By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

NXT HITS

Barrett vs. Otunga vs. Gabriel: This was a good triple threat match. I appreciate the fact that it was elimination style, not just one fall. Wade Barrett and Justin Gabriel in particular looked good in this match. David Otunga was ok, but is just clearly not ready for prime time yet. He needs some major time at FCW to improve in the ring so that his in ring ability comes up to his charisma. Of course, Chris Jericho was his usual great self in yelling at the announcers to talk up Barrett's performance.

Barrett Wins: Wade Barrett was the clear choice to become the next breakout WWE star, or whatever the winner of NXT is being called. He showed he has the mic skills and charisma that David Otunga has in his 60 second promo. In fact, he out performed all the rookies on the mic pretty much all season long. He also showed that he has the in ring skills to make it in WWE. He has some work to do, but he has shown a ton of potential. Daniel Bryan was right on when he said that Otunga can't wrestle, Gabriel can't talk, but Barrett can do both. I also liked how he said he is in WWE not to win any one's approval, but to make money.

NXT MISSES

Season 2 Announced: I was not happy to hear that next week will see the start of Season 2 on NXT. Season 1 was pretty bad and I have absolutely no confidence that WWE has a clue what to do to fix the problem. They seemed to be rushing to cut Season 1 short when they cut three rookies in one week, then when they announced last week that they were only cutting the field down to three rookies instead of two for the finale. I find it hard to believe that WWE was hurrying to finish off Season 1 just to get to Season 2 that much quicker. That makes no sense. Maybe there will be some changes, but so far the only announced difference is that the fans will have 50% say in the eliminations next season. That doesn't address the problems with this show. That won't fix anything. I am a bit curious to see what they do with some of the pros. There is some potential there. I am particularly curious to see how LayCool performs with Kaval. But, those curiosities are not enough to make me look forward to next week.

Michael McGillicutty: Why have Joe Hennig reference the fact that he is Mr. Perfect Kurt Hennig's son, when you are going to give him a different last name? If you are going to play up the fact that he is Mr. Perfect's son, then let him keep his real name, at least his last name. They did the same with Mike Rotundo's son who is going to go by the name of Husky Harris. That is cheesy, but it doesn't sound nearly as bad as Michael McGillicutty.

Pros Bickering: There were some funny lines at the end of NXT as the pros bickered back and forth. It was interesting to see William Regal sort of taking control of the segment and holding court so to speak. I also liked how CM Punk simply said he had enough of NXT and walked away. However, despite some good in the segment, it was just too much. It got annoying after awhile. It was hard to hear some of the good one liners since they were all talking over each other. Also, it was a little late in the season to create tension among the pros with two minutes left. What was the point? It really struck me as WWE needing to fill time with little content on the last show.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's WWE Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw, Smackdown, NXT, and Superstars each week. s 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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