S*** gets real for Daniel Bryan / Bryan Danielson on NXT

First, a programming schedule for today and tomorrow: This entry now, followed by another wrestling entry at 3 p.m., and a review of the Modern Family finale at 7 p.m. The endgame of LOST is also tonight, and I'm undecided if I'll be live blogging (or, you could say LOST-blogging, ha ha ha!) or simply writing about the show shortly after it's over. Tomorrow will feature a post about WWE's Sunday PPV, although I'm unsure if it'll be at 11 a.m., 3 p.m. or 7 p.m. All times are EST.

Anyway, to the topic at hand. I'm not a regular viewer of NXT, the WWE's version of American Idol that airs on SyFy (or however you kids spell it nowadays). On a week to week basis, the non-wrestling aspects are cheesy, and this is especially true once they started doing "challenges" like jousting each other with giant Q-tips, as if they were on American Gladiators.

However, this past week had a better than average episode, mostly because of the great promo by Daniel Bryan / Bryan Danielson. On NXT, he is known as Daniel Bryan, a newcomer to the business with great technical skill. However, in reality he is Bryan Danielson, who has been known on the independent circuit and in Ring of Honor for years as a champion.

On Tuesday, he did what's known as a worked shoot - He clearly spoke what he was actually thinking, as opposed to going off of a fake wrestling angle. However, it's called a worked shoot because he probably got permission from the WWE to do this. It's clear that they intend to play up his background as a successful wrestler in the indies, and in this respect, I think he could succeed wildly. After an initial adjustment period to the WWE "style", C.M. Punk got some significant pushes. While Danielson has just been shoving announcer Michael Cole around at first, I think his anti-WWE character had a lot more chance then his initial role on NXT, that of a Colin Delaney-type loser.

As far as his actual promo, I thought it was spot-on. The WWE regularly overlooks people who don't have the right physique, to their detriment. Evan Bourne should already be at least a midcard guy, instead of languishing in near-jobber status. Is it believable that he could beat a monster like the Undertaker? With the right storytelling, I think so! Given the velocity that he propels himself off the ropes with, I think it's plausible that he and other smaller wrestlers could handle themselves in the ring with a bigger guy.

Around The Dial: Marcel's On Fire!

Some random news from the television and video game worlds...

- BOOM Shaka Laka! A new version of NBA Jam is going to be released for the Nintendo Wii! This is awesome news, because I loved the original Arcade version of the game, and I actually own a Wii. While this doesn't quite make up for me missing out on the initial release of Final Fantasy XIII (Damn my poverty!), at least I'll be able to play the update of the classic.

For screen shots and a video trailer of the new edition, check out Blast's coverage here, which is where I originally learned of this news. I'm hoping they keep all of the zany extras, like being able to play as Bill Clinton, in the game. And as the above YouTube video implies, on the early arcade versions, you could even play as Mortal Kombat characters! Sweet, eh?

- In television news, Marcel from Top Chef is getting his own reality show! As my friend Kristi said, I'm guessing that there won't be too much foam cooking on the show, but we can always hope, can't we?

For unknown reasons, the show is rumored to be landing on the SyFy Network. This makes almost no sense, but then again, they were also highly interested in the WWE's ECW and still do broadcast some WWE stuff. I guess when people aren't watching your crap like Mansquito, you feel the need to program differently, even if I agree with this Entertainment Weekly writer's take that the network's potential is completely unrealized.

But anyway, focusing back on Marcel. I could see this show being momentarily entertaining, but it won't have staying power if they're just some catering company doing wacky meals. Marcel isn't really that likable, but on the flipside, he is not a monster like Gordon Ramsey. I don't think he will be a good anchor for the show week-in and week-out, unless it becomes a bizarre sort of Top Chef affiliate, featuring a bunch of the ex-chefs from the show.

The picture of Marcel is from this story about his DWI arrest.

TV Review: WWE's NXT is A-OK

The Miz speaks with his "trainee" Daniel Bryan.

When the WWE decided to cancel its ECW promotion and replace it with a Tough Enough-esque reality show, I didn't have high hopes for the new program. Frankly, it sounded kind of weird and gimmicky and stupid, like the entire Divas division and past promotions giving away $1 million to viewers.

Lo and behold though, NXT has actually been pretty decent in its initial two episodes, as it has given a chance for raw wrestlers and performers new to the WWE scene to get some television exposure. The show's focus on just eight performers certainly helps, as does the inclusion of established pros like Chris Jericho and The Miz to help them out with promo work.

In my opinion, there have been two stand-out performers on the show so far. The first one, Daniel Bryan, shouldn't be that surprising to anyone who follows wrestling regularly. He has been wrestling regularly for years, mostly for independent promotions and Ring of Honor, under the name Bryan Danielson. While the WWE has downplayed this, acknowledging only that he has been wrestling for a decade, his polish in the ring comes through as compared to the other raw talents on the show. In the debut episode, he almost pinned World Heavyweight champion Chris Jericho, and except for a botch on a springboard in the second episode, he has been near perfect in his ring action.

(Side note: The Miz is Bryan's mentor, and he is shockingly good on both this show and regular WWE programming. Seriously. Bill Simmons mentioned it in a column or chat the other week, but we are at the point where The Miz is now probably the most successful Real World graduate. Simply stunning. He will probably be a world champion within the next three years; he is dynamite on the microphone, like a young Chris Jericho, and his ring-work is now very good as opposed to just passable.)

Justin Gabriel also impressed in his tag match, which pitted him and Matt Hardy against William Regal and his hick trainee, Skip Sheffield. Gabriel is a big guy, but he hit a 450-degree splash from the top rope after Hardy laid out Regal with his finisher. He didn't hit it as easily as Evan Bourne nails the Shooting Star Press, which worried me a bit, but still, the finisher has definite star potential.

The other wrestlers featured prominently in the second episode, which I saw all of, were a mixed bag to me. At best, Sheffield seems like a hick comedy act; Santino Marella with muscles. Darren Young is a more athletic, thinner version of ECW and Smackdown flame-out Ricky Ortiz. David Otunga has a monstrous physique, and he clearly has an "all-star" pedigree in that his fiancee is apparently Jennifer Hudson; the WWE has a weakness for celebrity connections like that. However, he is clearly the rawest performer of the bunch.

Overall, NXT was a fairly entertaining hour of TV, and I'll check back with it from time to time - It had some fresher storylines and more wrestling than Raw and TNA Impact, which is kind of damning it with faint praise right now. However, it lacks the "pop" of the Smackdown storylines, at least in its two initial episodes.

Grade: B