Tonight's challenge is: who can sell the most program books to the WWE audience? The winner gets to pick a Pro to have a match against next week!
Skip Sheffield is first. He gets a bag of programs, a wad of five dollar bills to make change (programs are $15 each), and sixty seconds. THIS IS THE MOST BORING CHALLENGE YET. Sheffield makes $60. (He was at ringside; the other guys are mostly up in the stands for their challenges. He may have been hampered by the fans not realizing that other Rookies would be in different places, and they wanted to wait for their favorite.)
Christian & Heath Slater vs. Chris Jericho & Wade Barrett: Basic stuff. Christian takes out Barrett with a cross body off the top and another one to the outside. In the ring, Slater tries his roll-up out of the Walls again; Jericho knows it's coming this time and kicks out, then hits the Codebreaker and pins The One Man Adventures of Pete and Pete.
Daniel Bryan's "Seal the Deal" challenge is next, but he shouts "DOWN WITH CAPITALISM" and just gives the programs away. "Is he a Socialist? A -- COMMUNIST?!?" Michael Cole is stunned.
Justin Gabriel is next. He sells $210 worth -- not bad. He has some trouble making change -- "American money all looks the same to me."
Michael Tarver gets a video package. The Pros' opinions vary -- from bad ("He has something, but I don't know what and he's not showing it") to worse ("He has nothing"). CM Punk says he has a poor Pro, while his Pro Carlito says he doesn't listen enough.
Michael Tarver vs. Darren Young: Young has Gallows and Serena with him. Tarver is quite aggressive; Josh Matthews points out that even though he blows off the challenges, he takes in-ring competition seriously. Pretty dull match, though. Tarver goes to the apron, and Gallows cuts his legs out from under him while Serena's distracting the ref. Young hits the Dragon Flapjack and Tarver continues his winless streak.
David Otunga's challenge is next. Stars don't do manual labor (ha!) so he recruits two little kids to be his assistants, and he rakes in $315 for the lead. If that was his idea, it was brilliant; he realized that how much he can physically move in the one-minute time limit is the issue, not the willingness of the WWE universe to buy the programs.
Justin Gabriel's video package is next. The Pros agree that the 450° is an amazing move, but several express concern that that's all he's got -- that there's no depth behind it. CM Punk is not sure that Matt Hardy is a very good pro -- "What can he teach him, other than how to MySpace?"
Otunga and R-Truth (OMG CRZ GUESS WHAT) argue in back. Otunga wants to know why Truth didn't help him last week; Truth tells him, if he can't run with the big dogs, stay off the track.
Heath Slater's turn to sell programs. He doesn't grasp Otunga's lesson and has difficulty manipulating the magazines and the money at the same time. Washout.
Darren Young is next. He announces right off the bat that he'll take on CM Punk if he wins -- promotion! (albeit counter to where the storyline seems to be going) -- but, again, can't physically collect enough money in the time alloted.
Michael Tarver's next and -- surprise! -- he drops the bag and walks off. He shouldn't be selling product -- HE'S the product, WWE should be selling HIM.
And now Wade Barrett. Four in a row, cripes. Barrett, like Tarver, refuses to sell, but his motivation's different -- he's already won tonight, he's got nothing to prove. Plus, he's already got the wad of fives for making change, so he'd rather just pocket that and knock off early. Ha!
Daniel Bryan gets his video package. William Regal, Jericho, Punk, and Christian all say he's wonderful, he's a superstar already. Hardy agrees but says he needs a personality. The Miz is baffled as to why Bryan's #1 in the Pros Poll. Curiously, Carlito and Truth do not appear. Racism!
David Otunga is the official winner of the Seal the Deal challenge. He picks R-Truth as his opponent next week, 'cause Truth thinks he knows more than he does. (That would've been a little cooler if Young hadn't already stepped on the "pick your own pro" bit.)
The Miz is supposed to take on Skip Sheffield next but the whole left side of his face is a bruise from Big Show's "sucker punch," so he makes Daniel Bryan take his place. Daniel Bryan vs. Skip Sheffield: Sheffield moves in with a fireman carry, but Bryan squirms out of it and hits a very speedy dropkick. Bryan grabs a leglock but Sheffield makes the ropes. Skip turns Bryan ass over teakettle with a clothesline and then hits his Piggyback Stunner for the pin.
Regal congratulates Sheffield but seems unenthusiastic about it.
I just don't understand this storyline. I don't understand why the pros are falling all over each other with praise when -- in the world of the WWE Universe -- Bryan is just AWFUL. He's quick and he has some pretty moves, but he can't get a win to save his life, losing to the Cornfed Meathead in two minutes without Sheffield even straining. And his attitude concerning the challenges is almost as bad as Tarver's. The dichotomy is just bizarre.
Anyway. Dullest NXT yet.
--K
(edited by Karlos the Jackal on 28.4.10 0111) Last 5 movies seen: Adventureland **1/2 - The 7th Victim ***1/2 - Crazy Heart ***1/2 - 44 Inch Chest **1/2 - The Lovely Bones **1/2
Punk ripping on Matt Hardy was by far the funniest thing on the show: "Justin Gabriel's biggest detriment is his coach. I really don't know what Matt Hardy is going to be able to teach Justin Gabriel besides how to Myspace or Twitter."
Well, in that regard, Hardy has done a bang up job. Gabriel can ReTweet all the teenage girls' Tweets fawning over how "hot" he is and how they want to marry him like... well, like Matt Hardy!
I gotta give it up for David Otunga's strategy to sell programs. Hiring personal assistants to do the work for him was smart and totally keeping with his character. But Otunga doesn't have a leg to stand on for insisting R-Truth should have grabbed his hands last week to save him from the dreaded sunset flip, especially when R-Truth suggested a countermove. Or, you know, Otunga could have kicked out. He wasn't facing Jim Brunzell in there or anything.
I'm starting to think that Bryan's story is that he's deliberately throwing his matches and challenges for some reason. I'm still not sure where that would be going, but that at least makes it seem like it's got some purpose.
I posted a few theories on Daniel Bryan's losing streak a few weeks ago, and the throwing matches thing is about the only thing I can make any sense of, short of WWE using NXT to actually officially say that wins and losses are irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
The problem with the idea of him throwing his matches is that it is hard to cheer for anyone doing that. Maybe the intention is to turn him heel?
Being there lived, it was hard to watch. The tag team match was good, but too short. I felt bad for Striker running from one end of the arena to another. Daniel did get a massive pop from the crowd when started throwing the programs around. The sad part is that once he jobbed no one really cared about him. He has to win a match soon, people love the Rocky story, but he won matches even beat Spider in the first fight. He might have been better serve to go to TNA at least Desmond is considered a threat. Miz's face looked sick. The show isn't a trainwreck, its just there.
I know it was make-up and looked gruesome, but the only thing that kept running through my head while looking at it was: "So how come nobody else's face looked like that after Show clocked them?"
I know it was make-up and looked gruesome, but the only thing that kept running through my head while looking at it was: "So how come nobody else's face looked like that after Show clocked them?"
I know I've seen that makeup before - wasn't it Jericho?
EDIT: It WAS Jericho, but it was from a Mike Tyson KO punch, not a Show one.
Originally posted by Karlos the Jackal I just don't understand this storyline. I don't understand why the pros are falling all over each other with praise when -- in the world of the WWE Universe -- Bryan is just AWFUL. He's quick and he has some pretty moves, but he can't get a win to save his life, losing to the Cornfed Meathead in two minutes without Sheffield even straining. And his attitude concerning the challenges is almost as bad as Tarver's. The dichotomy is just bizarre.
Bah, if you want well-thought-out storylines, watch TNA.
...wait, nevermind.
As to why Bryan's so high up in NXT without winning a single match, I couldn't begin to tell you. For that matter it blows my mind that he's still winless. The only explanation I can think of is that he's made to look bad because he's a former ROH World Heavyweight Champion, and an internet darling, et cetera, et cetera, and Vince McMahon hates us.
(edited by ekedolphin on 1.5.10 1103) "Say, the next time you want to win your daughter back, you could just try giving her a pony, the apocalypse doesn’t really cut it!" --The Prince, Prince of Persia (2008)
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Originally posted by Karlos the Jackal I just don't understand this storyline. I don't understand why the pros are falling all over each other with praise when -- in the world of the WWE Universe -- Bryan is just AWFUL. He's quick and he has some pretty moves, but he can't get a win to save his life, losing to the Cornfed Meathead in two minutes without Sheffield even straining. And his attitude concerning the challenges is almost as bad as Tarver's. The dichotomy is just bizarre.
Bah, if you want well-thought-out storylines, watch TNA.
...wait, nevermind.
As to why Bryan's so high up in NXT without winning a single match, I couldn't begin to tell you. For that matter it blows my mind that he's still winless. The only explanation I can think of is that he's made to look bad because he's a former ROH World Heavyweight Champion, and an internet darling, et cetera, et cetera, and Vince McMahon hates us.
(edited by ekedolphin on 1.5.10 1103)
If that was the reason he hasn't won a match, then none of the pro's would rank him like that or speak his praise ("he is already a superstar" according to Jericho) in the clips. They would just make him lose and ignore him. I have no clue why they are doing this, but hope it works out.
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Lanny said the exact same thing in the last paragraph. He agreed that the fans deserved to have Randy in the hall of fame, regardless of what either side thought.
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