Tuesday night, the WWE launched their new program, NXT, dubbing it the Next Evolution of Professional Wrestling. Eight young stars made their WWE Television debut on Tuesday night. They were all paired with a current WWE Superstar, the most prominent of which has to be The Miz and Daniel Bryan (aka Bryan Danielson). I’ve been a fan of Danielson’s since I was first introduced to Ring of Honor about two and a half years ago and on the first show, he looks to be the headliner, but he’s not the only name on the list for NXT. Here’s my take on the program.

The show began with all eight of the up and coming stars lined up backstage. The camera moves to the middle of the grouping where Daniel Bryan is standing and his WWE Pro, The Miz, comes out and tells him to step up. The Miz reminds us of his awesomeness and talks about Bryan, the internet darling and star of the “minor leagues,” needing to learn to expect anything. Miz sends Daniel to the ring to show some charisma and to have a good catch phrase. “I have until 5 isn’t good enough?” But, Miz says Bryan’s personality is as dry as the Mojave Desert.

As Bryan comes down to the ring, we’re introduced to the commentary team of Josh Matthews and Michael Cole. I’m very glad. The tag team tandem of Matthews and Byron Saxton was anything but awesome. What I like even more is Matt Striker’s involvement in NXT. He’s the host of the program. Since he’s not more or less a veteran broadcaster, I think placing him in this role is a great idea. Striker will only add to the program with his knowledge of wrestling and the WWE alike, as well as his color commentary abilities, even though he’s not sitting at the broadcast location.

Daniel Bryan comes out and cuts a fairly decent promo talking about how this is his opportunity and he’s thankful, but sorry that The Miz is his pro. He’s quickly interrupted by Miz. Bryan calls Miz on his shit, talking about his time on Reality TV. Miz tells him to come up with a catch phrase and Bryan responds with “you either tap or you snap.” But, despite the fans cheering a little bit, Miz slaps the taste out of Daniel’s mouth and leaves the ring. I think this is a fantastic start both to NXT and to Daniel Bryan’s career on WWE Television. They’ve created an instant rivalry as there is now tons of heat between Miz and Bryan and only more to come later on. Daniel promises to slap The Miz back in the future.

During the break, Striker pulled Daniel Bryan aside and asked how he felt being slapped in the face. Again, Daniel promises to slap the Miz back at some point and he slaps a lot harder. Striker tells Daniel Bryan that to be a star in the WWE, he’s going to have to listen to The Miz, but we can’t focus the whole night on Daniel as Carlito is bringing Michael Tarver out to the arena.

There’s a nice video piece on Tarver where he talks about being able to knock someone out in 1.9 seconds and his father being a sparring partner for Mike Tyson. Tarver definitely has the look of a professional wrestler and based on the promo, he’s got the drive as well. He and his Pro are set for a tag team match against Christian and his Rookie, Heath Slater.

Slater claims himself a Rock Star without instruments. The shots of him in the ring remind me a lot of The Brian Kendrick. They’ve got a similar look, in my opinion, and he seems to have a similar charisma to Kendrick’s last push. That being said, I’m not sure I can get behind Heath Slater. I can’t put my finger on exactly why I’m not a fan of his, but I will say he does have some athleticism and it shows in this match as he and Tarver get a chance to showcase their skills. The match is fairly solid and both rookies look pretty good while they’re in the ring. Christian ends the match hitting the Killswitch on Michael Tarver. Heath Slater worked well as a team, while Carlito and Tarver had some miscommunication. Much like Jason Sterlacci said in his actual review of the match, though, I’m surprised Tarver wasn’t pushed more with his knockout ability. I have a feeling, though, we’ll be seeing that become more prominent in weeks to come.

Backstage, the Straight-Edge Society is seen with his rookie, Darren Young then R-Truth with his rookie David Otunga. After a break, Young comes out with his Pro, CM Punk and the Straight-Edge Society. This pairing is an apparent mismatch since Darren Young is a “party boy” and Punk is clearly not. Punk, in comments recorded earlier, is not sure why he’s on NXT and if Young wants to be mentored by Punk, he needs to embrace Straight-Edge. If you haven’t listened to the J and K Fun hour yet, Jerome and Kevin touch on the tension between Punk and Young and possible storylines that could come out of the pairing.

David Otunga talks about what it means to become a WWE Superstar and how he is going to win NXT. Otunga came from Hollywood and is an A-List star. He claims he’s above everyone else and went to Harvard Law School, much like the President. David’s video package makes it look like he’s getting pushed as one of the top names on NXT, just like Daniel Bryan. I don’t know that I like Otunga’s pairing with R-Truth, honestly. I can’t see the two stars meshing well as Otunga simply stalks to the ring, practically ignoring Truth as he raps about what’s up.

The match has Darren Young on the offensive early, but David Otunga quickly turns things around and makes short work of Young. R-Truth comes in, shakes Otunga’s hand and raises his arm in victory. Maybe they’ll mesh better than I think, but their personalities just seem to clash, in general. Outside the ring, Punk walks away shaking his head as his rookie lost in short order.

We’re reminded of the slap from The Miz and tonight’s main event, the newly crowned World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho. That’s coming up after a commercial. Next week the WWE Universe will get a look at Justin Gabriel, who is being mentored by Matt Hardy. There really wasn’t another place to mention that, so I thought I’d toss it in here. Gabriel looks like he could potentially steal the show, as well, so hopefully we’ll see some good things.

Jericho comes out with his rookie Wade Barrett, a man from Manchester, England. Cole says he shares many traits with Jericho and in the ring, the World Heavyweight Champion refuses to be introduced by Savannah, instead telling Barrett to make the introductions. Barrett introduces himself first and talks about being honored to be paired with Jericho. He begins kissing Jericho’s ass and the World Heavyweight Champion stops him, only wanting an introduction. The crowd is very hot, booing both men, and there looks to be some possible tension here between Chris Jericho and Wade Barrett.

The Miz’s music hits and the United States Champion and Unified Tag Team Champion begins leading Daniel Bryan to the ring. Bryan takes the spotlight off his Pro, however, taking the lead down to the ring himself. And for the third time in about 10 minutes, we go to a commercial. While I don’t like the constant tossing to break, at least this means that we’ll get to actually watch Jericho vs. Bryan uninterrupted.

This promises to be a good match as Daniel Bryan offers a handshake to Chris Jericho, but Jericho doesn’t accept, instead getting in Bryan’s face before pushing the Rookie away. They exchange slaps and Bryan goes to work. Daniel Bryan gets some good offence in before Jericho takes complete control of the match (there’s a reason he’s the World Champion). On commentary, Cole berates Daniel Bryan and Independent Wrestling alike, but it’s a classic heel announcer swerve. Matt Striker interviews Wade Barrett at ringside who really doesn’t tell us much of what he’s learning from Jericho. Bryan comes back in the ring while Michael Cole yells and rants about wrestling in a high school gym in front of 50 people. Like Sterlacci said in his review, Cole is the heel announcer here. Complain all you want, but Cole knows as much as anyone in the WWE or TNA that most of the talented wrestlers headlining the big leagues come from the Indy scene. The commentary is just to add extra heat and bring some sympathy to Daniel Bryan, who looks to be one of the big stars of NXT.

The match itself was really good for the first NXT show. Daniel Bryan leapt through the ropes toward Jericho and got rammed ribs first into the announce table. Bryan would then go on to locking in a vicious ankle lock submission on Jericho which almost caused the World Champion to tap. In the end, though, Jericho locked on the Liontamer (though they’ll call it the Walls of Jericho, I’m sure) to cause Bryan to submit.

Again, I have to refer back to Jason Sterlacci here. Yes, it sucks that Daniel Bryan lost in his debut contest, but he was facing Chris Jericho, one who, like Daniel Bryan, has been called the best in the world (and not only by himself). You can’t expect a rookie, even a rookie who is seemingly being pushed as one of the faces of this new program, to defeat the World Heavyweight Champion on his television debut.

Overall, I enjoyed NXT and see great things coming from it. I’m not sold on David Otunga after such a short match, but perhaps they’re molding him into a powerhouse role. The tag match featuring Christian and Heath Slater vs. Carlito and Michael Tarver was a good showcase of the talent of those two athletes. Next week is the debut of Justin Gabriel and I think he’s another name that could go far, so I’m looking forward to that. However, I don’t want to completely steel Jason Sterlacci’s thunder, so unless something monumental happens that I deem worth talking about, I probably won’t cover NXT other than in passing from here on out.

I’m headed to Berwyn, IL this weekend for AAW’s My Bloody Valentine. I’ll have the opportunity to sit down with three independent wrestlers, Matt “Krotch” Mayday, Jordan McEntyre, and everyone’s favorite Anarchist, Arik Cannon. Look for my comprehensive review of the show sometime Sunday or Monday as well as the interviews. And my interviews from Granite City last weekend will be on posted as well. Thanks for reading, see you next week.