BRM Reviews the 5/22/2019 NXT

[Big Red Machine]

WILLIAM REGAL MAKES AN ANNOUNCEMENT- bad
Apparently the War Raiders vacated the titles off camera. Why? Wasn’t the whole logic of them not vacating the titles and instead putting them on the line last week the fact that they wanted to prove the Street Profits wrong when the Street Profits said they could beat them or whatever? And don’t they want revenge on the Forgotten Sons for jumping them in the gym a few weeks ago? Why are they leaving?! And, if I may stay out of kayfabe for a moment, why can’t they work both NXT and the main roster like Aleister Black and Ricochet and Sasha Banks did (with Sasha being the most pertinent example, since she was a champion when she was called up as well, and still stayed around for the next three months, even working one last TakeOver cycle AFTER she dropped the belt, just to put Bayley over again).
Regal announced that we are going to have a ladder match to crown new champions, featuring the Street Profits, Forgotten Sons, and Burch & Lorcan, the three other teams involved in last week’s schmoz. And also Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish will be in the match because... um...
Just having the War Raiders not vacate the titles and be the fourth team in the match would make so much more sense than this. Actually, not doing this four-way ladder match and instead having them drop the belts cleanly to the Forgotten Sons would make a lot more sense than that. But we can’t have any of that because War Raiders were needed on the main roster so badly that they haven’t wrestled on TV since the Monday after last week’s show was taped.


UNDISPUTED ERA PROMO & SEGMENT WITH JOHNNY GARGANO- AWESOME!
Cole does all the talking and does his usual bragging while emphasizing that Undisputed Era is once again united and therefore unstoppable. Johnny Gargano came out to antagonize Cole and was fantastic, while Cole did an excellent job of allowing himself to be humiliated and get angry but without any sort of witty comeback because he’s the heel.
While they were talking, Matt Riddle came out of the crowd and attacked Undisputed Era from behind. Gargano got involved as well, and the tow babyfaces ran off the four heels.

MANSOUR vs. SEAN MALUTA- 2/10
Mansour won a short match.

CATHY KELLEY WAITS OUTSIDE OF WILLIAM REGAL’S OFFICE- good
We hear Regal screaming at someone, and a few moments later, Undisputed Era emerge. Cathy asks Regal what he is going to do about what we saw in the previous segment. After taking several deep breaths to calm down, Regal informs her that he has booked Riddle & Gargano vs. Fish & O’Reilly for tonight, and has booked Riddle vs. Roddy for TakeOver.

TYLER BREEZE INTERRUPTS THE VELVETEEN DREAM- OMFG I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING!
They traded barbs and it ROCKED! Everything you’d expect. Both were equally dickish. Breeze eventually punched TVD after taking a selfie with him, flooring the champ and then walking off.

CATHY KELLEY INTERIVEWS TYLER BREEZE- This was kind of pointless, as Breeze didn’t answer her question at all or say anything of any consequence.

REINA GONZLAEZ vs. CANDICE LERAE- 4/10
Candice did a Codebreaker to Reina’s arm and Beth Phoenix called it an “arm DDT,” so Beth still has a lot of room to improve. They had a good “big woman vs. little woman” match that I wish had gone longer. Candice won.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- GREAT!
The Horsewomen came out to attack Candice but Io Shirai came out with a Kendo stick and made the save. Io went absolutely nuts on the Horsewomen- and especially Baszler.

Beth’s commentary sounded like a teenager trying very hard to be a professional commentator. It was like a wrestling version of the commentary from the Backyard Sports video games.

Tyler Breeze vs. The Velveteen Dream for the North American Title has been signed for TakeOver. It’d be nice if they made Breeze get a win first, considering that his last televised NXT match was losing a North American Title match.

Mia Yim vs. Bianca Belair and Drew Gulak vs. KUSHIDA have been announced for next week, so next week’s show should be pretty awesome.

MATT RIDDLE & JOHNNY GARGANO vs. UNDISPUTED ERA (Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly)- 8/10
Beth said that Fish and O’Reilly “have spent their entire careers at each other’s side,” so she clearly hasn’t done any research for this job.
They had an awesome tag team match. Cole came out, so Gargano dived onto him, but this left Riddle alone with the other two and he got pinned. Undisputed Era beat the babyfaces up after the match.


On the whole this was a great episode of NXT, but this whole tag title situation is one that I think needs some attention called to it, as it very much feels like NXT’s first big booking misstep in years.