It shouldn’t have surprised any half-way knowledgeable fan that WWE produced a “reality” show that made even obvious sludge like The Bachelor look fresh and spontaneous.

That is, in fact, probably the right way to approach a series like this. NXT showed us the eight students and their mentors within the context of the pro wrestling show. In the long run, that’s much more interesting than watching raw neophytes stumble and bumble their way through the basics. They don’t make a movie audience sit through all the outtakes and technical glitches. (Granted some DVDs have such mistakes as “extras,” but they aren’t cut right into the film, because that would more or less destroy it.)

The drawback is that the mentors are all playing their characters – and those characters don’t mesh well with the students’ characters in most cases. They might be building to a round of student-versus-teacher matches, but that’s not such a good idea, either.

Some of the students flashed promise during the all-too-brief matches, but their mic skill did not match their ring ability. Several couldn’t seem to get untracked with the stick in their hand.

The biggest problem is that the students’ characters are bland on bland – and much too slanted toward the heel side. A lot of rookies can’t resist the allure of becoming a villain, but some should be forced to do so.

Daniel Bryan (formerly Bryan Danielson) needs a re-think and quickly, too, before they ruin his chances completely. He’s a little guy with tons of great moves, so he needs to be a babyface. As things stand, he is either an exceptionally weak heel or one of the most dislikable heroes ever seen in a wrestling ring.

Let’s get serious. About 95% of the WWE audience has never even heard of Bryan Danielson, much less “Daniel Bryan,” and his small stature makes him look like a boy among men.

Danielson is a fine talent, but he’s going to be a big flop if they can’t present him better than this.

There’s not much to be said about the other characters, which seem pretty generic. “The South Beach Party Boy,” in particular, is a dumb idea ineptly implemented.

Without that hope for improvement, NXT would be a pretty sad showing, though it certainly had its tolerable moments.

WWE needs to take stock right now and get some upgrades into NXT in short order or this series could become a very painful viewing experience by the fourth or fifth episode.

I’ll be back on Tuesday with another installment of the Internet’s fastest-rising pro wrestling column. I hope you’ll join me then and, please, bring your friends.

-- Arnie Katz
Executive Editor
crossfire@cox.net
(2/28/10)