Obstacle Course V.2 – NXT 7/20/10

The night opened with MVP’s VIP Lounge with guest Percy Watson. The two hashed out their feelings about Watson trying to make an impact at MVP’s expense last week on the Showtime Percy Watson Show. After settling on mutual respect and a sincere apology from Watson the two squashed their differences.

Then out came “Dashing” Cody Rhodes and his Rookie Husky Harris. After Matt Striker asked each pairing to say why the WWE Universe should vote for them (Striker did this throughout the night with each pairing) he announced a tag match between the two teams.

At the close of the night we got the new NXT Obstacle Course. It wrapped around the ring only consisting of a tire section, 3 wall hurdles, 10 push-ups, a balance beam and cart push up the ramp across the finish line. Matt Striker was shown running it early in 41.5 seconds. Michael McGuillicutty won the challenge and immunity from next week’s elimination with I think 26.3 seconds. It should be noted McG won mostly because he went first and was the only one the refs didn’t stress running the course properly.

As for the rest of the show…

Cody Rhodes & Husky Harris def. MVP & Percy Watson

Good match where all four superstars shined at some point or another in a lengthy opening match. It even had a well done slowdown spot where the Rookies got into an extended brawl outside the ring and had to be broken up by their Pros. Despite being back on the same page MVP and Watson couldn’t pull it out as Rhodes caught MVP with his corner spin kick and tagged in Harris to finish him off with a Senton.

Alex Riley def. Lucky Cannon

Cannon was riding solo tonight due to the Nexus’ actions against Mark Henry on RAW this week. Riley and Miz gave great promos before the match as to why people should vote for Riley while Cannon’s was ok but nothing special. That’s really all there is to say about this match up as Riley picked up a quick win with a Fireman’s Carry Cutter after Cannon missed a diving crossbody off the ropes. Miz finished him off post match with a Skull Crushing Finale onto the MITB briefcase.

Afterthoughts

Despite only two matches this was a good show. The promos were all really good this week so the pacing of the show felt good.

#1 Kaval – Gave the best promo for him to date on NXT. He should stick with being genuine instead of forcing a face promo because it came off better. He also put up most impressive run through the course athletically speaking.

#2 Percy Watson – I thought him and MVP should have had a friendly match to end their rift from last week but the tag match was solid for both so I’m ok with it. Watson also had probably the cleanest run through the obstacle course.

#3 Michael McGuillicutty – I like him but I’m going to try and forget this week. His promo and ‘Pros thoughts’ video seemed to forced that he’s Mr. Perfect’s son down our throats. Plus he beat most of the other Rookie’s times because they actually had to actually do push ups and cross most of the balance beam. As far as I’m concerned it’s a good thing he has immunity.

#4 Alex Riley – Great night for the Varsity Villain. He might have won the obstacle course but he fell off the balance beam and the ref held him up and made him do it over. After finishing he got the refs face. This was perfect for his character and put him over as the dominate heel Rookie.

#5 Lucky Cannon – With no World’s Strongest Man in his corner his luck wasn’t getting any better throughout the night. Quick loss after a weak promo followed by a brutal post match attack. His course run was fine as he just missed the time by about a second. Got a Pros Thoughts video with mixed opinions.

#6 Eli Cottonwood – Gave a really good promo by intimidating Striker into voting for him. Morrison gave some random story about how a family in Louisville were interested in Eli at a restaurant last week having no knowledge of professional wrestling. Clearly wasn’t going to win the obstacle course but had a great moment when he fell off the balance beam and ran through the refs to finish the course only to be disqualified.

#7 Husky Harris – Good night for Harris. Unfortunately Riley is a much better heel and his Pro, Cody Rhodes, is pure gold on NXT right now. He took his time on the course and even ran through the last wall hurdle. It seems WWE wants to keep him in this competition so he’ll most likely be #6 next week. If not, I’ll post an entire article on Harris next week.

#8 Titus O’Neil – He wasn’t on the show tonight but his Pro Zack Ryder was and that’s all I really care about. Woo! Woo! Woo! You know it!

Voting starts Wednesday, July 21 at Noon and I assume it will continue throughout the week.