footage was hearing Jim Ross on commentary and Howard Finkel announcing. Hmmm, let them come to work for one night WWE...

The third WrestleMania hype video featured of course Batista vs. John Cena for the WWE Championship...

C.M. Punk, Luke Gallows, Serena, Darren Young, and David Otunga made their way to the ring. Punk was chewing gum and blew a huge bubble. Funny. An Otunga video played and he made a public appearance with The Miz. Miz called Otunga a star and said Daniel Bryan was not... [C]

Twill's Two Cents: Again, nice job getting Otunga over, but Otunga and Bryan are the last two guys that need it. Heath Slater has separated himself from the pack as well.

[Q4] 2. David Otunga and Darren Young (with the Straight Edge Society) defeated Daniel Bryan and Michael Tarver (with Carlito) in 12:51. Work ethic is the fourth judging criteria. Cole went out of his way to put Bryan down and sounded like a douche. Gallows interfered and Tarver confronted him. Young tried to take advantage but Tarver got the best of him and scored a nearfall... [C]

By the way, I just checked my email and hopefully all of you took advantage of discussing the show with Dot Net contributor Marvin Hermanstyne in the Member's Forum. Bryan was working on the arm of Young coming back from the break.

The announcers were not really paying attention to the match. Punk definitely was not as he had his back to the ring and was having a conversation with his faction. Otunga slowed the pace from a crawl to a screeching halt.

Bryan tagged in and his stiff kicks received a polite reaction. Young tagged in and Bryan tied him up like a pretzel. Tarver and Gallows argued on the floor and Bryan had nobody to tag. Tarver finally got to the corner but it was too late. Bryan missed a missile dropkick and Otunga hit his spinebuster finisher for the win...

Twill's Two Cents: Better match than the first one but nothing special again. For the second straight week, the rookie vs. rookie matches received little to no reaction from the crowd. Even with Otunga and Bryan in the match, and Bryan looked good, the crowed just sat on their hands.

[Overrun] Overrun on a taped show? Replays were shown and Cole said next week would be the first wrestler vote and someone would be eliminated...

What did you think of the show? Feel free to let me know by shooting an email to dotnetrich@gmail.com.

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