By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

NXT HITS

Opening Rookie Mic Work: It is amazing what can happen when you give the rookies some mic time and don't saddle them with ridiculous topics like rainbows and mustaches. Michael McGillicutty and Kaval are not great on the mic. But, they sounded much better when just allowed to cut a promo more like a regular WWE wrestler would than in silly challenges. McGillicutty sounded sincere when talking about his father. Alex Riley has been good on the mic, the best of the remaining rookies. He exudes confidence. Kaval has had an up and down year in terms of promos, but the last few weeks have been strong. I like how he challenged Cody Rhodes after what happened last week. The subsequent verbal confrontation was solid. Like Rhodes, I could have done without the lame "you're only here because of your father" bit. So, it could have been better. Also, I wasn't a fan of Montel Vontavious Porter getting involved. I would have rather seen the set up be for Rhodes vs. Kaval as opposed to Rhodes vs. MVP. But, there was still enough strong mic work from the rookies to give the segment a Hit.

Trivia Contest: I'm still not a fan of the contests on NXT, but this one was pretty fun. I enjoyed the chance to challenge myself to see how I did against the rookies. There was a pretty good range of questions. I loved that there was a Mean Streets Posse question. Riley was hilarious in his response to being heckled by the fans for not getting any right answers when he yelled out "I'm working on it!" It was also amusing how he finally got a correct answer, and then the contest was over and he lost. It entertained me.

NXT MISSES

Rhodes vs. MVP: I don't think this match needed to be 24 minutes and have two commercial breaks. This is one of the problems with doing double tapings, the writers get burned out so they just get lazy and throw out this match for nearly half the show. It really dragged in the middle. It was way too long for the quality of the match. A good two segment match going 12 - 15 minutes would have been perfectly fine, but they really stretched things out and I got bored. I don't understand why MVP is booked to lose all the time on non-Smackdown shows. He lost in a tag match with JTG to Vance Archer & Kurt Hawkins on Superstars last week. This week, he loses to Rhodes on NXT. But, on Smackdown he is in the middle of a budding feud against former World Champion Jack Swagger. How am I supposed to take MVP seriously as a threat against Swagger, if he loses these other matches? I know WWE is building Rhodes up right now, but did that have to come at a cost to MVP? And did it have to come after such a long boring match that took away from the rookies in their last episode before the finale?

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.

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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