BRM Reviews NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver: Night 1

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver: Night 1

Post by Big Red Machine » Apr 8th, '21, 00:57

NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver: Night 1 (4/7/2021)- Orlando, FL



Enough with the pyro and thunder and whatever. Let’s get to the wrestling!


PETE DUNNE vs. KUSHIDA- 8/10
An action-packed back-and-forth opener. Pete Dunne worked over KUSHIDA’s fingers while KUSHIDA worked over the arm.

GAUNTLET ELIMINATOR FOR A SHOT AT THE NXT NORTH AMERICAN TITLE TOMORROW NIGHT: Leon Ruff vs. Isaiah “Swerve” Scott vs. Bronson Reed vs. Cameron Grimes vs. Dexter Lumis vs. L.A. Knight- 7.5/10
The camera was focused on Lumis’ slow entrance so we missed the move that put Ruff down, but the important part was that Grimes put him down but Scott threw him out of the ring and stole the pin, breaking up an alliance they had formed when Grimes offered Scott a bunch of money.
Knight continues to be my hero for once again ridding us of Dexter Lumis. This time he rolled him up while Lumis was distracted putting his submission finisher on Grimes. Unfortunately, Bronson Reed had to come along and eliminate Knight right after that. Then Lumis, like a sore loser, but locked Knight in his submission hold, which accomplished absolutely nothing other than making Knight look a little worse.
We got a little bit of a three-way final three segment until Scott eliminated Grimes, making Scott and Reed the final two. They then had an excellent final two segment before Reed inevitably won, because there was no way they were putting Gargano against another heel tomorrow. On the whole, this was an exciting match that did a fine job of moving some feuds along (Scott vs. Ruff, Reed vs. Knight) while setting up an intriguing match for tomorrow night.

NXT UK TITLE MATCH: WALTER(c) vs. Tommaso Ciampa- 9/10
This was f*cking awesome. They made every single movement and moment matter. They just beat the sh*t out of each other, with WALTER targeting Ciampa’s oft-injured neck while Ciampa worked over WALTER’s hand. WALTER’s selling of his hand was tremendous. Only WALTER can make a chop a finisher.

FRANKY MONEY’S DOG RUNS AROUND SOME MORE- She has a last name now.

THREE-WAY MATCH FOR THE VACANT NXT TAG TEAM TITLES: Grizzled Young Veterans vs. MSK vs. Legado del Fantasma (Joaquin Wilde & Raul Mendoza)- 7.5/10
They did their spots. It was often very exciting, but nothing we haven’t seen a million times before at this point. MSK got the win, which, from a booking perspective, they pretty much had to if you wanted to use them as a top act.

NXT WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH: Io Shirai(c) Raquel Gonzalez (w/Dakota Kai)- 8.25/10
There were a lot of big spots here, but I felt that far too much of the match was Io jumping off of things. They really didn’t explore the size-difference story at all, instead just relying on big spots and big kick-outs. The match was still awesome, but it did feel a little lacking.
I was tremendously happy with the result, which was Gonzalez going over. I can’t call it clean because Dakota did interfere at one point (right in front of the ref, too, which should have been a DQ instead of just an ejection from ringside), but that was early on, so it still felt like Gonzalez accomplished this on her own.


This was another typically excellent TakeOver. And tomorrow, between NXT and NXT UK, we get TWO OF THEM!
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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