BRM Reviews the 10/14/2020 NXT (good show, bad ending)

[Big Red Machine]

UNDISPUTED ERA PROMO- very interesting
Cole isn’t with them because he’s injured, so Kyle did all of the talking, vowing to find out who paid Ridge Holland off to attack Adam Cole and saying that if Holland hadn’t gotten injured, they would have injured him themselves. He also declared that the second coming of the golden prophecy would being tonight. Kyle came off like the leader of the group here.


#1 CONTENDERSHIP MATCH: Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan vs. Undisputed Era (Roderick Strong & Bobby Fish) (w/Kyle O’Reilly)- 7.5/10
I’m not really sure what Burch and Lorcan have done to earn this shot. It’d be nice to have some more tag teams around so they could actually beat someone to earn #1 contendership matches.
UE won a clean in a GREAT opener.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL UPDATES US ON FINN BALOR’S CONDITION- good
He had surgery on his jaw. Regal says he’s going to wait a few weeks before making a decision about whether or not to strip Balor of the title.

EMBER MOON VIDEO PACKAGE- very good

ASHANTE “THEE” ADONIS vs. JAKE ATLAS- no rating, mostly good segment
They wrestled for a bit until Raul Mendoza & Joaquin Wilde came out and distracted Adonis, allowing Atlas to get the win. The heels then pulled Adonis out of the ring and attacked him. Atlas jumped in to help Adonis and the babyfaces won. Santos Escobar came out to make it three on two in favor of the heels but Isaiah Scott then came out with some chairs so the heels left after a brief stare-down. Scott coming out from the other side as opposed to coming out from the ramp so that he wouldn’t have to pass the heels was hokey, but other than that the mechanics here were fine.
I didn’t mind Atlas taking advantage of the distraction because a wrestler’s job is not to be distracted. The announcers also pushed that Atlas had a new attitude since his match with Tommaso Ciampa, and I’m fine with him being more hard-nosed and dedicated to winning.
This match also gave Adonis the chance to show off his personality… and that’s where the “mostly” good part comes in, because his personality here reads as a complete and total cocky heel. I’m not saying there isn’t a direction they can go with that (he’s just helping Scott in the hopes of Scott giving him a title shot once he wins the title from Escobar), but it was a little weird to see his new babyface they introduced at TakeOver come out for his first match and be the heel.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS CANDICE LERAE & JOHNNY GARGANO- great
Johnny and Candice were great complaining heels and did a good job of building up not just their matches for tonight, but also potential future matches.

JOHNNY GARGANO vs. AUSTIN THEORY- 7.75/10
An excellent, exciting, and shockingly clean heel vs. heel match. I really hope there is some sort of story to Theory losing all of his matches.

RHEA RIPLEY INTERRUPTS RAQUEL GONZALEZ CALLING HER OUT IN A BACKSTAGE PROMO- They had a pull-apart. It was good.

CIAMPA WATCHES FOOTAGE OF THE VELVETEEN DREAM ATTACKING HIM LAST WEEK- “He’s dead.” AWESOME!

WINNER GETS AN NXT WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH AT HALLOWEEN HAVOC 2020: Shotzi Blackheart vs. Candice LeRae- 7.5/10
Shotzi was a good babyface in the ring (her personality still grates me, though), and Candice was a good heel. They did a great job of making you feel like Candice really stole the match here (with the help of some brass knuckles provided unexpectedly by Indi Hartwell).

DRAKE MAVERICK TRIES TO PITCH MERCH TO KILLIAN DAIN- They had me laughing by the end.

TONI STORM VIDEO PACKAGE- good (though I’m pretty sure we’ve seen this one before)

So you know how WWE just had a draft? And how on last week’s Smackdown Big E. and Sheamus had to have their blow-off match because if one of them got drafted to the other show, they wouldn’t be able to have their blow-off match so they had to have it last week? And you remember how Braun Strowman got drafted to Raw? Well guess who is advertised for Smackdown? Braun Strowman.

TONI STORM vs. ALIYAH (w/Robert Stone)- great squash

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS WLLIAM REGAL- good
She asks him about the finish to the women’s #1 contendership match. He says he doesn’t like it, but that the referee’s decision is final, so the result will stand. He mentions that he is thinking about raising the stakes of the women’s title match but isn’t sure what he’ll do yet. I’d like to see him punish Candice by turning this into a Last Chance match (where if she doesn’t win the title here, she can’t get another shot as long as Io is champion).
Regal announces Rhea Ripley vs. Mercedes Martinez for Halloween Havoc.
Xia Li shows up with a male friend (who I believe is one of the guys on what was formerly the Florida circuit). She insists to Regal that it’s very important that she have a match next week so she can “turn things around.” Regal tells her that he’ll take it under advisement.

DRAKE MAVERICK & KILLIAN DAIN vs. IMPERIUM (Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner)- 6/10
They did a good job with the Maverick/Dain dynamic.
Beth Phoenix said that Imperium “have years of experience as a team.” It’s been less than two years, so no, it’s not “years.”

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Ever-Rise came out to beat up Drake Maverick but Dain made the save for him. Dain then told Drake “nobody hits you but me.” So basically they’re Steen and Generico in ROH but with the speaking roles reversed.

NXT NORTH AMERICAN TITLE MATCH: Damian Priest(c) vs. Dexter Lumis- 6.5/10
Lumis is getting this shot because he was supposed to be in the ladder match to crown a new champion but had to pull out due to injury. Priest worked over that injury, which was an ankle injury. Lumis didn’t sell it well. It was hard for me to get into this match because it’s two guys who are theoretically babyfaces but neither is very likable. Priest won after Cameron Grimes interfered on his behalf in order to… well… actually, I have no idea why Grimes decided to help Priest out.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- dumb
Priest beat up Grimes, but got attacked with a chair by Johnny Gargano. Candice LeRae came out to celebrate with Johnny. William Regal came out and told Johnny that he would be getting a title shot at Halloween Havoc, but that both of their matches with have stips. To introduce those stips he pitched to the “host” of Halloween Havoc, because apparently we need one of those.
Said host was Shotzi Blackheart, who spoke like someone who was trying very hard to sound ominous and spooky and didn’t realize how badly she was failing. She announced that both of their matches would be determined via Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal. Because that’s definitely something that needed to be brought back. The best thing I can say about this is that there was no bar full of bikers, no chanting, and no one shot and laser beams at each other.

This was a horribly disappointing end to an otherwise very good show. Using an old PPV name is one thing. What they are doing here with Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal is trying to be cutesy, and that is never a good thing for a wrestling promotion because it comes off like a gimmick and removes a necessary air of seriousness about everything by winking and nodding at the audience. Still, on balance, this was a very good show. Much better than AEW’s big anniversary show, and this wasn’t even the big show NXT is building to.