James Caldwell, Torch Assistant Editor (4.0)

I didn't care for this week's challenge and that ate up the majority of the show with NXT degenerating into a knock-off Nickelodeon kid's show. All they needed was the green slime on Daniel Bryan to complete the show.

Probably the lone bright spot of the show was the end of the show. No, no, no, not when the show went off the air, but the final segment with Wade Barrett and Darren Young having a tussle, tension between David Otunga and Justin Gabriel, and "in the heat of the moment" comments from the NXT Rookies as if they were in a post-game interview fresh off a tough battle on the field/court/ice. It was what this show has the potential to be, but has ultimately failed to become thanks to these irrelevant contests and filler wrestling matches.

Daniel Bryan continues to lose. Shocking. I still get the sense WWE is actually building to something meaningful, as evidenced by his match on Raw with Batista, Michael Cole giving Bryan some props on NXT, and Bryan setting up for that big spirited underdog babyface comeback on the show. Perhaps it's just false hope, but I believe WWE is going somewhere with this. After all, in several months, Bryan could be on Smackdown having great matches and completely erasing the NXT bit from the memories of WWE fans. It's the benefit of WWE conditioning their audience to have very, very short memories.

Dominick Mayer, PWTorch.com Contributor (5.5)

The last ten minutes of this show were how they should be playing this premise going forward. There was reasonable conflict (even if all eight guys infighting was maybe a little bit much), and the final fight created a legitimate sense that these men are competing against one another for a contract, a significant part of this show's conceit that seems to have fallen by the wayside in recent weeks. All of the above, sadly, paled in comparison to the epic fail of a contest setup. Giving immunity from firing is a good angle, but giving it away in what amounted to a poor man's "Ninja Warrior" was not. The gimmicks are just embarrassing, especially when we're supposed to watch these people on Raw or Smackdown in a few months and take them seriously as competitors.

As far as ring action goes, the matches continue to be secondary. Tarver-Bryan had its moments, though I won't go on my weekly soapbox about how colossally Bryan's push is being mishandled. Otunga has ring presence, but needs work on his wrestling. Thing is, though, I can see it working out well; Batista wasn't the best ring worker either when he started out, but he evolved into the role due to presence. Overall, the firings next week can't come soon enough; this will infuse some drama back into a show in desperate need of some.

Greg Parks, Torch Columnist (4.5)

This was a pretty brutal show. Who cares about how quickly a guy can drink a soda? What could that possibly have to do with who deserves a WWE contract? At least Michael Tarver's character was forwarded a bit in this episode, and the final few minutes were good. Having two guys, Tarver and Daniel Bryan, both saying they deserve to be cut, was a bit of overkill.

The two matches on the show weren't worth much. As usual, unfortunately. I don't mind the Daniel Bryan losing streak, but at some point, WWE is going to lose the fans and they won't pop nearly as much for the eventual win. Luckily, Bryan hasn't been treated as a jobber outside the ring (unless you consider the comments by Michael Cole).

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