BRM Reviews the 2/3/2021 NXT

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews the 2/3/2021 NXT

Post by Big Red Machine » Feb 5th, '21, 14:47

WOMEN’S DUSTY RHODES TAG TEAM CLASSIC SEMIFINAL MATCH: Dakota Kai & Raquel Gonzalez vs. Kacy Catanzaro & Kayden Carter- 6.75/10
We got pre-match promos from both teams. Team KC were a little over the top. There was a lot of very good big vs. small stuff here. Kacy really shined for her team. The last few minutes were great. I F*CKING LOVE the Towerbomb, and Raquel Gonzalez might have hit the best one ever right here.

VIC JOSEPH AND BETH PHOENIX PRESENT WADE BARRETT WITH GIFTS UPON THE OCCASION OF HIM BECOMING AN AMERICAN CITIZEN- funny
Said gifts were a picture of Jim Duggan holding the American flag from Vic, and very small (for “portion control”) apple pie from Beth… which Vic made sure to accidentally stick his thumb in the middle of while giving it to Wade. Wade was very disappointed with these gifts.

ALYSE ASHTON INTERVIEWS TONI STORM- fine
Vic Joseph Alyse’s name wrong. These is a three-way for the NXT Women’s Title at TakeOver: Vengeance Day between Io Shirai, Toni Storm, and Mercedes Martinez. Toni said she would win the title and referred to Mercedes Martinez as “dead weight,” implicitly blaming her for their loss in the DRTTC.

LEON RUFF vs. AUSTIN THEORY (w/Johnny Gargano)- 4.5/10
Stuff happened. The female members of The Way came out to help Gargano up after he had been dived onto by Ruff. Then their opponents later tonight came out and attacked them for no good reason, really. Rough then pulled an Eddie Guerrero to get Gargano ejected from ringside, making things one on one. He got a bit of offense in, but Theory won clean in the end. Theory really needed the clean win here, so it was nice to seem him get it.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- meh
Theory disrespected and then attacked Ruff after the match to get some heat. He went to grab the bell to do more damage but Dexter Lumis magically appeared there to stop him. Lumis ripped out some of Theory’s hair and sniffed it. Lumis comes across creepy and now feels like a total heel. His presence in what should be a simple feud between The Way and KUSHIDA/Ruff is baffling.

TIAN SHAH (XIA LI & BOA) VIDEO PACKAGE- This gave some mythological backstory to explain their queen on the throne. It kept their babyface/heel status ambiguous. Props to Beth for immediately asking “are we supposed to believe that the woman in that chair is thousands of years old?”

MEN’S DUSTY RHODES TAG TEAM CLASSIC QUARTERFINAL MATCH: Lucha House Party vs. Legado Del Phantasma (Raul Mendoza & Joaquin Wilde)- 6.25/10
This was fine. It would have been better if not for a few spots where it looked like guys were standing around and waiting to get hit with some complex move or another.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- meh
MSK came out and cut a promo on the winners, who they will face in the semifinal next week. They were very hyper.

PAT’S PALS (SANS PAT) CALL OUT FINN BALOR- very good
Balor came out and called Pete Dunne a coward for standing behind his two friends, so Burch & Lorcan left. Balor and Dunne cut promos on each other, and Balor said that Dunne could have a title shot at TakeOver.
Then EDGE showed up. He put NXT over as the wrestling place (but still avoided using the W word via the old Matt Striker “we often forget what the second W stands for” line). He cut a great promo putting over NXT as the place that “helped me find the passion to get my career back.” This was a nice way to put over NXT and pay lip-service to the idea that Edge could challenge for the NXT Title (which, he noted, he has never held before), even though we all know it won’t happen. Edge saying that he saw similarities between himself and Pete Dunne felt a little silly, but other than that, this was fine.

ALYSE ASHTON INTERVIEWS JOHNNY GARGANO- bad
Gargao cut a fine promo putting over The Way’s chance of winning the Women’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Title, then threw a fit when he was told he has to defend his North American Title against KUSHIDA at TakeOver. He’s a clown.

GARGANO TRIES TO GO SEE REGAL, BUT KUSHIDA IS IN HIS WAY- didn’t like it
They exchange words, then Gargano starts a brawl which KUSHIDA wins decisively. I don’t really see what this did for the feud to have KUSHIDA have an advantage.

Beth Phoenix put over their Girl Up scholarship program, but I’m pretty sure she accidentally said it was “promoting gender inequality.” Whoops.

TONI STORM vs. JESSI KAMEA (w/Robert Stone & Aliyah)- no rating, meh segment
Mercedes Martinez ran in and caused a DQ. She and Toni brawled. Io Shirai came out to sit on the turnbuckle and watch, then did her moonsault to the outside onto both of them. This whole segment felt very forced. It was the “oh crap! We need something to do to build up the women’s title match!” segment, rather than something that feels like it happened organically.

CURT STALLION PROMO- good… but I’m still not sure if he’s supposed to come off as cocky or not.

NXT CRUISERWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Santos Escobar(c) (w/Legado Del Phantasma) vs. Curt Stallion- 7/10
Scarlet Bourdeaux was shown watching this match from a special, red-lit, smoke-filled platform that we hadn’t seen before. Stallion had a solid showing and the match was great, but this wasn’t enough for it to really feel like he gained much in defeat (and doubly so with so much of the focus on Scarlet’s presence and what it would foretell).

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- meh
Karrion Kross came out and beat up Wilde and Mendoza while Escobar stood there and stared him down confidently. Kross then get in Escobar’s face and told him he would beat him up at a later date to give him time think about his upcoming beating. This is a weird heel vs. heel feud. Hopefully they are smart enough to use the time this is giving them in order to build someone up as a serious challenger for Escobar when this is done (although I don’t see how Escobar losing to Kross will benefit either Escobar or a potential challenger, either).

KARRION KROSS INTERRUPTS EDGE’S INTERVIEW ON HIS WAY OUT THE DOOR- great
Both guys were great here (and this did also serve to remind us that Kross never lost the NXT Title and wants it back), but there is nothing they can do that will make me believe that Edge will choose to challenge for the NXT Title.

MEN’S DUSTY RHODES TAG TEAM CLASSIC QUARTERFINAL MATCH: Timothy Thatcher & Tommaso Ciampa vs. Undisputed Era (Adam Code & Roderick Strong)- 8.25/10
This built very well and was awesome. Thatcher and Ciampa worked fine together. Cole being the one to get pinned is certainly interesting.


A very good episode of NXT. The tag tournaments are going well, but a lot of the other stuff on the show felt forced.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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