NXT Season Finale Report
NXT TV Report for August 31, 2010
Live from Albany, New York
Ashley Valance (replacing Jamie Keyes as the ring announcer, this would be explained later) introduced all of the pros. Each of the three remaining rookies were then introduced by the mentors as the approached the ring. Kofi botched his introduction of McGillicutty. The five eliminated rookies were pointed out in the front row. None of the five got any reaction from the crowd whatsoever, except Percy Watson who got a modest pop. That’s not a good sign, particularly for Husky Harris who had plenty of TV time and who some see potential in. They then announced a triple threat match between the three rookies after the commercial break. There was a brief pull apart where Miz and Alex Riley were sent to the floor.
Kaval v. Michael McGillicutty v. Alex Riley
There have been way too many multiple men matches on WWE TV recently. They did an early spot where McGillicutty and Kaval were working a headlock, Riley charged at them, and both men backdropped Riley. Kaval then hit a running wheel kick to get a two count on McGillicutty, who came back with a standing drop kick of his own. McGillicutty then worked with Riley for a bit using a lariat and a backbreaker before Kaval made a save on a pinfall attempt. Somewhere in here, Josh Matthews compared Alex Riley to Nelson Muntz, Stan Gable and Shooter McGavin, who played stereotypical bad guys in the Simpsons, Revenge of the Nerds and Happy Gilmore, respectively. Interesting analogy, if nothing else. Anyway, Riley cleared the ring to lead to the commercial break. After the break, Riley held a reverse chin lock on McGillicutty until Kaval landed a kick to break up the hold. Riley missed a crossbody in the ropes which gave McGillicutty a chance to shine for a bit. He hit a Stinger splash in the corner and a belly-to-belly suplex for a near fall. Kaval then reemerged to hit a springboard heel kick for a near fall. As Riley was trying to come off the top rope, Kaval hit a roundhouse kick out of a handstand to send Riley to the floor. McGillicutty tried to get the advantage on Kaval, who countered into a dragon sleeper. McGillicutty reached the ropes. Kaval missed a charge in the corner and McGillicutty hit the Perfect-plex for a near fall as Riley saved. (Amazingly, the announcers just called the move a fisherman’s suplex without noting the family connection to the move). McGillicutty setup for his swinging neckbreaker finisher but Kaval caught him charging in with a rolling Liger kick (which was called). Kaval went up top but was knocked to the floor by Riley who then got the pinfall. Aside from the redundancy of someone stealing the pinfall, that was a good finishing sequence.
Riley d. McGillicutty, Kaval.
Before the first elimination, Matt Striker gave the five other rookies a chance to see who they thought should win NXT. Titus O’Neill picked Alex Riley, Cottonwood picked Alex Riley who he said was the most likable, Lucky Cannon knocked the three rookies and said the show went down the toilet once he left. Michael Cole crapped on the promo, remarking “all of sudden, he’s a bad guy.” Percy Watson chose Michael McGillicutty for no apparent reason. Husky Harris said McGillicutty should win because he “born better.” They then did the first elimination, which was bounced Alex Riley. Riley then cut a pretty good promo on the way out, saying he won despite not being born in the business and not being in the business for ten years.
Up next, was another promo challenge between the two finalists. McGillicutty sucked as he tried to insult Kaval and got no heat whatsoever. This guy is not at all ready for TV as he has no skills outside of being a passable worker (a poor man’s Ted DiBiase, Jr.) As the risk of sounding too harsh, there must be literally hundreds of guys on the indies with a similar skill set. Amazingly, he’s already 30 years old (!) so I have no idea what the use of even keeping him around after this is over is. Kaval got a decent reaction and cut a solid promo talking about his background, name dropping Eddie Guerrero as a one-time opponent.
After the commercial, Matt Striker quickly announced Kaval as the winner. It will be interesting to see how and when they book his championship match on PPV. They gave McGillicutty more promo time and he failed again. He vowed to be a future champion and said that he would be a big part in the WWE machine going forward. Michael Cole crapped on his promo again. Kaval started to do a promo when the five eliminated rookies charge the ring and started to do a beatdown on Kaval. It ended in a big melee with the pros coming in for a bit before disappearing. It ended with all seven of the other rookies attacking Kaval. I have no idea what the point of all that was and there’s no purpose whatsoever of another Nexus angle, since you cannot do something like that twice. And the WWE roster certainly doesn’t need any more dead weight on it right now with so many talented guys getting little to no push (i.e. Christian, Matt Hardy, Primo, Yoshi Tatsu).
Throughout the show, they announced next season’s competition which will an all-diva competition. On paper, this edition of NXT has the potential to surpass this season in terms of all-time horrible wrestling and into the rarefied air of cable access wrestling and WCW Thunder at its worst. Here is the lineup and what tidbits I could find out about the women from a handful of internet sources (so take nothing here as gospel).
Kelly Kelly coaches Naomi Night (real name Trinity McCray, age 23) -She has been in developmental for a little over a year and is a former cheerleader for the NBA’s Orlando Magic. That actually gives here an experience edge of most of the other women, believe it or not. She was being introduced as a face who can sing and dance with “athletic ability” which means she will soon be doing stuff way over her head in wrestling matches.
Alicia Fox coaches Maxine (real name Karlee Perez) – She hasn’t even been wrestling regularly in FCW, as she was given the GM role down there. She appears to have been given an upper class, snob gimmick.
Goldust coaches Aksana (real name Zivile Raudoniene, age 28) – A native of the former soviet republic of Lithuania, she was a former competitive body builder (won the 2009 Arnold Classic in her weight class) who WWE signed last fall. Nothing really stood out except for the fairly exotic ethnic background.
The Bella Twins (seriously) coach Jamie Keyes (real name Brittany Beede, age 25) – She has been the ring announcer on this show. She’s another former model who had a cup of coffee with TNA before being signed with WWE earlier this year. Almost no wrestling experience. Her gimmick is that she’s an good athlete, but they didn’t provide any credentials to that affect.
Primo Colon coaches A.J. Lee (real name April Jeanette) – They tried to present her as a tomboy who has been a fan for a while. Of the women, she is the only one with wrestling experience outside of FCW (so she’s the Kaval of this season, so to speak).
Vickie Guerrero coaches Aloisia – She’s billed as being 6’9” and that’s about it (although, that sure is something to build from). She started wrestling in a small south Florida promotion as Isis the Amazon and WWE quickly snatched her up.
A.J. Lee (because she’s the most accomplished one) and Aloisia (because of the obvious) appear to be the early favorites.
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