"Still, it’s almost a certainty that he’ll make it to the final four and he may still win the competition, but from a logic standpoint, how can he not be the first one eliminated?"

I hate how they're booking Bryan as much as you do. Jobbing to Tarver, even with injured ribs, kills most of the credibility he gained from his showing against Batista on Monday. But from a logic standpoint, I can understand how Tarver will be eliminated before Bryan:

-Bryan has actually tried to win all of the challenges (except for the one where he needed to sell programs), whereas Tarver usually doesn't bother or quits halfway through.

-Bryan lasting as long as he did against Jericho in his first match and against Batista in his second most recent match are both more impressive than anything Tarver has done in the ring.

-In storyline Tarver needs to impress by the pros, and in real life his bad attitude would rub anybody the wrong way.

Hey Kevin, Happy Birthday!!

On Daniel Bryan: I see 1 out of 2 possible scenarios:

1. He gets voted off near the end (WWE won't vote him off so early; he draws viwers to the show) and the Miz chews him out, wants a match with him, Bryan wants it to be a title match, it happens, Bryan wins.

2. Bryan simply wins the competiton, picks Miz, and beats him for the title.

- Either way, they're setting it up, and I just have that feeling. I think it would be great to have him winless and his first win be the title match. That way he can win the title and cut a great promo afterwards saying how all his losses meant nothing, and that this win is THE win.

Your thoughts if you don't mind?

RESPONSE FROM KE: It's obvious that WWE is building to a Miz-Bryan match, but your guess is as good as mine as to how they get there. when NXT began I would have bet anything that Bryab was going to win; now I'm not so sure.

usually, i agree with you kev. but while david otunga may be able to produce some heat, he still seems very unrealistic to me. i think it's his voice. it's, to be downright real, just a bit too feminine. which becomes semi-comical when paired with his ridiculously big physique. i cant take his promos seriously. he comes across as a nice guy trying to be intimidating.

If I had to choose one of the rookies to win NXT, it would be Wade Barrett. He has a good look, good mic skills and knows what to do in the ring. I also figure that a program between The Miz and Bryan will happen regardless of whether Bryan wins or not. After all, the WWE still ended up hiring some of the Tough Enough losers.

The other annoying thing about Bryan's performance on NXT is the lack of fire and personality. He showed more life during the ring intro to his match with Batista, than he'd showed during the entire run of NXT.

It's bad enough to have him lose every time, but why do they have to portray him as a soulless lump?

One other thing: NXT prefaced the Bryan-Tarver match with a "highlight" package from the Batista match -- and it didn't include any of Bryan's submission moves. It just showed him getting squashed by Batista. It sure is a strange way to build a future superstar .

With Bryan, there may be something behind this...........In the end, he teams up with the Miz. Seen it a bunch of times. Wrestler turns heel, and then starts to win. No one would see it coming, and it would give him a completely different persona than his indy run, at least what i saw.

Tarver HAS to go next week. As far as Bryan, I'm not so sure he's gonna win that belt. The way he has been booked, how could him winning the belt be reacted to as anything other than a fluke. Flukier, even than Sheamus as world champ. Otunga absolutely has a place, i'm not sure where, but his charisma is too powerful to not be used. Wade Barrett is already one of my favorite wrestlers. and I look forward to watching him interact with the full WWE roster. I wouldn't be surprised to see him engage in a little patriotism vs. Drew Macintyre.

NXT is my favorite of the WWE shows right now, but this week was not good. The whole obstacle course was an embarassing waste of TV time.

What was IN those cups? I wonder if that was some truly awful rib on the rookies... I'll stop before speculating any further.

Otunga has been looking remarkably better from week to week in the ring, even if he didn't exactly shine against Truth. His rate of improvement has been phenomenal. He has shed a lot of his awkwardness inside the ring, and his match the week before this was excellent. That dude is born for stardom.

Bryan vs. Batista (on Monday) was awesome, Bryan vs. Tarver was depressing. I feel a mix of pity and scorn for Tarver, which is not a comfortable or enjoyable mix of sensations. At least we didn't have to watch Tarver beat Jericho.

I dislike Heath immensely, not sure why. I really feel Sheffield has potential... hell, all of them do, but Sheffield's win over Bryan (last week) really did look dominant and convincing.

Young needs to better distinguish/define his persona, as does Gabriel, or they will disappear..

Oh yeah and Wade Barrett is flippin awesome.

You know what I'd love to do? Go to an NXT taping with a DB match and get a crowd chant going of

"You're gonna get your gosh darn head kicked in!"

Anyone who's watched Bryan's old indie matches knows exactly what I'm referring to.

Some say the match was too short to judge Otunga in ring ability against R-Truth. NOOOOOOOOOOOO even in the six minutes of the match you can clearly see Otunga was controlling it. He was more busy and showing skills throughout the match. Although Otunga lost he had a great showing. I believe if he is turned lose. Otunga could make a great run toward winning NXT. I still believe he can make a great impack in the WWE weather he win are lose NXT.

Why does WWE mainly go with real names now (or close to real)
Names like Daniel Bryan, Wade Barrett, Drew McIntyre and the like just aren't that cool. Even though I don't watch TNA, a name like Desmond Wolf is pretty catchy. I think WWE needs to be more creative with the character creation.

If you think about Daniel Bryan it is simple. Why would WWE ignore him? He is clearly the most experienced and popular which is exactly what WWE look for. Daniel Bryan winning is doubtful because he is already a star in the competition. But he'll probably be in the last match and lose to the new winner (putting him over in a good contest) and at the end Miz will attack. Setting up a match that Daniel Bryan will win because of the anger build-up and after that no one will remember his 0-10 whatever...

A winning or losing streak stands out and clearly WWE is boasting it. Would WWE ever boast that? Make their wrestlers look weak? No not unless they had something planned. Many wrestlers go out every week and "job" falling into a complete losing streak, but WWE don't boast because they dont have plans to give them a comeback..

Like someone previously commented his first win will probably be agaisnt Miz, but he may not win the show. I see him in the final four. Or maybe WWE will vote him off first with him getting mad at Miz. Setting up a match faster than u think at Over the Limit or something. Daniel Bryan doesn't need to spend 17 weeks on a show were he is already a star so they should take him off as soon as possible and get him on RAW or Smackdown.

Your thoughts please;

RESPONSE FROM KE: Losing streak gimmicks usually don't work out too well (MVP). Bryan may be an independent star, but he's not a WWE star.

I do not understand why some people, including you Kev, still persist in thinking that these challenges are scripted. This obstacle course, for instance, could not possibly be scripted - how could anyone ensure that a specific individual will win it when there's no guarantee they won't fall or slip as so many did? I know Daniel Bryan is a great in-ring wrestler but is it so hard to believe that he has legitimately lost at all the challenges thus far? He has never been known to be good on the mic even on the indy circuit - and I doubt the WWE scriptwriters would fed him such blunders as saying he wished Regal (a heel) was his mentor instead of the Miz, or saying "down with capitalism" (which I can agree with but it's not face-speak), let alone asking him to talk about his "Manliness Meter" during the promo challenge. The matches, rankings and eliminations are all scripted but I think it is plainly obvious that these challenges are the unscripted "reality-show" side of NXT.

RESPONSE FROM KE: You can script any competition. I'm not saying the winners are necessarily scripted, but Bryan blowing each one has to be scripted.

I agree with Estrebillo's comments. When the Miz/Bryan match happens, I'd love to see the crowd pick up that chant. Can you imagine the Miz' reaction?

Keeping Bryan winless is a sound, tactical booking move by the WWE. All of his fans - and there are plenty more out there now than there were before he joined WWE - are desperately waiting for the win. It keeps people tuning in, and talking about the show. At the same time, it allows the other rookies some of the spotlight and an opportunity that they simply wouldn't have had if the WWE had booked Bryan as the undefeatable, best-in-the-world, hour-long match wrestling submission machine that his fans want to see. His reputation preceded him on NXT, he had to be taken down a few notches to play the underdog role effectively and fair play to him for helping his fellow rookies to get over.

All that said, from a storyline point of view I can actually see the first Bryan/Miz match happening next week. Miz will want to be the one to drive the final nail into the coffin of Bryan's WWE dreams. With Bryan winless, dispirited and seemingly on the verge of elimination, Miz will be thinking easy pickings.

And Bryan will make him tap like Fred Astaire. First win, avoids elimination by the skin of his teeth, scares the holy hell out of the Miz and starts to build momentum again.

RESPONSE FROM KE: I wouldn't say it's keeping people tuning in. The ratings are tanking.

i'm sorry, but other than a good physique, otunga has zero skills pertinent to being a professional wrestler. he's ultra-slow, can't sell a lick or even complete his own moves consistently, and he looks like a monster heel but sounds like a meek babyface on the mic.

Other than a nickname and the hype packages, what does he have that yells "superstar"? Oh, right, a famous girlfriend.

It wouldn't shock me if Sheffield gets the first boot 0 even though he's done well in the competitions. His attempt at a cacth-phrase was beyond bad, and he reminds us of it every time he gets a microphone.

I think Otunga's going to end up winning it. I don't think he's a good choice. He's very quiet and pretty much stinks in the ring. Being a good poser only gets ya so far.

Mike Tarver has performed least among the WWE NXT. He has not shown sufficient commitment in the assessment,. he should be the first to be eliminated.
David Otunga should buckle up or be the next after Tarver. For Brynt, he has a bad teacher/ coach. I believe he will grow to be a WWE star because he has the potentials and courage.

I have to contest that MVP didn't have nearly the hype Daniel Bryan did.. And by hype I don;t mean MVP sitting in the sky box for a couple of months, I mean the anticipation of what could happen when Daniel Bryan joined the big WWE organism and made his impact- no pun intended- on WWE..

I believe this is the right move by WWE to get him noticed as he puts the other rookies over and if he had a winning streak he'd of had to beat Batista & Jericho and that makes them seem bad... But I do agree with you, he isn't a WWE superstar.. He needs to polish his mic work and get some proper merch (which he won't yet have being on NXT)..

Incredible...considering NXT's ratings, it seems every person who watched the show has commented on this blog.

What if WWE NXT is just an elaborate hazing ritual? And to echo Rex Williams, in WWE's eyes, no attention is so much worse than "negative" attention.

Wade Barret definitley has that "it" factor. And I think Otunga does too, like you've said many times before, just needs to work on the in-ring stuff. Speaking of Otunga am I the only one who noticed him accentuate the Gay in Gabriel when he was talking to him? It wasn't hard to notice he basically said it like this "Justin Gayyyyyyybriel." Definitley not PG, but I like it.

Incredible...considering NXT's ratings, it seems every person who watched the show has commented on this blog.

Posted by: Jon | May 6, 2010 4:54 PM

That was awesome!!!

The fact that all of us can't agree on the way Daniel Bryan is being booked is a victory for the WWE. A small victory. I guess it proves that they can do something that many of us did not expect, and we also can't agree on where this will end.

The problem is that the WWE is banking on fans following this through to the end, but a lot of people (at least among the die-hard internet community) are tuning out or just feeling angry about the way Bryan is being showcased.

NXT needed Hulk Hogan to call the obstacle course so it would really feel like the American Gladiators.

All I can say is that I am soooooo proud of Justin Gabriel carrying the Flag for South Africa. This really is a huge accomplishment, being the first South African in history to make it onto the WWE Roster. Do not underestimate this boy from Cape Town. He comes from excellent Stock, his father was the unforgettable South African Champion Wrestler - The Pink Panther. I see a bright championship based future for Justin, mark my words!! Oh and the Management at WWE need to pull their socks up, Matt Hardy is being used as a Jobber these days - very uncool from the WWE. All Matt needs is the WWE and World Heavy Weight Title and then he will become the only Wrestler in history to have held every Title ever on offer by the WWE. It's about time that the powers that be woke up and made this record come true, Matt is an excellent wrestler and deserves this, STOP OVERLOOKING HIM!

For some reason I really like this show and think it's wayyyy better than ECW.

Kev - Did you not post a while ago that you thought some of the challenges weren't scripted? Surely someone as smart as you isn't that dumb. All of this is played out and amended as they go along. Otunga clearly has an upside - good physique and good on the stick. Bryan may have the IWC side, but he looks wrong - his attire is just not right and his mic skills don't sit right with me. Anyway, logic goes out the window with sports entertaintment - you should know that. I am not gonna watch NXT, and rely on your blog to let me know what goes on...

Sorry Kev but I just don't see Otunga as anything much at all. Most of these guys are not really "Rookies" anyway . The only ones who seem to be are Otunga and Tarver. A-Liister? Really? Really? As I live in the UK I've obviously never heard of him but is he really a celebrity over there? He seems to have all the charisma of a dead frog. WWE contracts for Bryan, Gabriel, Young, Slater, Barrett and probably Otunga - but with the exception of Bryan all mid carders. I agree with Erik that Bryan will beat Miz for the title - make it happen. Is it my imagination or do some of these "Champions" hardly ever defend their belts. And another thing, when are they going to disunify (if that's the right word) the tag team belts? Glad I got all that of my chest. Keep up the good workKev.