Last week, Team Beefcake blew everyone away with a match that was not too shabby and easily the best from the show so far. From Team Nasty, Hogan picked Erin Murphy to be eliminated. We start the episode in the training room. Both Dustin and Dennis were quite concerned that the wrong girl on their team was eliminated. Nikki having trouble getting started on working out justified their fears.

Eric Bischoff called everyone into the main arena. He asked Todd and Dustin to name their favorite wrestlers, leading into him giving them the task in learning the art of conducting promos. The show’s ring announce Todd Keneley was brought in to teaching and overseeing their ability to talk. Todd Bridges pulled a decent promo, while Nikki and Dennis had problems even knowing where to start. Then came Dustin and Danny did a face to face. Dustin pulled a decent one whereas Danny, while decent himself, crossed the line of making his a little too personal leading into Dustin slapping him and the two about to scuffle before getting pulled apart by everyone else.

We start the return from break with Beefcake informing his team of the three new moves to learn. UPW’s Tom Howard and Funky Billy Kim demonstrated the following: Hip toss, taking the turnbuckle, elbow smash. Cut immediately to Team Nasty practicing the moves. Dustin and Dennis were doing fine, but Nikki was horrified to even attempt to practice. Dustin, Dennis, and even Brian Knobbs were quite frustrated with her lack of commitment.

Over at Team Beefcake, Trishelle was scared of the moves too. But at least she was willing to overcome the fear and learn them. Danny was concerned about having to take the bump when on the receiving end of a hip toss. Tom tried to ease him and properly instruct him on taking the bump, only when Danny landed it did not feel good and was given leave to check with the doctors. In the Team Nasty locker room, the boys vented their frustrations verbally and Brian was clearly the most unhappy.

When Nikki arrived, Brian threw his arms up and let Dustin and Dennis deal with her on their own. They immediately confronted Nikki about her passion. Her lack of desire to remain was very apparent from head to toe and in the way she answered them.

Team Beefcake noted how they were moving along to Brutus’ satisfaction that he opened up more into incorporating their ideas into the development of matches. Over at Team Nasty, Hogan dropped by to give Nikki a pep talk in the hopes of boosting her confidence. We would have to see if that did the job.

Back at Team Beefcake, Danny returned having been forced to return given the lack of an X-Ray machine in the building. Right from the get go, Danny was moving along a lot slower than usual and it was apparent he was looking to prevent himself from hurting himself even more. Returning to Team Nasty, Hogan took over training for a little bit and gave Nikki some pointers on what she needed to do, helping her realize that it was about selling then it was actually connecting. This eased her a lot more than before.

Show time! Team Beefcake kicked things off with Mean Bean and The Red Hot Redneck against Dangerous Danny Bonoduche and Mr. Not-So-Perfect. Mean Bean and Red Hot Redneck cut a pair of heel promos before making their way to the ring. Dangerous Danny and Mr. Not-So-Perfect were the faces, putting together a kind of promo that was a little similar to how Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart would do sometimes in that one would go nuts while the other had to hold him back.

The strange part was that Mr. Not-So-Perfect played the crazy one and Dangerous Danny played straight. I guess Danny got quite a talk about his blow up with Dustin. Team Beefcake continued to excel at their strength, showmanship. Danny was taking a lot of punishment in the ring, though he did a decent job masking just how much in pain he was. Mean Bean got the win for his team he his great weight knocked Danny off the apron and into the railing while giving Mr. Not-So-Perfect a big splash for the pin. No standing ovation from the judges this week, but they were still nonetheless impressed with the team’s progress.

Team Nasty went with a 2-on-1 Handicap Match. The heels were Candy Girl and The Winner, cutting a promo first. Rodzilla was the face and all on his own, cutting an intense promo as best as he could. Dustin was once more the ring general, directing traffic and making sure everyone did what they needed. Nikki still didn’t look any better polished than the previous week.

Overall showmanship still needed to be worked on, but the construction of story in the match came off better than their last match when they had full tag teams. Rodzilla nailed The Winner with the flying clothesline for the solo win. The judges were rather impressed with the match. So impressed that they couldn’t figure which match was better, thereby putting everyone up for elimination.

Bischoff let Butterbean know that he still had a ways to go in learning the tools in wrestling, but ultimately said he was safe. Jimmy told Danny he was safe with the warning that he needed to becareful in taking bumps so that he won’t hurt himself any further. Todd Bridges, Dennis, and Dustin were told they were safe. That left Nikki and Trishelle.

Hogan noted to Trishelle that he was worried about her the first couple of weeks, but found her nitch upon creating the Red Hot Redneck character. It’s just that she was still missing something. Nikki finally managed to show heart, but commitment was still very give and take. In the end, Hogan told Nikki she was a jabroni and to get the hell out of his ring. Even she admitted that she just didn’t have what it took to be a wrestler.

Highlights of next week showed that Team Beefcake and Team Nasty were going to combine as one. Rob Van Dam dropped by to help guide them into developing finishers, although his tossing Danny over the ropes caused the latter to be placed in quite a situation of potentially having to go to the hospital. Same with Dustin apparently, as he was later seen on a stretcher with his right shoulder all taped up. But, indeed, the show must go on and it looked like they were doing a battle royale or six-person elimination match. We’ll see.

Overview: There was no question Team Beefcake was oozing with confidence. Even if one guy went down, they could still manage to put their match together decently. And if said guy came back up hours later, they still were able to pull through. Over at Team Nasty, Dustin continued to shine the best while it just seemed to me Dennis was coasting. Good example was his need to improve on promos. Nikki just seemed destined to be eliminated. Her lack of real desire and commitment ultimately came to focus and her heart just wasn’t enough to save her. Best decision, I must say.

Now the teams will be coming together as one, so business is about to pick up. Danny starting to experience a lot of pain could end up causing him to slip behind Dustin, who is doing all the more better. His potential roadblock is whether he can pull off being a face since he’s been nother but an awesome heel from the start. Matches were fine, but we’ve obviously seen both better and worse. This episode ended up being nothing really special in comparison to the past three.

Episode Verdict: Thumbs Down

Dan Short
dan@ifight365.com