BRM Reviews the 3/17/2021 NXT

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews the 3/17/2021 NXT

Post by Big Red Machine » Mar 19th, '21, 13:20

OPENING SEGMENT- started off great but went downhill quickly
This was your big confrontation between Finn Balor and Karrion Kross. This was great until Kross handed the mic to Scarlett and she started to ramble about having seen a prophecy in her Tarot cards when they are both champions.
Lo and behold, here come the tag champs to say that their buddy Pete Dunne should be getting the title shot. They came off like total lackeys. Scarlett said they should put their tag titles on the line. They said no, but then she started running up against them and they changed their minds. Yeah, I know she said all of that stuff about them not wanting to be known as cowards, but if that was what compelled them to change their minds, then why was all of the rubbing necessary?
So not only do the tag champs look like lackeys, but now they’re knuckle-draggers who were able to have their minds changed by a blonde with lots of cleavage rubbing herself against them even though it’s clear she’s someone else’s girl. And the end result of this is the at this point painful trope of the people in the WrestleMania main event (or, in this case, it’s NXT equivalent) getting a tag title shot that they have done nothing to earn, and it’s clearly happening just because the booker wants to create dissension between them later… meaning that the finish of the main event is also going to be obvious from miles away, and not pristinely clean, either.

AUSTIN THEORY vs. DEXTER LUMIS- 6.75/10
The rest of The Way is at home, supposedly because Theory facing Lumis alone is the last step of his “therapy,” but the idea is, of course, that they’re scared of Lumis.
Lumis won cleanly (although he did use some deceit) in a what was a god showing for Theory... but once again, I just don’t understand why they are pushing Lumis so hard. Theory NEEDS wins or else he’ll become a total joke (even more than he already is). On the bright side, at least Theory is no longer enamored with his f*cking KIDNAPPER.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL IS WAITING OUTSIDE OF WILLIAM REGAL’S OFFICE TO HEAR ABOUT THE TAG TITLE MATCH- More importantly, Tommaso Ciampa showed up to give McKenzie a new assignment. He says that “Toothless Timmy” (does he want Thatcher to turn on him?) isn’t here, so he wants McKenzie to go find out if Alexander Wolfe is also not here (I guess Ciampa assumes that Wolfe is off trying to recruit him). He also cut a promo on Imperium.

ADAM COLE PROMO- mostly bad
Cole comes out and cuts a promo on Kyle O’Reilly. William Regal comes out and tells Cole that Kyle wasn’t medically cleared to be here last week, and that due to their “altercation,” Kyle’s injury has gotten worse and now it will be even longer until he returns, and they have also had to ban him from the building.
I didn’t like Regal making it out like this was Adam Cole’s fault. Yes, Cole was the one who through the first strike, but given the situation it’s hard to blame him (for throwing the first strike I mean. Obviously Cle was in the wrong for turning on Kyle and for injuring him in the first place a few weeks ago). Furthermore, Kyle was the one who not only sowed up but also jumped the guardrail when he wasn’t medically cleared to be there, and who also made the first threatening move. And if Kyle wasn’t medically cleared to be in the building, then NXT was negligent in taking so long to send people down there to get him out of the ring. If you wanted a reason for Kyle not to be in the building this week, then you have a much better reason already built in, which is that he is suspended for pushing a referee.
Kyle then took over the middle portion of the Thunderdome screens facing the hard-cam and replaced them with one big video of himself (I guess he’s a hacker now?). He said he knows everything about Cole and everywhere Cle hangs out and essentially threatened to jump him off hours. Cole marched up to Regal and said that he wouldn’t allow himself to be hunted and vowed to find Kyle before Kyle found him. Cole came off WAY too much like the babyface here.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS EMBER MOON & SHOTZI BLACKHEART- very bad
Ember and Shotzi are absolutely insufferable. Ember said that she came back to NXT to “make history” and “be the face of the division,” which sounds a lot more like main roster buzzword bullsh*t than anything in NXT. Ember and Shotzi used each other’s bad catchphrases (Shotzi’s TCB, which is dumb on its own, and then Ember’s “Ember’s Law,” which might have meant something at one point but now I have no idea what it’s supposed to mean). Then Shotzi howled at the moon or whatever. I hope one day she does that and it draws a pack of actual wolves to her and she barely escapes them and it teaches her to never do that dumb howling crap again.
The Robert Stone Brand showed up and challenged them to a title match next week. Aliyah and Kamea came off like people who I just plain don’t want to root for… and they were the less annoying team in this segment.

JORDAN DEVLIN SHOWS UP- cool car… but he’s an hour late for his job

BREEZANGO vs. LEGADO DEL FANTASMA (w/Santos Escobar)- 6.5/10
A solid, clean win for LDF.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
Escobar began to cut a promo on Devlin to the announcers. Devlin showed up and they cut promos on each other. Escobar challenged Devlin to a match at TakeOver. Devlin responded by headbutting Escobar and hitting him with Devil Inside before escaping from Wilde & Mendoza.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS ADAM COLE- Better than before. Cole is leaving the building to find Kyle vows to “end him. And that is not undisputed. That is a promise.”

SARRAY SIGNING ANNOUNCEMENT & VIDEO PACKAGE- good

PICTURES OF CAMERON GRIMES ON VACATION- good, if only because it means he won’t be on the show this week.

ZOEY STARK vs. DAKOTA KAI (w/Raquel Gonzalez)- 6.75/10
Another clean finish, and another strong showing for Stark in defeat.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
Io Shirai came out and shoved a contract for a title match into Raquel Gonzalez’s chest, then helped Zoey Stark to the back.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL ASKS WILLIAM REGAL ABOUT THE CONFRONTATION BETWEEN THE CRUISERWEIGHT CHAMPIONS- good
Regal says he is about to make an announcement, but someone comes running to him to tell him that “something happened with Adam Cole” and we fade to a commercial with the cliffhanger.

GRIZZLED YOUNG VETERANS PROMO- GREAT!
They vow revenge on MSK and warn them “you are not going to like where this is going next.”

TOMMASO CIAMPA vs. MARCEL BARTHEL (w/Fabian Aichner)- 6/10
Ciampa attacked Aichner with a chair before the match to take him out. It turns out I was wrong earlier and Ciampa actually thinks that Alexander Wolfe attacked Thatcher and that’s why he hasn’t seen Thatcher. I’m not sure why he thought that also meant that Wolfe wouldn’t be at the building.
The announcers pushed the “bond” between Thatcher and Ciampa and noted that Ciampa was wearing Thatcher’s shirt… so I assume Thatcher is going to turn on him.
Aichner grabbing Barthel’s leg to prevent Ciampa from suplexing him should have been DQ, but it wasn’t even ejected from ringside.
Ciampa won clean in what was a short but good match. It was a very hard-nosed grappling match, which is what I love.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
WALTER came out. The other two attacked Ciampa. He held his own against them, but then WALTER came in and put him down.

WILLIAM REGAL FINDS KYLE O’REILLY ISTTING IN A CAR AND ADAM COLE GETTING ARRESTED WHILE YELLING AT KYLE- I’m not sure what happened, but Kyle once again felt a bit like the heel here.

L.A. KNIGHT CUTS A PROMO INTO THE CAMERA WHILE BRONSON REED STALKS HIM IN THE BACKGROUND- decent

AUGUST GREY vs. L.A. KNIGHT- 4/10
Reed created a distraction by going Tommy Boy on Knight’s coat, but Knight recovered and got the win.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS RAQUEL GONZALEZ- good
Gonzalez cut a fine promo to build up her eventual title shot against Io Shirai. Dakota Kai showed up and said she got herself and Gonzalez booked against Io and Stark next week. Raquel didn’t understand why Dakota cared because “I can have Io whenever I want.” Kai said that they need to rebound as a team to remind the division who runs it. Gonzalez accepted this explanation. This felt like a fine first step to a split with Dakota winding up as the babyface. If that is the end goal, then Dakota winning clean earlier tonight is very important, as it stops it from feeling like she is trying to use Raquel to enhance her own career beyond what her own talent would allow.

XIA LI PROMO- short and sweet

REGAL INTERVIEW- great!
He says that hopefully the police drop the charge against Cole because if they do, Regal will call both Cole and O’Reilly to the PC next week because it’s clear that “nothing will stop them from destroying each other.”

NXT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan(c) vs. Finn Balor & Karrion Kross (w/Scarlett)- 6.5/10… but also a bad segment… I think?
I liked Balor and Kross not working together but not getting in each other’s ways, either. What I didn’t like was most of the rest of it. Kross on his own was dominant whenever he was in. Balor eventually got cut off, but made his own comeback, so that tag champs didn’t look very good.
Eventually Scarlett took a bump when Balor dropkicked Lorcan into her… but it’s really her own fault because she was standing right behind him. Kross saw this and attacked Balor, letting Lorcan pin Balor… but then Kross came in and destroyed them both, so the tag champs looked bad.
Scarlett laughed when Kross was beating Balor up, so it’s possible she put herself in a position to get hit and then took a bigger dive. If that’s the case, and Kross is in on it, then this is a heel turn. And I do think that Kross needs to be in on it, because I don’t think the act works with her manipulating him. It works well with her as his herald, delivering the threatening messages, but for that to work, he needs to be the boss and not the one getting manipulated.
If this wasn’t intended as a heel turn for Kross, then that aspect, too, was bad, because as I said above, Scarlett was in a position that anyone who spends any time at ringside should have known to avoid, and Kross should be able to just watch the tape and know that it was clearly an accident and that he overreacted, but then admitting that sort of thing doesn’t feel like it works with his character, either.


This was a mixed bag show from NXT. The build to TakeOver definitely kicked itself up into another gear, but the advancement of the individual storylines ran the gamut from great to not so good.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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