WWE NXT
June 1, 2010
results thanks to pwtorch.com
Week 15 and the Season Finale of
WWE's NXT show started with a video package recapping the season thus far,
including the Bryan Danielson vs. Michael Cole feud. They focused on the final
three remaining: Wade Barrett, David Otunga, and Justin Gabriel. As of start
time, Torch readers have voted Barrett 67 percent, Gabriel 23 percent, and
Otunga 9 percent on who should win.
Arena: Michael Cole introduced the show and said they are 60 minutes away from
determining the first winner of NXT. Already in the ring was Matt Striker to
host the season finale of the new show. Striker said one Rookie's dream will
come true. Before that, though, he wants to introduce the five eliminated
Rookies. They showed Michael Tarver, Daniel Bryan, Skip Sheffield, Darren Young,
and Heath Slater in casual dress clothes seated on the front row ringside.
Striker then introduced the WWE Pros minus Carlito on stage. First out was Chris
Jericho in a casual suit. The Miz was out next. Matt Hardy came out third,
followed by U.S. champion R-Truth. William Regal was out next, then Christian,
then C.M. Punk with the mask on. He looked much bulkier with the mask, baggy
pants, and a giant hoodie.
Striker then introduced #1 ranked Wade Barrett, who was dressed to wrestle.
Barrett strutted to the ring, then David Otunga came to the ring with his
heat-generating smug look and walk. Otunga wasn't dressed to wrestle. Justin
Gabriel was out third and dressed to wrestle. Striker addressed Barrett, Otunga,
and Gabriel and hyped the 15-week journey to this spot. Striker hyped the winner
receiving a PPV title match, which drew a smattering of cheers. Striker paused
to drag this out before setting the stage that there will be two Pros Polls on
tonight's show. They'll eliminate one Rookie, then another. And the Rookies will
be in a triple threat match tonight.
Announcers: Josh Mathews and Michael Cole were shown ringside to hype the
night's events and begin plugging what's happening next week - Season Two of NXT.
They're going to begin announcing the new Rookies tonight.
NXT Rookie intro: Husky Harris. I believe that's Duke Rotunda, son of "I.R.S"
Mike Rotunda. He looks like Trevor Murdoch, Terry Gordy, and Morishima rolled
into one. His Pro is Cody Rhodes.
[Commercial Break]
Backstage: John Morrison was shown introducing himself as an NXT Pro for Season
Two. He said his Rookie is like a giant redwood tree. He has the big 7'1" Eli
Cottonwood. They rolled a brief video intro on Cottonwood. Cole said he's a very
strange dude.
[Q2]
1 -- WADE BARRETT (w/Chris Jericho) vs. DAVID OTUNGA (R-Truth) vs. JUSTIN
GABRIEL (w/Matt Hardy) -- elimination-style triple threat match
They went to the ring for the beginning of the NXT Rookie three-way match.
Mathews said he would send Gabriel home first and he agrees with the Pros that
he might be a one-trick pony. Barrett started working over the other two Rookies
while Jericho shouted words of affirmation from ringside. Cole said they've been
informed about Season Two - Jericho interrupted Cole's plug to comically scream
at the announcers to focus on the match. Barrett scored a nearfall and Cole
continued to be delayed on his announcement. He then announced the Pros will
have 50 percent of the vote and the WWE Universe will have the other 50 percent
in Season Two's voting.
Otunga knocked Gabriel to the outside, then rolled him back into the ring to
score a nearfall. Meanwhile, Barrett was holding his ankle in pain ringside.
Barrett then re-entered, but he was knocked off the ring apron with a knee from
Gabriel. Gabriel put Otunga in the corner and hit the big 450 splash from the
top rope. He had the pin, but Barrett yanked Gabriel out of the ring and scored
the pin on Otunga himself. Otunga is eliminated. Barrett stared down at Gabriel,
who was selling ringside and Hardy talked him up before they cut to break.
[Commercial Break]
Back from break, Barrett was working over Gabriel in the ring. Meanwhile, the
eliminated Rookies sat with arms folded ringside. On the stage, the Pros were
shown selling intense interest in the match while Punk had his head down taking
notes. Barrett continued to work over Gabriel, who avoided a corner attack and
smashed Barrett with multiple kicks. Gabriel then went to the corner for a
springboard cross-body that Barrett sold beautifully and Gabriel scored a two
count. Jericho continued to shout instructions from the outside as Gabriel
scored another nearfall. Gabriel dropped Barrett with an STO, then went up top
looking for his finisher, but Barrett got his knees up. That was a crunching
counter. They both seemed to remain frozen with Gabriel on top of Barrett, who
then rolled up Gabriel with a small package to score the win.
WINNER: Barrett in 10:00. Decent match once they removed Otunga from the
equation. We'll see if the outcome has any bearing on the elimination. Wins and
losses haven't really mattered thus far, so why should it start to matter now?
Post-match: Barrett celebrated with Jericho as Hardy tried to help Gabriel
recover. Striker then told the NXT Pros to huddle up on the stage and vote on
who should be eliminated. They cut to the announcers ringside to talk up the
first elimination coming up next. Josh "orange glow" Mathews then fed to another
NXT Rookie intro.
Backstage: MVP introduced himself as a Season Two NXT Pro. MVP talked up his
Rookie as a party boy. Here's Percy Watson. Cue up a video on Watson, who was
with Darren Young as the South Beach Boys in FCW. Watson is high energy and
apparently will be a bundle to contain.
[Commercial Break. A spot for the Half-Pint Brawlers show on Spike TV aired to
promote tomorrow night's debut.]
[Q3]
WWE Classics plug: "This week in WWE history" took the audience back to
"Junkyard Dog" Sylvester Ritter's career in WWE.
Backstage: Zack Ryder was shown introducing himself as a Season Two Pro. He said
what matters is what he teaches his Rookie about looking good. Cue up a video on
Titus O'Neil. He was presented as an aggressive fighter in the ring and a
businessman outside of the ring. Cole said he's a former NFL player.
In-ring: The remaining Rookies were assembled as Matt Striker voiced-over the
elimination to come right now. Striker then walked over to the five eliminated
Rookies to get their thoughts on the remaining Rookies. Striker asked Michael
Tarver what's up. Tarver said he is the product. If he had to eliminate one of
the Rookies, he would choose himself. Daniel Bryan was polled next. Bryan said
David Otunga can't wrestle, Gabriel can't talk, and that leaves Wade Barrett.
Skip Sheffield stood up and looked around the arena before saying, "I don't
care." Nice. Darren Young put his money on Barrett. He got the cheap local heat
knocking Dallas. Heath Slater stood up next and brushed his hair. True to the
gimmick to the last week. Slater picked Barrett via his victory tonight. Barrett
smirked in the ring after getting all the accolades.
Pros Poll: Striker introduced the new Pros Poll with #1 being...Wade Barrett.
Barrett nodded his head in agreement. Striker then asked Gabriel and Otunga to
step forward. He went back to the video board. #2 is David Otunga and #3 is
Justin Gabriel, so Gabriel is gone. The audience was not happy with the
decision.
Gabriel took the mic and did the "humble beginnings" babyface promo. Gabriel
said his dream is not over because he will keep coming back until he makes it in
this company. He said he's picked himself up from every challenge and he vowed
to be a World champion someday. Striker gave it up for Gabriel, who received a
nice reaction from the crowd. Gabriel walked up the ramp where Matt Hardy
greeted him. Hardy talked over the NXT music before addressing Gabriel. He said
he's seen a piece of himself inside Gabriel. Hardy said Justin Gabriel will not
die and he will be back. Hardy told him to keep coming back and keep fighting.
Cue up the NXT theme music to cut off Hardy.
Backstage: Women's champion(s) Layla and Michelle McCool were shown backstage as
two new Pros for Season Two. They vowed to make their NXT Rookie carry their bag
or their Women's Title because he's "so teenie tiny." Here's Kaval. Yep, Low-Ki
hasn't even been on the show and they're already drawing attention to his size.
Cue up a video on Low-Ki in action at FCW showing off his offensive arsenal.
They limited him to a few soundbytes. Back live, Cole billed him as a "no
nonsense New Yorker" and an accomplished martial artist.
Of note, during the Kaval video, they showed the big grouping of Season Two's
NXT Rookies. Torch reader Alex G. noted Joe Hennig, Alex Riley, and Johnny Prime
were the other three.
[Commercial Break]
[Q4]
Backstage: Mark Henry was shown introducing himself as one of the
"Professionals" on Season Two of the show. He introduced Lucky Cannon. That
appears to be Johnny Prime with different hair. They ran a brief video on Lucky.
Cole promised a very interesting story on him next week.
In-ring: Striker brought in David Otunga and Wade Barrett to cut promos on each
other. Otunga was given the mic first. He did a mild rap on Barrett, saying the
only PPV match he would pay to see is a triple threat with Barrett, Aquafresh,
and Listerine. Barrett stood there and waited for Otunga to finish. Barrett then
cut a promo on Otunga turning viewers away in droves every time he gets in the
ring. He said Otunga has a great body, but he doesn't have the first clue on how
to use it. He said he's seen Great Khali move around the ring with more poise
and balance than him. Barrett said Otunga has the "it" factor because he has no
tangible quality WWE can hang onto.
Backstage: Kofi Kingston introduced himself as another Season Two Pro. He also
used the "professional" title. Kofi said his Rookie is the son of Mr. Perfect.
He put him over before introducing him as Michael McGillicutty. How do you get
that from Joe Hennig? They cut to a video on Hennig almost struggling to get the
words out announcing his new gimmick name. Hennig said he's bringing back
Ruthless Aggression. Okay, I get the idea WWE wants to differentiate the
second-generation wrestlers and not have an entire roster full of 2G'ers, but
that's "let's draw two random names out of a hat" quality.
[Commercial Break]
Announcers: Cole and Mathews were shown ringside hyping the finale tonight and
the beginning of Season Two starting next week. Mathews re-announced the 50/50
split on the voting next season. Cole said he wants to vote. Mathews shook his
head in disgust.
Ringside: The eliminated NXT Rookies were shown sitting on the front row still
disinterested with this. Suddenly, The Miz interrupted on the stage. Miz said
all of the Season Two Pros have talked about their NXT Rookies. He then
announced he will be back for Season Two. Cole threw a parade on commentary. Miz
trash-talked Daniel Bryan, who stood up and stared down Miz. Miz then introduced
his guaranteed winner on Season Two. Cue up a video package on Alex Riley. He's
basically Miz, Jr. Back live, Striker thanked Miz for the intro.
Striker did the slow build-up before revealing the Pros Poll to determine the
winner. After a pause, Striker asked for the winner. Not so fast, my friend. On
stage, Regal got up and thanked Jericho for helping Barrett win the competition.
Truth interrupted and said it's not over yet because Otunga should be the
winner. Punk said the only reason why Otunga is here is because he has a wife.
Truth is defending Otunga after their feud on the show? Christian told Regal to
shut up after Regal tried to put over Barrett. Truth got in Regal's face. Regal
then cut a promo on the Pros after saying he waited 15 weeks to finally get a
live mic on the show. Regal ripped off his jacket as Truth stepped to him. Regal
told the whole lot of them to come fight him. Regal called Hardy "Eugene." Truth
then did a dance move in Regal's face. Cole cackled. Since Cole has a split
personality on commentary, it wasn't clear whether it was a derisive or
supportive laugh.
[Q5 -- over-run] Jericho and Christian talked over each other before Christian
dryly said Regal hasn't won a fight in a year. Nice one-liner with proper timing
to get a pop from the crowd. They talked over each other before Punk just walked
off to the back. So great. Jericho interrupted Regal and said he's the reason
for Barrett winning this deal. Regal shot back that he's always liked his two
moves. Regal said Barrett would have won this with any of them as his Pro.
Striker tried to interrupt the Regal Show and finally cut him off. Regal was
amazing on the mic here. The whole cross-talk bit was rough at times, but there
were some great one-liners going back and forth.
Striker then set up the big reveal. Cue up the Pros Poll with #1 and the winner
being...and the Wwnner is...more drumroll...and the winner is #1 ranked Wade
Barrett. David Otunga looked down in disgust voted #2 as Barrett paraded around
the ring celebrating. Jericho was shown on the stage quietly clapping for the
win.
Striker gave the mic to Otunga, who said this can't be real. He said Ashton
Kutcher must still be around because he's being Punk'd. Otunga said he was
eliminated from a reality show and went on to become the biggest star from the
show. He said he knows someone else who was eliminated from American Idol and
went on to become a bigger deal than anyone else on the show - that would be his
fiancee Jennifer Hudson.
Striker then gave the mic to Wade Barrett, who talked himself up. He said he and
Mr. Chris Jericho knew from the start he would win the competition. Barrett said
he didn't come to WWE or NXT for a pat on the back or to gain anyone's approval.
He said he came here to make money. Barrett said he's bringing in the big bucks
with a PPV title match. He warned the Pros on-stage that this is the beginning
of a brand-new era in WWE. Jericho joined Barrett in the ring as Barrett vowed
to become new WWE World champion. Cue up Jericho's theme music. Fittingly, NXT
Season One closes with Barrett still not having his own theme music. They showed
Barrett and Jericho celebrating the victory before sending it to a video package
highlighting the big moments from Season One, concluding with Barrett's big
celebration.