• On Tuesday's episode of WWE NXT, the rookies competed in another challenge, so it appears as if that will be a weekly element on the show. This time they were each given a word and told to cut a creative 30-second promo about it. I know that some people don't like these challenges, but I do. I'm pretty sure that they're not scripted and it's interesting to see how the guys react under pressure. I do think this one was a bit rigged, however. Wade Barrett was declared the winner – which was determined by applause from the crowd – and he clearly did the best -- but he also was given two good words to work with: "blasé" in the initial round and "wind" in the talk-off between him and Skip Sheffield. It didn't hurt that Barrett was performing in front of his countrymen either. He said there was nothing blasé about him, and that the winds of change were blowing through WWE. The other poor guys were given words such as flowers (Justin Gabriel), cereal (Heath Slater), rainbows (Sheffield), bubble gum (Sheffield), itchy (Michael Tarver) and toothpaste (Darren Young).• In addition to Barrett, the other rookies who were given decent words were Daniel Bryan (passion) and David "A-List" Otunga (sleep), two guys who, like Barrett, seem to be favorites of the WWE office. Otunga did OK, as he went the obvious route by saying that he doesn't need sleep and doesn't have time to sleep because he is always training. Bryan, however, was lobbed a softball and he whiffed big time. It's pretty bad when you're in a competition to fulfill a dream that you've been chasing for 10 years and you can't come up with anything to say about passion. Bryan started to say something about his "manliness meter," and Matt Striker quickly interrupted him and told him to talk about passion. Bryan just stood there and counted down the remaining seconds on the clock before saying, "I love England!" Speaking of being lobbed a softball, Bryan detractor Michael Cole had a field day with Bryan's pitiful performance.
• During the challenge, the crowd in London booed everyone but Barrett and Sheffield. Otunga, the best heel among the rookies, was going to get jeered no matter what he said. I was surprised that Sheffield was cheered. He totally ignored the rules, as he just said his catch phrases and never even said the word "rainbow." The fans turned on him during the talk-off, though.
• Tarver is doing so poorly that I am starting to feel sorry for him. When Striker brought up that Tarver lost a match last week and also was disqualified in the keg-carrying competition, Tarver replied, "Whether I win or lose, I will not lose." Um, OK. Then he said absolutely nothing – as in, he never spoke – when it was his turn to cut a promo. That might work for Batista, but not for Tarver.
• Speaking of someone doing poorly, Bryan's stock is plummeting. After finishing next-to-last in the keg-carrying challenge and losing to Young (who is last in the pros' rankings) in a match last week, Bryan came off like a total geek in this week's challenge and then lost to William Regal. It wasn't what I would call a squash match, but it only went about two minutes. It's too bad they didn't have more time, because Bryan and Regal could have had a good match. The bottom line is that Bryan is now 0-8 and is looking less and less like a star by the week. If WWE's idea is to get him over as a likable underdog who eventually prevails, they might want to think about starting to build him back up a bit before people lose all interest in him, and then it will be too late.
• The Miz cut a great promo on Bryan. The best part was when he literally was trying to rub off some of his charisma and star power onto Bryan.
• When CM Punk made the stipulation that Young would get his head shaved if he didn't beat Luke Gallows, it pretty much guaranteed that Young was going to pull the upset. I'm curious to see where things are headed with the Straight Edge Society, as Punk showed his disappointment in Gallows and walked out of the ring with Young and Serena.
• The "Access Hollywood" piece made Otunga look like a star, although he came across as a nice guy rather than an arrogant heel.
• The Christian-Barrett match was good. It was no surprise that Christian got the win since Barrett had pinned him in a recent tag team match. Despite the loss, Barrett still came out of this looking good, as he wrestled a competitive match and Christian's win was somewhat tainted due to Slater's interference.
• Young had a good off-the-cuff remark when he said, "Is that PG?" after he poked fun at the dental difficulties of the British crowd during his promo about toothpaste. On a side note, it probably wasn't the smartest move to insult the fans when they were the ones deciding the winner of the challenge.