WWE NXT Recap (on WWE.com)
March 8, 2011
Houston, Texas
Report by: Gregory “Grash” Walek of Wrestleview.com
NXT is in Huston tonight.
TONIGHT: SEASON 5, REDEMPTION BEGINS!
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NXT Season 5 has a new format is with a them around “Redemption”.
Maryse and Matt Striker are the NXT Hosts.
Todd Grisham and William Regal are on commentary.
Rookies in Season 5 will be competing for a spot on NXT season 6. This season will not have immunity points. Rookies will earn redemption points which can be used to save one from elimination.
The Rookies are introduced. Lucky Cannon is out in a Flair Robe. Saxon has a “Back to Saxon II” in a Back to the Future font. Then their pros are revealed here is the order and what the pros said (or tried to ) to their rookies, Darren Young has Chavo Guerrero. He challenges him to noticed and break from the pack. Connor O’Brien has Vladimir Kozlov as his pro. HAIL KOZLOV! Find your self he tells Connor. Lucky Cannon has Tyson Kidd has his pro. He’s put over as Tag Champion. To get ahead in life is to take what you want. Lucky is Flairing it up in the ring. Byron Saxton has Yoshi Tatsu as his Pro. Yoshi tells him to relax and be him self. Commentary is making fun of the fact we’re so international this season. Jacob Novak has JTG has his pro. No Distractions this season. Titus O’Neil has … Hornswoggle? … Swaggle has a huge pop. He has a mic and speaks gibberish to another pop. Bark like Dog is apparently what Titus has to do to win.
Jacob Novak vs. Darren Young is the first match.
AD: True Story of Wrestlemania Video Set
AD: WM27 Collector’s Magazine
MATCH: Jacob Novak vs. Darren Young
The Pros are at ring side for their rookies. The lock up and roll out of the ring. Young gets back in quickly and uses it to get some offense. The match is back and forth on offense, edge going to Young. Big Boot from to Darren Young puts Novak on Offense. The Crowd is quiet for this match. The match is again back and forth, but this time advantage to Novak. Darren Young gets a few big throws on Novak to set up the pin.
Winner: Darren Young def Jacob Novak via pinfall after slamming Novak
Backstage-
Yoshi Tashu catches up to Maryse. He complements her, then he says has something to say to her. He’s interrupted by Saxon before he can talk. He’s talking shop, and Maryse has to leave to prepare. Youshi turns to Saxon and says pointing at him, “Your timing is no good!”
AD: WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony
DID YOU KNOW: WWE adds a ton of new Facebook fans each days.
RAW REBOUND: Rock to Cena 2 weeks ago (Yabba Dabba Something that rhymes with witch), Cena to Rock Last Night (I Bring it Via Satellite), Miz to Cena and Rock (Respect the Champ, Do not Ignore me, I’m the Champ [aka Awesome])
Rookie Package: Connor, Connor says he hid beside a persona and didn’t open himself up. Connon chokes up cause daddy wasn’t there. He sees this season as rebirth.
UP NEXT: Boot Camp Obstacle Course Challenge
AD: Chaperone Movie (HHH: The kids are empowered and I broke someone’s nose)
AD: Snookie is gonna be on RAW next week. (Why?)
CHALLENGE: Boot Camp Obstacle Course
Worth 3 Redemption Points
Maryse is dressed in Camo fatigues. The course is 1) Climb over all, 2) crawl climb under mesh, 2) do a balance beam, 4) Salome, and 4) pull a bag over a line. Titus is up first with 29.8 seconds. Novak does it in 24 seconds. Saxon is next with 26.5 seconds. Lucky Cannon is next. He pulls the mic from Maryse and tells every one that “He won’t be a circus monkey.” He’s not doing challenges, except to steal Maryse from Teddy Jr. The competition moves on. Connor is next, but cannot beat 24 seconds. Darron Young is next, Chavo very audible coaching him on. Darren puts in a hussle and beats Novak’s time!
Winner: Darren Young earns 3 Redemption points
AD: Wrestlemania is 26 days away.
Raw Rebound: How Austin became the Ref for the Cole vs King WM Match. Oh yea, JBL showed up.
AD: Matel Flexforce Action Figures.
AD: HHH is on SD!
ROOKIE PACKAGE: Byron Saxon, “This is my last chance, This my time, This is my time”
THE MAIN EVENT
MATCH: Titus O’Neil vs. Lucky Cannon
We are getting introductions. Titus is skipping with Awaggle to the ring. Cannon has his Flair Robe on. Cannon is wrestling heel and is swarmy to dominate the start of the match. Titus gets a slam on Cannon and begins to take over and dominate. Swaggle goes over to distract Tyson kid, they run around the ring, and then kid goes into the ring. This distracts the ref so Swaggle can push Lucky Cannon off the top ropes. This allows Titus to get a basketball slam to set up the pin and the win.
Winner: Titus O’Neil beats Lucky Cannon via pinfall after a basketball slam
After the match Kid tries to put the sharpshooter on Swaggle, but gets booted by Titus in the face. Swaggle and Titus taunt Kidd and Cannon from the ring as they head up back up the entrance ramp. Kid looks back to Swaggle whom is now on Titus’s shoulders. Swaggle points back to Kidd.
And that’s the stream. The show is over.
Rookie and Pro Pairings
Titus O’Neil is paired with Hornswoggle
Jacob Novak is paired with JTG
Byron Saxton is paired with Yoshi Tatsu
Lucky Cannon is paired with Tyson Kidd
Connor O’Brien is paired with Vladimir Kozlov
Darren Young is paired with Chavo Guerrero
Quick Results
* Darren Young def Jacob Novak via pinfall after slamming Novak
* Darren Young earns 3 Redemption points in the Boot Camp Obstacle Course Challenge
* Titus O’Neil beats Lucky Cannon via pinfall after a basketball slam.
Grash Says…
Okay, New season. New Format. Maryse is a great addition to the Hosting duties. Regal is a great replacement on commentary duties now that Mathews has moved up to full time Raw and Smackdown duties. We have Redemption points, not Immunity points. How this will work, we’ll find out later this season. As the show went on, I was very happy to see Regal anchor the show in a way which we have not seen on any show. So this season will be enjoyable in this area.
Given that tonight is the first show, we’ve got a lot of momentum to build. I’m going to be holding off giving my thoughts on the Rookies. We saw only 4 of them in action and only 2 of the rookie packages. But if tonight was any indication, Darren young with a Match win and a 3 Redemption points is a very good start so far. When it comes to looks, Lucky Cannon is awesome as a heel sporting a Flair Robe.
As for content tonight, the show was a bit flat. Darren Young Vs Jacob Novak was a paint-by-numbers match. Nothing Great. Nothing Horrible. Challenges are Challenges. Titus O’Neil vs Lucky Cannon was fun, but with a weird ending with Swaggle. Rest was filler with Raw Stuff and Ads. Momma said there would be days like this. We’ll have a few more like this, but we’ll have better days. So don’t despair if this is your first time on NXT.
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