WWE NXT Report
December 7, 2011
Taped 12/6 in Jacksonville, Fla.
Report by Justin James, PWTorch contributor

Opening Comments: It looks like the chances of Derrick Bateman as a player on the main roster are coming closer to fruition. Also, I think I solved the Mystery of the Annouce Booth: just as WWE has used NXT to give some of the main roster folks a chance to get working in a TV environment without the stress of knowing people will actually watch, WWE has been doing the same thing with the announcers. I think anyone who has watched NXT can safely say that the Regal/Korpela pair has been solid, if not very good at times. Josh Mathews and Matt Striker definitely need some work, though. Striker needs to tone down some of his sarcasm to his fellow announcers, and Mathews needs to step up to the plate and actually do some PxP work. I feel like this pairing on NXT is to give them an opportunity to refine their announcing, and perhaps start getting used to each other, in a pitch to get them into a more prominent role. With the WWE Network coming up and the Smackdown booth widely (and rightfully) criticized, I wouldn't be shocked to see Striker/Matthews (and maybe even Regal/Korpela) in a more prominent role in the near future.

For the best video experience with NXT, instead of going to NXT.WWE.com, go to WWE.com, find "Video -> Full Episodes" on the menu, and then choose NXT from there. That will use the Hulu player instead of the awful WWE.com player.

Rookies:

Darren Young
Derrick Bateman
Titus O'Neil

Regular Cast:

William Regal
Matt Striker
Josh Matthews
Jack Korpela
JTG
Tyson Kidd
Yoshi Tatsu
A.J.
Kaitlyn
Tamina
Percy Watson

[Q1] To begin, the show cuts from the tail-end of the opening sequence to the Usos doing their war dance. And it's Mathews and Striker on commentary again. The Usos have mics and Jimmy gets the crowd pumped with local cheap pops. They do their crowd interaction routine from last week. Derrick Bateman in street clothes comes out to interrupt, selling frustration. He compliments their entrance and sincerely apologizes for interrupting. He catches the audience up to date on the romantic situation with Maxine and Johnny Curtis. He says that he wants some closure. The Usos say that it wasn't really like that, that Tamina and JTG were playing games with him. Bateman is confused. Jey says that Maxine left last week by herself. He thanks them and storms out. Tyler Reks and Curt Hawkins come out to face The Usos.

1 - THE USOS vs. CURT HAWKINS & TYLER REKS

Hawkins and Jimmy start the match. Curt ducks a superkick after some early lock-up, then tags in Reks. Jimmy with a big slap and chops to send Tyler to the corner and Jey tags in. Emphatic headlock that Reks shoves out of, then a nice armdrag. Jey with a trip, then a diving headbutt for two. Jimmy tags in, then does his dance while Reks looks at him in rather bewildered. Reks charges, but gets taken down. Hawkins and Jey come in to brawl and the Usos clear Hawkins and Reks out of the ring. Jey rolls out and rolls Reks into the ring, but Hawkins distracts Jey (who Mathews is calling "Jimmy") and Reks gets the upper hand. Reks tags in Hawkins who goes to a side chinlock. They knock Jey to the outside and cut to commercial.

[ Commercial ]

Back from break, Mathews is still calling "Jey" "Jimmy" and Reks and Hawkins are using rapid tags to keep him isolated. The crowd rallies and Jey lands a superkick to get some seperation. Mathews finally realizes which Uso is in the ring and Matt calls him out on it. Reks tags Hawkins, who cuts off the hot tag, and maintains control. Jey with a spinning elbow to knock Hawkins down, and they both tag out.

Jimmy clears Hawkins and takes out Reks. Reks accidentally hits Hawkins with a big boot, and Jimmy gets the one-man Alley-Us and a stickface for two. Reks dodges a charge to let Jimmy hit the turnbuckle face-first, then trips him and sends him into the turnbuckle. Reks rolls up Jimmy for two, then knocks him down with a clothesline. Reks pumps up, drawing some heat, and looks for the Burning Hammer. (Mathews is out to lunch and thinks that Reks wants a torture rack.) Jimmy slides out of the hold and turns it into a big DDT, and Hawkins breaks up the tag. Jey comes to life and tries to superkick Curt. Hawkins dodges, and Jey almost kicks Jimmy, but Jimmy catches the foot and slams it into Hawkins' face which was a cool spot. Jimmy lands the superkick on Reks, tags Jey, and Jey hits the Superfly Splash for the win.

WINNERS: The Usos in 11:00. Good match, as you'd expect from this group. The match was well balanced, and no one dominated too long to be boring.

Backstage, Bateman asks Kidd where Maxine is, then Barreta and Justin Gabriel. He thinks he sees her, but it's "Mrs. Perez," Maxine's mother. He asks her what she in doing there. She asks him, "Is that anyway to treat your future mommy-in-law?" and does the Maxine flirting routine. Derrick apologizes. Mrs. Perez says that Maxine was with her the whole time and was grumpy all weekend, but she's always been grumpy. She says that Maxine's boyfriends have always struggled to keep her happy and gives Derrick the once-over, then starts rubbing her hands all over Bateman. Dirty Curty shows up with a new haircut (the old one was much better). Mrs. Perez slaps Derrick and says "how dare you!" to set Derrick up for the "he said/she said." Johnny says that he'd never leave with another man's fiance and that Derrick can trust him. Bateman walks away, and Curtis says, "I was with your mom last week, though." Bateman charges him but Gabriel and Barreta pull him off as Curtis laughs and mocks him. Kidd asks Curtis if he's okay.

Reax: That was such a well done segment. It got everyone over, furthered the feud, added additional intrigue, and built characters. Oh, and "Mrs. Perez" mimicked Maxine's mannerisms perfectly and showed us where Maxine gets her charms from.

[Q2] Out of the break, Striker announces the main event is Bateman vs. Curtis. Titus O'Neil and Percy Watson hit the ring for a match. They are facing JTG and Darren Young.

2 - PERCY WATSON & TITUS O'NEIL vs. JTG (w/Tamina) & DARREN YOUNG

JTG and Percy to start things off. Percy pushes JTG to the corner. Striker, as par for the course, says that he finds Maxine's mom "strangely alluring" even though a minute before he said that she was dressed for a Bon Jovi concert circa 1986. Another lock-up and JTG transisitions into a headlock. Striker with more dated references. Watson with a scissors kick, and a butterfly suplex of sorts. Regal's influence? JTG tags in Young, who tries to go off the top rope but eats fists. Watson knocks him outside. Young with a side slam of sorts onto the apron, then tags in JTG. JTG slows things down. Mathews says that JTG has sucked the life out of Watson; I say that JTG has sucked the life out of the match.

Watson with an innovative counter, JTG whipped him into the ropes, Watson leaps over JTG sideways, and on the way down he schoolboys JTG for two. That was a great move, Watson is so agile for his size. JTG comes back with a clothesline for two. He then moves back to a chinlock. Watson counters a top rope move with a dropkick, and both men tag out. Titus lands punches, sends Young to the corner and kicks him some lets him out and whips him back into the corner. He then clears JTG from the apron, which gives Young a moment to recover. Young shoves O'Neil into the ropes, and he clears JTG from the apron on again. Big boot to Young and Titus barks and calls for the end. Shoulder breaker gets two, but JTG slips in to break it up. Watson comes in to take JTG out. O'Neil gets distracted by Tamina, so Young kicks him from behind and rolls him up for the win.

WINNERS: Darren Young and JTG in 7:00. Okay match, except for the parts that JTG dominated. Young is much more interesting than JTG is in ring.

Post-match, there is a focus on Titus O'Neil, who gets a microphone. He says it's been 39 weeks that he's been on the show. He says he's worked really hard to be here every week, but Darren Young only cares about himself. O'Neil gets angry and issues a challenge to Darren Young to come out and prove he's a man. He's so angry that he's tripping over his words, which is surprisingly effective. The promo doesn't quite make sense, though. He says he has two kids just like folks in the audience, and they brings their kids out every week to see NXT, but the dots never really connect. Is he angry that the season never ends? That Young won with a roll-up? What exactly is the challenge he is issuing? All the same, if Titus can deliver like this on the mic consistently, channeling real emotion like he did tonight, he may have a good future.

[ Commercial Break ]

Striker and Mathews hype the WWE Network and throw to the same package we saw on Raw. And another commercial.

[Q3] Pre-match, Striker tries to put some sympathy on Bateman over the Maxine situation and makes Curtis out to be out to break women's hearts.

3 - DERRICK BATEMAN vs. JOHNNY CURTIS

There's a sole person in the audience chanting for Bateman. Curtis hides in the corner and then comes out strong. Bateman comes back and they trade chops. Curtis comes out of the corner with power and puts Bateman in it. Curtis throws Bateman into the turnbuckle hard, but Bateman chops Curtis on the way up. Bateman sends Curtis into the turnbuckle hard. Bateman's bleeding bad, and tries Ten Punches in the Corner but Curtis throws him off at five. Bateman sends Curtis outside the ring and Striker praises Bateman for not being rattled by the blood. Kick from Bateman to keep Curtis outside. Bateman tries a big running dropkick from the apron, but Curtis moves and Bateman flops on the ringside selling an elbow. Curtis approaches him with a sly look as they cut to break. Lousy time for a break, it just got hot!

[CB]

Curtis with an armbar out of the break. Bateman is still selling the elbow. Curtis tortures the hand on the ropes some. Curtis with a neat move where he holds a wristlock while sitting on the turnbuckle, then jumping down and twisting in mid air. He covers for two. Armdrag then a wristlock. Curtis shouts, "I love you all," to get some heat. Bateman sells pain like childbirth. Bateman makes a comeback of sorts while favoring the hand, but Curtis sends him into the turnbuckle. He tries to whip Bateman but Bateman reverses and back body drops Curtis off the bounce.

Bateman hits a pair of clotheslines and a neckbreaker for two. Bateman with a runing dropkick in the corner, then goes up top. He lands a big crossbody block but Curtis rolls through and covers for two. Bateman with a backslide for one. They reset and trade chops. Bateman kicks Curtis in the gut and hits some sort of DDT for the win.

WINNER: Derick Bateman in 9:00. I liked this match, a lot. While it lacked the high-flying I usually prefer or highly-technical work, they acted like it was really personal. Bateman fought with heart and Curtis found to torture Bateman.

Post-match, Maxine comes out with a microphone and a sour look on her face. She slaps Bateman and says that she can't believe that he would snoop on her with her mother. She doesn't want to hear it and is disgusted by him. She says that the engagement is off and shoves the ring in his hand. Striker says that she should call him now that she's single. Ringside, Johnny Curtis has a sick smile as Bateman sells rage.

Final Reax: NXT has become strangely entertaining. The Maxine-Bateman-Curtis story is engaging; it's something I can identify with and I think a lot of other people can, too. O'Neil and Young are treading water right now, but O'Neil showed some promise this week. Please pair Young with Tyson Kidd, not JTG! Why JTG is getting ring time over Yoshi Tatsu or Tyson Kidd is beyond me. And, I've been missing a regular dose of A.J. and Kaitlyn.

[Torch photo (c) PWTorch.com]

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