NXT 73

July 12, 2011 – Uncasville, Connecticut

Derrick Bateman comes out to cut a promo. He has his own entrance music. He sort of turns heel and says WWE begged him to come back and save this show. He’s interrupted by Darren Young, who comes out to the generic NXT entrance music. He doesn’t say anything of note. Then O’Neil comes out to Hornswoggle’s entrance music. It’s fascinating that Bateman got his own music. Anyway, the whole thing turns into a triple threat match.

Derrick Bateman def. Titus O’Neil & Darren Young {Triple Threat Elimination Match}
You’d think this match means that this was the last or penultimate episode of the season, but you’d be wrong. The commentators say that Bateman was meant to be a part of this season from the beginning but he’d been injured. Why not say that from the start? This was seven minutes of boring until Young was eliminated, and then it picked up a bit for the remaining half. They botched the finish a bit, though. **

Hornswoggle is drunk on root beer, sad that Maryse rejected him. Then he gets a romantic package from a secret admirer. O’Neil is disappointed to learn that he thinks it’s from Maryse.

JTG wants to make another bet with Vladimir Kozlov. This time he wants to bet that Kozlov can’t become more gangster than him. Seems really dangerous to bet a Ukrainian muscle man that he can’t be gangster.

Yoshi Tatsu def. Tyson Kidd
It’s the rubber match! William Regal and Todd Grisham wonder aloud at where the term rubber match comes from, which throws me into a never ending rabbit hole on the subject. This was better than their second match but not quite as exciting as the first. Still, good fun and definitely the best series of matches in the show’s history. Kidd keeps the piece of action figure after the match, so it seems this feud must continue! I’m not mad at that. ***