Cannon Punches Out – NXT 8/10/10

This weeks challenge was the Power Of The Punch Challenge in which each Rookie hit a punching bag and whoever hit the hardest won a night on RAW without the rest of the Rookies. The winner was Alex Riley hitting almost 900 lbs of force (I assume that’s what it measured).

As for tonight’s elimination, Lucky Cannon was KO’d by the WWE Universe and sent packing. His post elimination rant came off a wild and a tad bitter. So it was the most passionate promo he gave all season.

Next week will be a Double Elimination night so make you votes count!

As for the rest of the show…

Kaval, Lucky Cannon & Percy Watson def. Michael McGuillicutty, Husky Harris & Alex Riley

A rematch from this weeks RAW say the Rookies in another 6-Man tag match. This one was better as it did actually fill most of the night in length with each Rookie being  spotlighted throughout. Lucky Cannon even performing a suicide dive over the top rope onto Riley. Kaval ended up picking up the win this week with a Warrior Way on McG for the pinfall.

The Miz def. John Morrison

With Miz being the potential 7th member of team WWE for Summerslam it seems the booking realized Morrison shouldn’t be ok with that due to their history. The match was set up during a commercial. Miz demanded Morrison ask him personally to join the team like John Cena and Bret Hart had the night before. Morrison said they didn’t need him and set up the match to prove it to his team.

This match as expected was fantastic. It’s clear both (especially Miz) should be holding one of the two major championships soon. Miz picked up the pinfall with a Skull Crushing Finale after Morrsion missed a Pele Kick in the corner.

Afterthoughts

Before the show Michael Cole (decked out fully in Miz and Cena wear) and Josh Matthews demonstrated how the Punching Machine worked. Matthews won but Cole actually beat 3 of the Rookies.

#1 Kaval – Back on top this week despite no really change in his push. I would have been fine with him just staying in the running but he did have a great night all around this week so he should still be up there next week. Though kicking the punching bag probably won’t work in his favor giving him the lowest score of the night.

#2 Michael McGuillicutty – Dropping a spot this week is understandable as the WWE Universe probably felt he was safe without their vote this week. He’s been solid all season and I don’t expect him to be eliminated next week.

#3 Percy Watson – This one was a bit of a shock. A welcomed shock, but a shock nonetheless. After a bad week it seems the WWE Universe is behind him once again. Oh Yeah!

#4 Husky Harris – Another big shocker this week saw Harris moving up the rankings for once. But I suppose when your getting pushed that hard by the booking somebody is bound to take notice and like you. I suppose he’s finally over with some of the Universe.

#5 Alex Riley – Rounding out the trifecta of strange poll positions we find the Varsity Villain in the bottom two. Should he be there…not in my opinion. He’s shown he’s very capable in the ring and one of (if not the) best on the mic. He did have the best line of the night saying he’d like to eliminate Matt Striker so he wouldn’t have to answer anymore stupid questions.

#6 Lucky Cannon – Everyone seemed to see this coming. Most of the Rookies said he should be eliminated, the fans seemed slightly less behind him this week and he is technically the worst of the 6 remaining Rookies. Though written off as suffering from injury due to a Nexus attack on RAW it seemed foreboding that Mark Henry being absent was signaling that his luck was running out tonight.