BRM Reviews the 3/27/2019 NXT

[Big Red Machine]

ADAM COLE/JOHNNY GARGANO CONFRONTATION- both guys cut awesome promos

VANESSA BOURNE & ALIYAH vs. KACY CATANZARO & LACEY LANE- okay segment
We got a match that was mostly shine, with Lacey Lane doing all of the work. She got cut off, but then the Horsewomen showed up and heels bailed, leaving the Horsewomen alone with the babyfaces. Kacy got knocked off of the apron and Lacey got beaten up. Kacey got back up and got shined up a bit at first, countering an attempt at the Kiramuta Clutch and knocking Marina and Jessamyn down before having Baszler reverse her next move into a Kiramuta Clutch. The announcers begged for someone to stand up to these mean heels.
As far as something meant to get Kacy and Lacey over as babyfaces, this worked very well, as the crowd was chanting for them very loudly when each had her turn to get some shine. As a segment that has any sort of storyline usefulness, this didn’t seem to have much, as we’ve already seen the Horsewomen be big mean bullies several times and this didn’t really do anything new with it or give us any new information.

MATT RIDDLE vs. KONA REEVES- 3.5/10
The Velveteen Dream showed on a couch on the stage, drinking out of a goblet, flanked by attractive women in The Velveteen Dream belly shirts. This distracted Riddle a bunch. It also apparently distracted the producer, who kept cutting to TVD instead of showing us the match. Riddle eventually made his comeback and won. The match was clunky and dull.
After the match, Riddle went up to TVD, took his microphone away from him and said he would win the title. The only good bit of this was the irritated expression of the woman on TVD’s right when Riddle took TVD’s microphone and began to cut his promo. This woman made it clear that she thought Matt Riddle saying such things to The Velveteen Dream was completely inappropriate.

DUSTY RHODES TAG TEAM CLASSIC FINALS: Aleister Black & Ricochet vs. Forgotten Sons (w/Jaxson Ryder)- 7.5/10
A great match, but I think the Forgotten Sons winning would have been better, as it gives us a less predictable TakeOver result and gives the big boost from beating Black & Ricochet to the Forgotten Sons rather than War Machine who don’t need it, building better for NXT’s future.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Black & Ricochet had a big celebration. The War Raiders- who I now realize I don’t think we’ve seen in months- came out to face an obligatory stare-down with their challengers in the middle of the ring to end the show.


An up-and-down episode of NXT, but the strength fo the opening and closing segments make it feel like it was better than it probably really was on balance.

[KILLdozer]

Where were Kairi Sane and Io Shirai during that horsewomen segment? Were they just not here this week?

That seems like the only logical and obvious reason as for why they wouldn't stop them and kick the shit out of them as well lol.