Cody Hauri sent along the following review of the debut episode of WWE NXT on SyFy:
Review of NXT
Well, sports-fans, the newest addition to the WWE television, NXT, was quite an entertaining ride. Although I had thought it was going to be more leaning towards a reality show instead of an actual WWE Live event, it had its amazing moments. Its basis was 8 rookie wrestlers being mentored by experienced pros to earn their spots in the WWE with the ones gaining most mentor experience claiming a place among the other Superstars.
Heath Slater: He is the "Rockstar without an instrument." It was easy to tell he was excited to be in the WWE. A VERY charismatic wrestler, Slater even gained a crowd reaction with his actions and gaining a crowd "Woo" when he yelled it. He was, however, a little rushed. He seemed to, in my wordage, to "flop" his feet back to the mat after giving a flying forearm to Michael Tarver. And his springboard out of the corner was a little rough and timed oddly by both Slater and Tarver.
Michael Tarver: He’s the son of Mike Tyson’s sparring partner. So he went with the Boxer gimmick. It’s a gimmick we don’t see a lot of. Last time I saw something similar was an MMA gimmick. His punches to the chest looked a little weak. But what he lacked in solid attack appearance, I believe he made up for in selling getting hit. Especially when he took the Killswitch and appeared to bounce his head clear off the mat up to where you could see his pain-ridden face. In my notes on the program I wrote, "Nice head bounce." Hehe.
David Otunga: The Hollywood man. His introduction vignette showed him to be very excited and charismatic about being in the WWE, along with being a man who has a lot of celebrity contacts in his phone, but when he came to the ring he had a zipped up jacket with its hood up and glasses on. His appearance went from "Fame and Fortune" to "The Unabomber." But when he removed his jacket and glasses he had stars shaved into his hair. His match was a bit lack-luster. It was a very quick match with Darrin Young that ended in a very inexperienced (almost botch-like) slam. He needs to work on executing his move, especially if its meant to be such a powerful, match-ending slam.
Darrin Young: This. Man. Looks. Awesome. He was bouncing around, overflowing with attention-grabbing charisma. And his hair was everywhere! His style seems extremely creative and easily recognizable. If we see him go on to be a superstar and a main event-er, he’ll definitely be a man you can show a picture of to someone and they’ll recognize him. Heck, just show them his hair! He really did play well off his mentor, C.M. Punk. Young was all happy and excited and Punk was… well, Punk. And Young lost a bit of happiness when he couldn’t get Punk to join his cheerfulness.
Wade Barrett: With greasy, slicked back hair, suit jacket with flower pinned to it, and whatever he was doing with his lips… you’d think he was sent from the mafia to NXT for a hit on someone. His gimmick is a bare-knuckled brawler from England, and let me tell you, its definitely in his accent. At first, I didn’t think I was going to understand what he was saying due to how HEAVY his accent actually is! But other than attract our attention with his greasy looks, he didn’t do much on the first episode of NXT but compliment Chris Jericho, who yelled at him for not simply introducing Jericho like he asked. When interviewed during Jericho’s match, Barrett STILL continued to talk about how great Chris Jericho is.
Saved best for last, Daniel Bryan: Yes, yes, we ALL KNOW (well, not all, Michael Cole claimed he’d never heard of him) that he’s Bryan Danielson, just with his name reversed. From nearly the moment he was introduced to the WWE, he was feuding with his mentor, The Miz. The Miz had him enter the ring, introduce himself, come up with a catchphrase, etc. But he spent the time apologizing to his fans for being paired with The Miz. The Miz slapped him for his "disrespect." Bryan, to me at least, appeared to need a bit of work on his facial expressions while on the mic. He kind of laughed a bit out of nervousness and he really didn’t get as big of a pop, or as much crowd reaction, as I had expected from someone so popular within Ring Of Honor.
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