By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

NXT HITS

Opening Segment: This has a chance to seem hypocritical of me considering I will be giving the concept of physical challenges a Miss, but I enjoyed the opening segment. We got to see some of the rookies get in some mic time before the physical challenge and they all delivered pretty well. David Otunga actually gave a reasonable explanation for why he walked out on John Cena on Raw. I liked Daniel Bryan's promo about not really deserving to be ranked #1 (and his shot at Michael Cole was great). Michael Tarver's promo was solid. Then came the keg lifting contest. I don't like the concept, but was entertained by it. Matt Striker did a nice job as host. There were some amusing comments from the announcers during it. Some of the attempts were very humorous (Bryan's was supposed to be, but I'm not sure if the others were too). It also set up the main event of Heath Slater vs. Kane.

Inset Promos: This was a simple, yet effective tool for giving us more of a glimpse into the personalities of the NXT rookies. Before the matches, we saw the wrestlers giving brief promos about where they stand in the competition thus far. It worked well. Skip Sheffield was the only rookie not in a match this week, so he didn't get an inset promo on his way to the ring. So, WWE gave him a backstage interview with Striker. All the rookies got in a little mic time this week which was good.

Kane vs. Slater: This is the type of match where a rookie is actually elevated in taking a loss (juxtaposed to Smackdown when they all looked weak in their handicap match against Kane). Heath Slater got in more offense on Kane then the rookies were able to do before they all jumped him last week. He had a chance to hit some nice flying moves. He showed some toughness in kicking out of some of Kane's power offense and continuing to fight back despite taking a beating. The announcers did a nice job of focusing on that aspect of the match.

NXT MISSES

Physical Challenges: As I said above, I don't like the idea of physical challenges for the NXT rookies (not thrilled with the prospect of mental challenges either). It just strikes me as too much like the Divas Search or the fourth Tough Enough with the contestants doing similar challenges on Smackdown every week. What does this have to do with wrestling? Sure, power is an important attribute for a wrestler. However, it isn't as important as skill. Just being able to do these types of challenges well has nothing to do with how the wrestler performs in the ring. It is possible that these will be entertaining segments like this one was. Yet, I still don't like the concept. WWE could come up with other ways of entertaining the audience in the context of the NXT competition that would make more sense.

No Pros: NXT wasn't as entertaining this week without the pros. They weren't on at all. I see multiple problems with this. One is that Chris Jericho and CM Punk are often the most entertaining aspects of this show. Another is that WWE hasn't nearly done enough to show interaction between the pros and rookies. We need to see more of them training and coaching the rookies. The pro - rookie interaction was one of the most intriguing aspects to this show when they first announced the concept, but they haven't delivered at all. Also, if the pros aren't going to be on, there should be some sort of explanation. The undercard matches were all solid and kept short which is probably a good thing, although I wouldn't have minded seeing Bryan vs. Young go longer. The matches would have been better if the pros were at ringside just to add some veteran presence to the show and to see how Punk reacted to Young winning, or how R-Truth reacted to Otunga losing, etc.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's WWE Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw, Smackdown, NXT, and Superstars each week. Email him at jmezz-torch@sbcglobal.net.

For another view from the original Hitlist author, compare Jason Powell's views to mine by visiting prowrestling.NET's "Hitlist" section here.

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