James Caldwell, Torch Assistant Editor (4.5)

This show just didn't make any sense. And I didn't get WWE's logic. Or the announcers standing in the ring agreeing that Kaval should be eliminated when he had a good night (innovative promo attempt and a match victory) and Alex Riley should win the contest (so-so promo and a match loss). It's as if the entire purpose of NXT is to get a rise out of the hardcore audience that actually watches the show or to get a rise out of people who watch TV with their brain turned on. Expressing disdain for the audience seems to be 95 percent of the purpose of the show, with the idea of establishing new stars checking in at a distant five percent.

It's such an odd booking approach, but expected for a promotion not concerned with competition, therefore not pressed to flip that percentage on making stars vs. playing WWE Games. They figure placing the "WWE brand seal of approval" on any given star will make the person a big deal, with the NXT show merely a means to introduce a talent they'll either ridicule, mock, and deride or over-compensate for with praise upon heaping praise. Facetiously, if the wrestler doesn't get over, it certainly can't be WWE's fault, because WWE slapped the brand name on the wrestler. It must be the wrestler's fault for not overcoming WWE sandbagging him.

What almost pushed the show to a thumbs up were three things: Cody Rhodes's show-closing promo, Kaval's in-ring work, and the overall final segment with men and women involved in a free-for-all brawl that was the best of WWE's capability to create compelling, "manufactured," competition-based programming when they want to. In the process, they made the audience want to see a fight between Husky Harris and Kaval, as well as Harris and MVP after their cold stare down. They also made you want to see Cody Rhodes get his comeuppance at a date to be determined. Why they waste an hour of TV, then wait until the final two minutes of each week's show to create something the audience wants to see continue is beyond me.

Dominick Mayer, PWTorch.com Contributor (6.5)

I wanted to rate this show higher, I really did. The two eliminations were handled well and made sense, particularly Harris', as his freak-out was the definite highlight of the show. I can easily see him being moved to work further with Rhodes as a heavy once this season is over. His match with Kaval was also really well done. It's great to see Kaval getting over with an audience that's been conditioned to disregard small guys unless they're being portrayed as the scrappy underdog. The match was good, but too short, and that's why I can't rate this show any higher.

There was a total of six minutes of wrestling on last night's show, which is a shame, plain and simple. Even ECW, for its myriad flaws, had more in-ring action. Also, the opening promo segment, though a lot better than the "themed words" debacle from weeks ago, still took a lot of the energy out of the show. Depending on whether there's an elimination next week, it'd be interesting to see a mix and match with all the pros and against each other over the last two weeks of the show. If somebody goes, though, it's going to be Hennig. Kaval and Alex Riley are both just too hot right now.

Greg Parks, Torch Columnist (6.0)

The promos at the beginning of the show were some of the strongest of the season, and even Kaval's was entertaining thanks to him dropping the total non-stop action phrase. The couple matches on the show were fine, and I like that they did one elimination at the beginning and one at the end. That made sense to keep viewers tuned in. Not only that, but I also agreed with the two men who got eliminated. I was never a big Watson fan but he was growing on me. I did like the final four, but Harris still has some work to do.

The show-ending brawl was a bit confusing. I'm not sure how tightly they script these, and if this was carefully laid out, whatever agent was in charge failed terribly. The brawl looked weak at some points, like MVP coming off the apron only to tap Harris on the back, and no one seemed to know what they were supposed to be doing. It did give it a genuine sense of unscripted-ness, which is nice every once in a while.

We suggest these recent related articles...

JAMES'S WWE NXT REPORT 9/30 - Week 182: Balor & Joe in Dusty tournament, Ciampa and Gargano in singles matches, final "Takeover" card, more; Overall Reax

JAMES'S WWE NXT REPORT 9/23 - Week 181: Vaudevillians defend NXT Tag Titles, Kana introduded, lots of promos, Takeover build, more; Overall Reax

WWE NXT RESULTS 9/23: Vaudevillains defend NXT Tag Titles, Kana/Asuka formally introduced, Breeze, Eva Marie, more