In a surprising move WWE eliminated three rookies tonight on NXT including fan favorite Daniel Bryan.  Originally WWE had only planned on eliminating one of the rookies tonight however the on air story was that both Daniel Bryan & Michael Tarver asked "WWE Management" for their release.  When interviewed by Matt Stryker Bryan said that Daniel Bryan only existed in WWE and that he couldn't beat rookies and desrved to be eliminated.  He also stated that Brian Danielson is not finished and who knows what would be next for him.  This hopefully means they will have him continue in his WWE career as with the right writing he could become a very good star in the realms of a Dean Malenko.  Michael Tarver said the competition was not fair even though he felt his elimination was.  This I would agree with in a shoot style as it never was explained to the audience from the start on how this process would work or what the purpose of NXT was other than to fill a timeslot on SyFy until Smackdown could move there. 

Also eliminated through the voting on the show was Skip Sheffield. 

This leaves the following NXT rookies left with another elimination round next week.

1. Wade Barrett
2. David “A-List” Otunga
3. Justin Gabriel
4. Heath Slater
5. Darren Young