411’s WWE NXT Report 2.23.10

And welcome to the Season Premiere of WWE NXT! I am Michael Bauer and I get the honor of bring you through another new concept of the WWE. And I saw the early reports… I’m already marking out.

They open the show by showing us all the rookies and who are mentoring them with the tag line, eight rookies, eight pros, one dream. We see all the rookies standing in a line to start and The Miz comes up to Daniel Bryan. He steps forward and The Miz hypes himself up and calls Bryan an internet darling and a star on the Independent Scene and Internationally. Miz asks if he ready. Bryan says that he is and Miz tells him to go the ring and introduce himself and show charisma, make everyone want to watch every Tuesday night. After Bryan leaves, The Miz says that Bryan has a personality as dry as the Sahara and if he doesn’t show personality, then he slap it into him.

Bryan comes to the ring and we see Josh Matthews and Michael Cole are our commentators and Matt Striker is our host, waiting backside for Daniel Bryan after his introduction. Bryan thanks everyone for the welcome, especially since The Miz is his pro. He apologies to all his fans since he wanted William Regal as a mentor. Bryan tells us that he has wrestled all over the world for the last ten years and he finally made it to the WWE. The Miz comes out and says he has a lot of work to do as Bryan’s mentor. Bryan tells The Miz he was submit him right now and Miz does put over Bryan as a submission machine, but wonders how he is going to get over in the WWE. Bryan says he would go on a reality show, get a Fo-hawk, and act like an idiot. But that has been done already. Bryan then tries a catchphrase tells The Miz that if they were to face off in the ring, he would have two choices: To tap or to snap. The Miz asks the crowd about his charisma and then tells Bryan he failed before slapping him across the face. Miz leaves and Bryan says that the time will come for him to slap Miz back. That was freaking epic!

We come back to see Bryan back stage with Matt Striker about being slapped. Bryan says it wasn’t an embarrassment and that he slaps harder than The Miz. Striker tells Bryan that he will need to listen to The Miz and show respect if he wants to be a star. But he tells Bryan that he admires his confidence.

Carlito comes out and introduces Michael Tarver to us all. It’s followed by a promo for the so-called Mr. 1.9 seconds for how fast he can knock out a guy. Plenty of the video includes his FCW highlights with a voice over by Tarver. Pretty nice.

Carlito and Michael Tarver vs. Christian and Heath Slater

We get Heath Slater’s promo video during the entrance for him and Christian. Slater is the rock star who loves to showboat. Even better than Tarver’s video.

The bell rings and Carlito starts with the rookie of Slater. Slater gets a quick rollup for a quick two count. Carlito grabs the kid and throws him into the corner. Tarver gets tagged in and whips Slater across, but Slater leaps up and hits the cross body press. Slater hits a series of arm drags, but Tarver grabs the advantage and drops him on the second rope, allowing Carlito to get the double team. Carlito gets tagged in and locks in the chinlock, but drops him down as he gets up. Tarver gets tagged in and goes to a face lock. Tarver clubs down on Slater and comes off the ropes, but walks into a scoop slam. Christian and Carlito gets tagged in and Christian gets full advantage. Christian hits a missile dropkick, but has the Killswitch blocked twice. Christian gets sent to the corner and Carlito drills him in the back and tags in Tarver. Tarver whips Christian across, then Carlito, but Christian gets the elbow up on Carlito and a boot on Tarver. Slater comes in and tags both himself and Carlito to the floor. Christian comes off the second rope and hits the spinning black elbow. Christian lines up Tarver and hits the Killswitch for the win at 4:30.

Winners: Christian and Heath Slater

Backstage, Punk is with the Straight Edge Society and his rookie Darren Young, who is a total opposite I mean, 1000% reverse of Punk. Young is the South Beach party boy. He faces Darren Otunga, R-Truth’s rookie, next.

Darren Young (with the Straight Edge Society) vs. David Otunga (with R-Truth)

We see an interview of Punk who says he mentors his Straight Edge Society and nobody else. It is followed by a promo video for Otunga, who calls himself Jennifer Hudson’s fiancé and has a serious superiority complex. I mean, he calls himself a cross of HHH, The Rock, and John Cena. Yeah, no issue with confidence on this guy.

The bell rings and they lockup and Young clubs Otunga and hits a back elbow for two. Otunga hits a clothesline and follows with a shoulder. Young gets thrown off the ropes and Otunga hits a very sloppy spinebuster slam for the three count in under a minute. That was ugly.

Winner: David Otunga

We get a replay of Bryan being slapped by The Miz to open the show and the hype continues for our main event, which Bryan still doesn’t know about.

After the break, we get the Raw Rebound with the John Cena/Mr. McMahon saga.

Chris Jericho (with Wade Barrett) vs. Daniel Bryan (with The Miz)

Jericho has the microphone and has Wade give Jericho’s introduction. Wade says he his Europe’s best knuckle fighter and he says it is an honor to be paired with Jericho before finally introducing him. Bryan shoves past The Miz to get down to the ring. We get another commercial before we start this match. Why???

The bell rings and I am marking out major right now. Bryan does offer a handshake, but Jericho knocks the hand away and they start jawing. Jericho slaps Bryan twice and Bryan fires back and hits a dropkick. Jericho backs into the corner and hits a huge forearm in the corner and stomps away. Jericho gets a break and punches Bryan in the face. Jericho hits a dropkick and starts stomping away. Jericho locks in a chinlock and Bryan gets to his feet. Jericho throws him off the ropes and Bryan rolls up Jericho for a two count. Jericho hits an enziguri to the back of the head and gets a two count. Bryan gets backed into the corner and hits a few shoulder blocks. Bryan avoids a charge in the corner and hits a series of kicks and follows with a dragon screw. Jericho reverses a whip, but Bryan flips up and over. Bryan slips under Jericho and hits a running clothesline for two. Jericho gets clotheslined and rolls to the floor. Bryan measures and dives to the floor, crashing into the announcer’s table. It looks like Jericho threw him in, but still Danielson was fired up. Jericho rolls back in and Danielson goes for a springboard, but Jericho catches him and goes for the Walls. Danielson grabs the leg and locks Jericho in an ankle lock! Jericho is rolling around and grabs the ropes barely. Bryan then walks right into the Codebreaker. Jericho takes a moment and locks in the Walls of Jericho, driving his knee into the back, which forces Danielson to tap at 6:30.

Winner: Chris Jericho

After the match, The Miz comes in and pounds away on Daniel Bryan before taking his leave. Matt Striker is backstage and hypes up the six men debuting next week before we get a video package to highlight the entire night of what we have just seen.