Tough Enough
RDLee's NXT Report - Only 5 Rookies Remain... Who is Going Home NXT?
By RDLee
May 18, 2010 - 9:55 PM

Last week Michael Tarver, Daniel Bryan and Skip Sheffield were eliminated. Tonight we started off with Matt Striker introducing the WWE Pro's instead of the normal Rookie routine. They all sat in chairs on the top of the stage and stated what they looked for in the rookies. Miz said the it-factor, Regal said versitility, Punk put down the crowd first, Christian said somebody that captures the imagination or the it-factor, Matt Hardy said someone that will survive in the locker room, and Chris Jericho said somebody that will make him want to pay money to see them. R-Truth and Carlito were missing from the panel for some reason.

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Darren Young v.s. Wade Barrett

The Pro's remained on the stage watching the match. Jericho did the right thing and accompanied his rookie to the ring. CM Punk stayed on stage and made faces at Young before the match started instead of joining him. Now that Danielson is gone from the show I don't think there is any doubt on who will win the competition now. Wade Barrett looks ready to be a RAW or Smackdown superstar and has looked good in the ring with every Pro he has competed against.

Darren Young is a nice hand, I hear that he is a tag team specialist in FCW so maybe it would be better if he came up to the main roster thru the team instead of singles for a while. I still don't understand why they didn't play off the whole "black John Cena" thing with Young but it doesn't matter know since they missed the boat. Wade picked up the win after nailing Young with his Fireman Carry slam finisher.

Winner: Wade Barrett

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We had Daniel Bryan and Michael Tarver in the ring with Matt Striker when we came off commercial break. Tarver commented on his elimination. He said that he stood out from the pack and was different so he should have been given more of an opportunity. Next up Daniel Bryan did a full blown shoot on the WWE and even went out to beat the shit out of Michael Cole. Wait until tomorrow and make sure to look this segment up on Youtube because I was so sucked into it that I can't even put into words how great this was. Any attempt at trying to recount what was said would do it no justice, this is a must see segment. It was done so well that even I questioned whether it was a shoot. For me, this was the best segment on WWE tv in a long time.

Bryan Danielson has arrived! Time to rejoice folks! 

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Justin Gabriel v.s. Heath Slater

Slater is looking uglier than usual tonight in his new red tights. Michael Cole wouldn't shut up about what happened with Bryan and even got up and left the announce booth to go press charges. The crowd was dead for the match even though it was a decent match. Heath hit Gabriel with David Otunga's finisher which was funny. Slater has no respect for A-List. Justin Gabriel hit his 450 degree splash to pick up the clean win. Christian and Matt Hardy came in the ring and all the men shook hands.

Winner: Justin Gabriel

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Backstage Skip Sheffield spoke about his elimination. He spoke about how they feared him because he was the biggest and baddest threat. He said it was like in Survivor, they took him out first because they were aftraid of him. I think Skip will be back one day under a new gimmick. He is a monster and we all know Vince loves those.

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The Rookies came out and the Pro's revealed their Poll and the rankings were as followed:

1 - Wade Barrett

2 - David Otunga

3 - Heath Slater

4 - Justin Gabriel

Darren Young was eliminated! Striker asked for his thoughts and gave him the microphone. Young walked up to the Pro's on stage. He thanked the fans for the opportunity, he said he had respect for all the Pro's and pointed at each of them while thanking them. The crowd gave him a nice ovation at first and then chanted "Na, Na, Goodbye" to him which pissed him off. He said that this is not the last time they will see Darren Young. They replayed the Danielson attack on Cole and stated that next week we will see another elimination. That's it for me. Have a good night folks and Stay Classy!