BRM Reviews the 10/16/2019 NXT (awesome)

[Big Red Machine]

TOMMASO CIAMPA vs. ANGEL GARZA- no rating, good squash
Yes, a squash. It took a lot to put Garza down, yes, but he barely got any offense in, too. Ciampa was beloved by the crowd. His draping DDT is now called “Willow’s Bell.” I have no idea why.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- odd
Undisputed Era came out. Roddy is dressed in what I guess Roddy thinks is a parody of The Velveteen Dream. Ciampa sits down on a chair and grabs his crutch in case he needs a weapon. Kyle O’Reilly delivered USB stick to the announcers. Then Undisputed Era left, having done nothing to Ciampa other than stare at him.

WHAT WAS ON UNDISPUTED ERA’S USB STICK?- AWESOME!
It’s a video meant as a warning to all of those who would get in their way. It turns out they’ve taken out The Velveteen Dream. Cole warns Ciampa and Balor to stay out of his way.

DANNY BURCH & ONEY LORCAN vs. IMPERIUM (Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel)- 7.5/10
Great action!

JOHNNY GARGANO VIDEO PACKAGE- very good

SARAH SCHREIBER INTERVIEWS JOHNNY GARGANO- good
Sarah asks Johnny for his thoughts on Tommaso Ciampa’s return from injury. Johnny says he doesn’t know how he feels, and he won’t know until he sees Ciampa face to face.

IO SHIRAI vs. KAYDEN CARTER- good squash, but Io came off oddly like a babyface here for someone who is supposed to be a heel.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
Io says that she should be Baszler’s next challenger rather than Bianca Belair or Rhea Ripley. Rhea came out and said that she was going to kick Bianca’s ass next week and told Io that she would be happy to do the same to her. Io ran her mouth in Japanese before backing down.

BOA CUTS A PROMO IN CHINESE- this had no subtitles, but the did some martial arts while cutting his promo

WILLIAM REGAL UPDATES US ON THE VELVETEEN DREAM’S CONDITION- next week’s North American Title match is off and TVD might be out for a while. Regal says that Roddy will still be defending his title next week, but instead of TVD he’ll be defending against the winner of Lee vs. Dijakovic.

WINNER EARNS A NORTH AMERICAN TITLE SHOT NEXT WEEK: Keith Lee vs. Dominic Dijakovic- 7/10
They were having an interesting match with Lee working over Dijakovic’s arm with splashes and other moves you don’t usually see used to work over an arm. Roddy ran in and attacked both men for the double DQ. Regal came out and angrily told Rodd that he would now have to defend his title against both Lee and Dijak next week instead of just one of them. When we got back from the commercial we were shown Undisputed Era yelling at Regal for this and Regal ignoring them.

MATT RIDDLE vs. BRONSON REED- 6.25/10
Riddle wins clean and we get a show of sportsmanship at the end.

BIANCA BELAIR VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- GREAT build to her match against Rhea Ripley next week

KUSHIDA UPDATE- he has a hairline fracture in his wrist and will be out about a month.

TEGAN NOX vs. TAYNARA CONTI- 2/10
Mostly a showcase for Tegan.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- great
Sarah Schreiber comes out to interview Tegan at ringside. Dakota Kai came out to celebrate with her. Before she got a chance to answer Sarah’s question about what this moment means to her, the Horsewomen interrupted. Shayna was, as always, an absolutely tremendous dick. The groundwork has now been laid to build to a title shot.

FINN BALOR VIDEO PROMO- fine

KILLIAN DANE vs. BOA- no rating, bad squash
This felt like it went on forever.

PETE DUNNE vs. DAMIAN PRIEST- 8/10
On his way to the ring, Dunne snapped Dane’s fingers because he’s a jerk. This was an awesome “slow paced, big moves” main event with a well-executed heel finish to give Priest a needed win while keeping the heat alive.


An awesome episode of NXT with solid wrestling and great promos throughout, plus a couple of squashes to get people over. Not sure whether I liked this show better than AEW this week or not, so we’ll call it a tie.