NXT 70

June 21, 2011 – Hershey, Pennsylvania

Hornswoggle and Titus O’Neil ask Maryse to come out so Hornswoggle can give her a candy ring. She reacts badly, calling him fat and a whole mess of mean little person words. Zack Ryder comes out to complain about how much more successful O’Neil has been in season for than he was on season 2 when Ryder was is pro. So they’ll have a match. Did we need the Maryse bit?

Conor O’Brian, Yoshi Tatsu & Vladimir Kozlov def. Chavo Guerrero, Darren Young & JTG
You can see the transition from the original NXT format to regular C-show format here, as this stemmed directly from a post-match beatdown and save last week, and involves more non-rookies than rookies. Also, this episode more or less ignores the original format even though there’s meant to be another elimination next week. William Regal acknowledges it on commentary later in the evening. This match was fifteen minutes of boring and thirty seconds of fast-moving action. Longer ≠ better. *½

Lucky Cannon calls Tyson Kidd to ask him to get a recount going so he can come back. Kidd blows him off, then antagonizes Tatsu in the locker room for having a shrine that panders to the Hershey Company.

Zack Ryder def. Titus O’Neil
I like this angle of the original pro coming to mess with the rookie. Too bad this show hasn’t been able to keep a good angle going since Derrick Bateman and Daniel Bryan. This wasn’t bad. Hornswoggle accidentally cost O’Neil the match. I’m not sure where they go from here, but knowing this show they’ll forget all about it. **