-- 5/4 NXT Reax

Joey B. of New Jersey, artist (6.0): So far, I've enjoyed NXT mainly because of the new faces, but this week's episode let a lot of air out of the tire. These challenges should be done away with unless they have some value other than the people backstage getting their jollies humiliating these. Aside from the first challenge involving promos and maybe the keg carry, the rest have been detrimental. From a business standpoint, these Rookies have the potential to be money some day. One of the finer points of wrestling booking has always been to hide a wrestler's weak points and hope that he improves. When you not only expose, but shine a spotlight on a wrestler's weak points, it undermines his marketability, undermines his confidence, and potentially ruins him as a money-player down the road. Some examples: Justin Gabriel is fun to watch wrestle, has charisma and looks, but right now he can't do any ad-libs on the mic. Same with Darren Young. Someday, he could be a great character, but he comes across nervous and looks green on TV. Worst of all is what they're doing to Daniel Bryan. After the last few weeks and especially Raw and NXT this week, he's slipped into jobber territory. Okay, he loses to Batista, but what if he clamped on a submission hold AFTER the loss and Batista freaked out and tapped? Those ten seconds would've eliminated all the damage done to Bryan on NXT. And if the pay-off is he finally beats up The Miz after NXT, well, it'll be too little, too late. To summarize, why would a company that is in business to make money seemingly undermine their investment?

Dustin Collins of Johnson City, Tenn. (0.5): Best Match: Tarver vs. Bryan. Worst Match: Tarver vs. soda. I thought this was a horrible event with a horrible challenge. I sure hope WWE's next big star is able to juggle and chug a soda. Jim Ross could make the worst of matches sound interesting, but not even Ross could make this week's challenge the least bit interesting.

Brian Jaffe of Iowa City, IA (0.0): Best Match: none. Worst Match: anything and everything. NXT started with an interesting premise: let the young guys from developmental mix it up with the veterans. Since then, it has absolutely plummeted in quality, with this week's show representing the absolute worst. I thought WWE was only booking Daniel Bryan poorly. As it turns out, they are booking everyone poorly! NXT has turned into a parade of eight guys who are not over and who the crowd does not care about. Going on the assumption that each obstacle course segment took two minutes and thirty seconds, that was 20 minutes of a show wasted on something I would expect to see on Legends of the Hidden Temple, not a wrestling program. I sit here honestly wondering how WWE is trying to make these eight wrestlers into actual stars. Given the booking they have done so far, Bryan is a jobber, Tarver is a loser, Otunga talks a lot but doesn't win, Barrett has disappeared from the ring and doesn't care about challenges, Sheffield is a moron, Slater is just very lucky, Young is generic despite his look, and Gabriel is a mid-carder for life. I have no idea how WWE plans to turn any of them into stars. And, of course, WWE has attempted to break down Daniel Bryan to 0-10 so they can re-build him rather than build on his independent success. NXT is a mess and a poor excuse for a wrestling program, plain and simple.

We welcome your 0-10 score and comments on this show for an "NXT TV Reax" feature in the Torch Feedback section of PWTorch.com. Just to add a twist to this feature, include not just your hometown, but also your occupation (mechanic, lawyer, stay-at-home-dad, college student, etc.) so readers get a flavor for what everyone does as "day jobs." To contribute your thoughts on NXT, click here.

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