BRM Reviews the 3/3/2021 NXT

[Big Red Machine]

SEGMENT FROM LAST NIGHT THAT SET UP THE OPENER- very bad
1) Why is the camera seeing this
2) We jumped in in the middle of this, making it harder to follow than it should have been
3) Ciampa doing all of the talking and MSK just snickering at his insult made them come off completely secondary, even though they are the guys who NXT is ostensibly trying to push.

TIMOTHY THATCHER & TOMMASO CIAMPA vs. DANNY BURCH & ONEY LORCAN- 6.75/10
A solid and clean win for the tag champs. Imperium (sans WALTER) watched from the stage. Wade Barrett wondered if they were “scouting more than just the tag team champions.” We saw Barthel shake his head in disappointment, and saw Thatcher wave off Ciampa’s offer of help.

RODERICK STRONG & FINN BALOR SEGMENT- very good
Roddy came out and threw down his Undisputed Era dog tags and arm band, then demanded Adam Cole’s presence. Instead, he got Finn Balor. Roddy blamed the break-up on Balor, which seemed ridiculous to me. Balor more correctly pins the blame on desire for his title (but really, it’s Cole’s fault).
Balor said he knew how to get Cole to come out, then turned to the camera and challenged Cole to a title match next week. He turned back to Roddy and told Roddy “you’ll never be a leader. You’ll always be a follower” until he gets “more greedy and more selfish” and develops a killer instinct. He was about to say that Roddy would never be champion but Roddy attacked him. A bask of referees came out to break it up.

THE WAY TAKE AUSTIN THEORY TO A PSYCHIATRIST- bad
Did I laugh at “don’t therapy on me! Therapy on him!” (thera-pee)? Yes. But that doesn’t mean that this was a good idea. While over the top, the fact remains that Johnny Gargano is completely correct. Austin Theory WAS kidnapped and is clearly suffering from some sort of Stockholm Syndrome, and Johnny and Candice are right to be concerned that Indi is developing an infatuation with a creeper kidnapper.

CAMERON GRIMES GETS IN TROUBLE FOR PUNCHING A CREWMEMBER LAST WEEK- hooray!
He tries to buy Regal off but Regal won’t have it and books him against Bronson Reed.

Cole vs. Balor for the NXT Title has been made official for next week. Roderick Strong vs. Finn Balor has been announced as tonight’s main event.

EMBER MOON (w/Shotzi Blackheart) vs. ALIYAH (w/Robert Stone & Jessie Kamea)- 5/10
Oh great. Now they’ve turned Ember into Shotzi’s sidekick.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS TIMOTHY THATHCER ABOUT IMPERIUM- good
Thatcher says that “we all have a past” and that Imperium have tried to recruit him with promises of money. Ciampa insisted that Imperium is in Thatcher’s past and ended the interview.

IO SHIRAI VS. TONI STORM VIDEO PACKAGE- awesome!
Their title match is next week.

WWE WOMEN’S TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler(c) vs. Dakota Kai & Raquel Gonzalez- 7/10
This was a great match with a baffling finish. We got a ref bump so Adam Pearce showed up to send an “Raw official” out, who saw Baszler choking Kai out and awarded the match to Jax & Baszler even though Kai wasn’t legal. The announcers put over the idea that Pearce screwed the NXT team, but I don’t understand what his motivations for this would be, as they are traveling champions. Also, if there is a distinction between a WWE referee and an NXT referee, then the WWE referee shouldn’t have been able to make the call because he’s not licensed by NXT. And why was the referee even backstage if Pearce wasn’t planning on screwed the NXT team… which, again, makes no sense because he’ll still have the champions on the main roster no matter who wins.
On the bright side, the stuff with Baszler and Kai was really good, as was most of the action throughout.

MORE OF THE WAY AT THERAPY- bad
Also, why is there a camera here?

ISAIAH “SWERVE” SCOTT PROMO- good… but why did you need the second camera? Keep it on the camera the wrestler is talking into.

L.A. KNIGHT PROMO- GREAT!

CAMERON GRIMES vs. BRONSON REED- 5.75/10
Grimes got the win after interference from Knight, who I guess was angry that Reed didn’t wait for him to get to the back before starting his entrance.

We were shown William Regal and Adam Pearce arguing in a conference room.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS KAYDEN CARTER- A great promo by Kayden, both giving us an update on Kacy Catanzaro and swearing revenge on Xia Li for injuring Kacy.

MORE OF THE GARGANOS AT THERAPY- They’re clowns, and also they got taken it by a fraudulent psychiatrist. Either that or she was telling the truth about Lumis acting completely out of character.

LEGADO DEL FANTASMA JUMP EVER-RISE AND BREEZANGO BEFORE THEIR MATCH AGAINST EACH OTHER- a good first step rebuilding LDF after their one-on-three loss last week. Santos Escobar cut a promo warning everyone else to stay out of their way or else.

ADAM COLE VS. FINN BALOR VIDEO PACKAGE- pretty good for one hour’s notice.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS WILLIAM REGAL ABOUT HIS ARGUMENT WITH ADAM PEARCE- Regal responds that “because of what happened tonight in the women’s tag team title match, I’m going to make an announcement next week that is going to chance the landscape of NXT.”
Okay then. That should be interesting, and hopefully not disappointing.

RODERICK STRONG vs. FINN BALOR- 8.5/10
Balor worked the arm, Roddy worked the back, and two of the best there are showed us why they’re so damn good.
Balor won clean. Adam Cole came out after the match to have a stare-down with him..



This was a mixed episode of NXT. The good stuff was great, but the bad stuff was terrible.