BRM Reviews the 5/29/2019 NXT (excellent go-home show)

[Big Red Machine]

MIA YIM vs. BIANCA BELAIR- 6.75/10
A great match, aside from one odd moment where the referee restarted her count-out count for no reason I could discern. It’s possible that this refereeing mistake was planned spot, though, as Mia handed Bianca her first pinfall loss here, and that would give Bianca a reason to claim it shouldn’t have counted. I really hope that’s not what they’re doing, but I don’t want to heap all blame on the referee or the wrestlers when it might be the booker’s fault something stupid happened instead. Or it’s possible that Bianca’s excuse is supposed to be that Mia pulled her hair to get her into the Eat Defeat, which would make Bianca your standard heel hypocrite because she used her braid to get illegal leverage on a pin to win their previous match. Either way, I was pretty shocked that they didn’t save Bianca’s first pinfall loss for a TakeOver.

VELVETEEN DREAM VS. TYLER BREEZE VIDEO PACKAGE- AWESOME!

SHAYNA BASZLER PROMO- a perfectly fine “cocky heel but you know I’ve earned the right to be cocky” go-home promo.

DREW GULAK vs. KUSHIDA- 6.75/10
Excellent WRRRRRESTLING (yay!). This was disappointingly short at eight and a half minutes, but the roll-up finish seems to imply that we’ll be getting a rematch, which should be awesome. Gulak called KUSHIDA a coward because... well... just because he’s angry he lost, really.

IO SHIRAI INTERVIEW- good babyface go-home stuff. The question posed to Io was how she would deal with Shayna and her friends without the benefit of a Kendo stick. Io cut a standard babyface promo saying that she would, but then Candice LeRae showed up to thank Io for saving her from the Horsewomen last week and told Io she would have her back at TakeOver, giving us a more concrete answer to the question.

NXT TITLE MATCH VIDEO PACKAGE- AWESOME!

DANNY BURCH & ONEY LORCAN vs. THE FORGOTTEN SONS (w/Jaxson Ryker)- no rating, good segment
A predictably quick DQ and schmoz for paint-by-numbers build to the hastily thrown together tag title match. Undisputed Era- all four of them- stood tall at the end, and Cole cut a promo saying that he and Roddy would win their respective matches at TakeOver. This was a lot better than I’m making it sound. Go watch it.


A good episode of NXT, functioning as both an excellent go-home show for TakeOver: XXV and giving us two very good wrestling matches that feel like previews of bigger things to come after TakeOver.