By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

Before getting to NXT, I want to talk briefly about this week's Raw. Unfortunately, as I was watching the DVR playback, about 35 minutes into the show the sound went out (around the time Nexus was starting to beat up Edge) and then a few minutes later it froze all together. At that point, it was 10:55 so I watched the final few minutes live and saw Nexus's encounter with John Cena. I read the reviews and seemed to miss the majority of a good episode of Raw, and I liked most of what I saw. For the record, if I had seen the entire show and done a Hits & Misses, Orton vs. Edge vs. Jericho and Nexus - Jericho/Edge would have gotten Hits; The Great Khali being part of Team Cena would have gotten a Miss. Now, on to NXT:

NXT HITS

Focus Back on the Rookies: After last week's NXT which had zero focus on the NXT rookies, it was good to see that focus back this week. Each of the pros got a chance to say why their rookies should be #1 in the poll next week, and the rookies got equal mic time as well. Some were better (Cody Rhodes, Percy Watson) than others (Eli Cottonwood, Kofi Kingston), but at least they were given time. They had more of the rookie evaluation videos than they had last week. And they focused on the competition aspect of the show. They emphasized next week's elimination and the importance of winning immunity in the obstacle course. We were reminded about the point of the show which was missing last week.

Harris & Rhodes vs. Watson & MVP: This was a pretty good tag team match. Husky Harris has something to offer and WWE seems behind him. However, he hasn't shown a lot in the ring yet. This was certainly better than his long boring match against Montel Vontavious Porter from a few weeks ago. Obviously, having a partner and not having to carry the match helped. Watson and Rhodes helped too. It was interesting to see Rhodes in the player/coach sort of role, getting the advantage in the end over MVP and tagging out to Harris, telling him to finish the job.

NXT MISSES

Michael Cole: Michael Cole's heel announcer persona is really starting to drag and get annoying (and not in a good way). It is just too over the top. I could live with him becoming a big time supporter of The Miz, but his praise for Miz in the face of terrible actions is a little much. Plus, he is playing a heel in many other ways throughout the show. One big criticism of him this week is that he talked too much. There doesn't have to be talking from the announcers at all times. Does he have to interject comments at every opportunity? Every little thing that happened, every little moment in the obstacle course, every time a rookie or pro talked, Cole was giving a snide comment. It was too much.

Obstacle Course: As I said above, the obstacle course did help to put the focus back on the rookies and the competition aspect of the show, but WWE could have done the same without this lame bit. I am glad that it wasn't the same obstacle course from Season 1. This was much shorter and therefore much better. But, these competitions which have little to nothing to do with being a professional wrestler will likely end up in the Miss column every week. There were parts to like. I laughed out loud when Husky Harris ran through the final hurdle. That was great. I am becoming a fan. Alex Riley showed some of his character when he argued with the referees and blamed them for not passing the time to beat. Those types of entertaining moments and the fact that the course was shorter and not as bad as last season had me considering not giving it a Miss. However, Lucky Cannon beat Alex Riley by 12 seconds after being beat down by The Miz. Does that mean that Cannon is a better potential WWE break out star? Because, he lost really easily to Riley in a wrestling match earlier in the show. This just points to a big problem that NXT has. The matches should mean way more than a race (or any other competition), but they don't. Notice you can't win immunity by winning a match.

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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