WWE NXT Review: Daniel Bryan's ribs hurt

NXT in Review:

We finally got to see the rest of the rookies this week. Justin Gabriel got beat up a lot before hitting a nice 450 splash. Wade Barrett dominated Daniel Bryan, and Skip Sheffield seemed like a mix of fun and ridiculous.

While Daniel Bryan by far had the best showing of anybody to date last week, they didn't follow that up very well this week, I thought. Not only was Bryan defeated by Barrett without much offense, but nobody else really stood out as a star.

Michael Tarver barely got any airtime (it was at the end, and he didn't talk), so he got the worst end of the stick this week. At least Slater got a segment with Christian and an apple to the face.

Matt Striker told us how the competition worked, but neglected to give us too many details. My hunch is that WWE is still working out how they want to do it and are just giving us what they've come up with after a week.

NXT Shot by Shot:

R-Truth kicks the show off. Not only is Truth's gimmick getting stale to me, but it's not giving the rookies any unique character to come out to their pro's music.

Matt Striker ties explaining the competition, saying the 8 WWE pros cast votes, but can't vote for or against their rookie. He doesn't really go into much detail about how votes are cast. These votes will apparently determine success or failure.

Darren Young is out, reluctantly accompanied by the Straight-Edge Society. The fans didn't know who to chant for in this rematch, but Young's taunt before the chinlock made him the heel and Otunga the face. I thought it'd be the opposite for both, for some reason.

The story was that Young wanted revenge for his short debut match last week, and that Punk wanted nothing to do with his rookie. The end saw Gallows and Truth get into an argument, and while the ref was distracted, Punk surprisingly tripped up Otunga. Young hit his finisher, which starts like a full-nelson into a full-frontal slam, and picked up the win. Afterwards, Otunga shoves Truth. Maybe I was right in my thought that Otunga would be a heel.

For as much as Cole hated the Internet last week, he talked a lot about the WWE Universe blogs during this match.

Daniel Bryan is profiled first tonight, talking about his decade in wrestling and being trained by Shawn Michaels.

Cole rips on Twitter, so he must hate anything outside the WWE bubble.

Bryan's highlights from last week are shown, including several shots of that sick table bump with his match against Chris Jericho. Backstage, Bryan's ribs are being checked out when his trainer, the Miz, comes up. Miz's lesson is that Bryan must fight though a "boo-boo" before slapping the sore spot.

A William Regal package? Really?

Backstage, Matt Striker tries to interview David Otunga. Truth comes in and the refs have to split them apart.

Chris Jericho introduces Wade Barrett, portrayed as a European bare-knuckle fighting champion and the largest competitor on NXT.

Barrett takes to Bryan's ribs early on, with Jericho saying on commentary that's what he instructed Barrett to do. Bryan's only real offense was a sweet running knee off the apron, but Barrett pins Bryan pretty soon after, the idea being that Bryan was too injured. The vulture World champion Chris Jericho attacks Daniel Bryan's ribs, locks in the Walls of Jericho, and leaves.

Christian psychs up Heath Slater in the gym. Slater says how great last week's reaction was, but Christian says they're still his peeps and that Slater needs to earn his own.

Justin Gabriel calls Matt Hardy his sensei - wow, is that a reference to the Mattitude Followers?

William Regal and Skip Sheffield enter. So this is the Cornfed Meathead? He's wearing a Steve Austin-style leather jacked with those words emblazoned on it. He seems really charismatic with a southern charm about him, talking about how much he loves to entertain - almost like a beefier Ken Anderson (...Anderson). Regal is disgusted.

Gabriel is described as only being America for a year, coming from South Africa. He doesn't get much offense (or character background) at all. I liked Regal's offense in this match, as they looked like they could be used in a barfight instead of just straight-up wrestling. Matthews calls a splash by Skip Sheffield as "vintage." How can it be vintage if nobody outside of Florida has ever seen the move? Cole is angry with Matthews for that line. Matt Hardy hits a sick-looking Twist of Fate on Regal, allowing Justin Gabriel to get the win with a 450 splash.

All of the rookies (minus the two who were in the match) are in place backstage and Carlito taunts them all with his apple. He spits in Heath Slater's face and says, "that's cool," which pisses Slater off. Slater asks, "that's cool?" Striker's weak response, "that's NXT."