James Caldwell, Torch Assistant Editor (5.5)

This was a definite improvement over last week's show, but there are still flaws with the current format of NXT, which has regressed since a decent beginning to the second season. The strong points of the show were the same as they typically are each week: Kaval in the ring, Alex Riley on the mic, and Cody Rhodes doing anything.

Kaval has tremendous charisma in the ring and he continues to shine despite being booked to lose on a regular basis. His match with The Miz was fine to build sympathy for his underdog babyface persona before showing off his offensive arsenal in a comeback. Kaval is smooth and crisp in the ring. He's been ready for the main roster for a while, but WWE is taking advantage of a formal platform to introduce him to the audience.

The flaws this week included the show-opening "Talk the Talk" challenge that was essentially a 20-minute filler segment. Also, some of the elements in the NXT Rookie video packages with the Pros breaking down the strengths and weaknesses of the Rookies were counter-productive to trying to elevate potential future stars. Why draw attention to Titus O'Neil botching a move in the ring and Eli Cottonwood being clumsy? It would be one thing of this were presented like The Ultimate Fighter where talent is evaluated before they even see a live audience in a "real match." However, WWE presents NXT as an extension of the regular Raw and Smackdown TV shows. Talent should already be TV-ready, so WWE drawing strong attention to some embarrassing weaknesses of the Rookies makes WWE look bad if this is the "TV-ready" talent they're presenting to a national audience. It's counter-productive and creates more reasons for the audience to tune out and not take this show seriously. The Rookies cutting promos on glasses and mustaches is reason-enough not to take this seriously.

Dominick Mayer, PWTorch.com Contributor (3.5)

Ugh. Whatever goodwill the show garnered with its first few strong episodes is now gone, replaced by more of what made last season so thoroughly brain-numbing. The ever-entertaining high school debate team contest is back! The first third of the show went to watching Lucky Cannon talk about deodorant. And WWE wonders why nobody is watching this show. The Watson-McGillicutty match was just sort of there, as was the main event tag. We're now back to the point where the matches are a mere formality. The Kaval-Miz match single-handedly made the show watchable, but even that was just good and not great. The usual standouts are still getting over (Kaval, Riley, Cody Rhodes even though he shouldn't be), but so far the next few weeks are looking to get downright exhausting.

Then, there's the matter of replaying O'Neil's slip from a couple weeks ago. I have some serious issues with that. For one, it's incredibly insulting to an audience to not only sell the "Rookies" as eager young men with no prior wrestling experience, but also to completely denigrate them to the fanbase that WWE will later attempt to sell them on. Not only that, but if this is how WWE treats its competitors, then where was the Raw replay of Vladimir Kozlov's infamous 2008 Survivor Series match, complete with snarky commentary? Where's the montage of all the times Punk botched the G2S when he first adopted it? It's just an incredibly crass move when we're supposed to be investing in these guys, rather than just observing and mocking them.

Greg Parks, Torch Columnist (5.0)

Overall, I find the "Talk the Talk" segments to be a lot more relevant to pro wrestling than the Keg Carrying competition from last week, so I'm able to understand what WWE is trying to accomplish with the interview segments. However, WWE scripts their promos so tightly that it's unlikely these guys will ever have to make up a promo completely on the spot. Of course, to the average viewer, that isn't even on their radar, so this kind of segment probably makes more sense to them.

I thought the season two rookies handled things on the mic a little better than their season one counterparts. Michael McGillicutty and Percy Watson were fine in their match, but that's about it. I think I was higher on Joe Hennig's future before he began on NXT. Kaval vs. The Miz was a really solid match, and just showed how light-years ahead Kaval is of the rest of the season two rookies.

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