BRM Reviews the 4/20/2021 NXT

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews the 4/20/2021 NXT

Post by Big Red Machine » Apr 21st, '21, 19:44

KYLE O’REILLY PROMO- meh
He is putting Adam Cole behind him. I thought the beginning of this (everything before he started talking about having learned to develop a “killer instinct”) was pretty rough. The stuff after that was a little better, but not much. This was a reminder of why people were skeptical of Kyle’s ability to play a top babyface in a promo-centric promotion.
Kyle is going for the NXT Title. Cameron Grimes interrupts him and was annoying. Kyle pretended to be Grimes’ friend and was rather annoying, but then attacked him. This was douchy. It was the same sort of thing that started me on my path of eternal hate towards Shotzi Blackheart. Why don’t babyfaces in NXT understand how to say “no” like an adult (i.e. without resorting to violence)? I guess I should consider myself lucky that Kyle didn’t then try to cripple Grimes like Shotzi did to Robert Stone.
Vic Joseph took Kyle’s statement that Grimes would be his opponent tonight as if it were true, but Grimes was clearly not aware of it. Does Kyle have booking power? Vic an idiot? Did Regal book the match without telling Grimes about it? None of these are good.

EARLIER TODAY, WILLIAM REGAL GREETS SARRAY AS SHE ARRIVES AT THE CWC- meh
Zoey Stark shows up and says that she’s a big fan of Sarray and would love to compete against her. Regal likes this idea, so he changes his originally-scheduled match for Sarray to Sarray vs. Zoey Stark. I guess this is better than Regal not having a match booked for her yet, but why not just have that match be Sarray vs. Stark from the get-go? If you really feel the need to have Stark gush over Sarray before the match, you can do that via a promo from Stark.

L.A. KNIGHT PROMO- good
He claims that he only lost the Gauntlet Eliminator because the others teamed up on him. He is going for revenge against Dexter Lumis tonight.

DEXTER LUMIS vs. L.A. KNIGHT- 6.25/10
Indi Hartwell showed up in the crowd and distracted Lumis by staring deeply into his eyes. Knight used this to gain the advantage, but then gave it right back by telling Indi that she should be with a guy like him and not a guy like Lumis. And I agree. L.A. Knight is surely a jerk, but at least he’s not likely to murder you. In fact, Indi should consider herself lucky that Lumis didn’t murder her last week after he was done doing whatever terrible thing he surely did to her when he carried her backstage.
Knight won cleanly shortly thereafter. All hail the conquering hero who will free us from Dexter Lumis’ bullsh*t ascent up the card.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- meh
Indi hops the guardrail and goes to kiss Lumis, but The Way show up to pll her out of the ring and yank her backstage.

LEON RUFF PROMO- too heelish

BETH PHOENIX CONDUCTS A SIT-DOWN INTERVIEW WITH IO SHIRAI- fine
Io says she’ll get her title back when the timeis right, but she is going to take some time off to heal up first.
Frankie Monet let her dog loose. Beth Phoenix was right to be discomforted by the presence of this wild and smelly animal. Fish>cats>dogs. Frankie pretended to be friendly but said that she would now be the top of the division and that her shoes were nicer. Io cut a promo on her.

BREEZANGO vs. GRIZZLED YOUNG VETERANS- 5.5/10
Breezango dressed up as Queen’s Guards. Zach Gibson came out and called them ignorant. I don’t think it’s ignorant so much as technically… jingoistic, maybe? Anyway, GYV charged the ring, and they brawled to start things off. The ref got control of things and the match was mostly fine. GYV gained controlled after shady tactics and eventually got the win.

THE WAY INTERRUPTS INDI HARTWELL’S ATTEMPT AT AN INTERVIEW- bad
Bronson Reed showed up and criticized The Way for trying to prevent Indi Hartwell from getting the attention of a creeper. Some babyface he is.
He cut a promo on Gargano, saying he still wanted the North American Title. Theory stepped in the way and said that the only way Reed was getting a title shot is if he beat him first. Reed was pleased with this and left. Gargano was not pleased with this because Reed just beat Theory last week. I don’t understand why anyone thinks this is official. The best part of this was Candice LeRae in the background, constantly trying to keep Indi out of range of the microphone.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS CAMERON GRIMES- dumb
Grimes got outbid on something by Ted Dibiase. Who cares?

ZOEY STARK vs. SARRAY- 6.75/10… but as a debut for Sarray, this was not good.
Look… this was a well-worked match, but if you are going to tell me that someone is as good as they are telling me that Sarray is, you can’t have her debut by going 50/50 with one of the most undercard women on the roster (I’d say that Stark is above Robert Stone’s crew and Indi Hartwell, but that’s about it).

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
We got a nice show of respect between the two women. Zoey headed to the back but was jumped by Toni Storm. Sarray came out to chase her off.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS DAKOTA KAI & RAQUWL GONZALEZ- good
Dakota was definitely being more heelish than Raquel, but Raquel also felt more heelish than she did last week.

SEGMENT WITH THE WOMEN BACKSTAGE- terrible
Candice is taking Indi Hartwell… somewhere, in to do… something. This was supposed to get her mind off of Dexter Lumis. She also complained about how they should have been tag champs. They bumped into Ember Moon & Shotzi Blackheart. Candice exchanged words with the babyfaces team we’re theoretically supposed to cheer for I can’t bring my self to do so because they’re so annoying and unlikable.
Candice talked tough, but didn’t notice that Indi wandered off. When Candice realized that Indi was gone, she smacked Ember Moon’s cup out of her hands and tried to run, but Ember and Shotzi grabbed her before she could get to far, dragged her into the room they had just come out of, closed the door, and I assume they beat her up based on the sounds, but we don’t actually know because they did it OFF-SCREEN.

KUSHIDA VIDEO PACKAGE- fine
The veterans and trainers are happy for him.

NXT CRUISERWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: KUSHIDA(c) vs. Oney Lorcan- 7.5/10
This was KUSHIDA doing an open challenge to give someone else the same opportunity he received last week. The match was tremendous for the time it got. KUSHIDA won clean.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Legado Del Fantasma attacked KUSHIDA. MSK came out to make the save. This should set up quite the six-man tag.

MERCEDES MARTINEZ PROMO- AWESOME!
She says Raquel Gonzalez is scared of her. She also implied that Raquel merely does Dakota Kai’s bidding, so she is going to take out the brains behind the brawn.
But if I can pick a nit for a moment… this would have been better if they had just stuck with the one camera angle. Cutting back and forth between the two different angles makes it feel overproduced.

THE WAY BACKSTAGE-
Gargano is yelling at Theory for getting Regal to agree to Bronson Reed getting a title shot if he beats Austin Theory next week. Candice walked in looking all sullen. Indi showed up and said that Regal had given them a tag team match.

EVER-RISE vs. IMPERIUM (Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel) (w/Alexander Wolfe)- squash
Imperium cut a meh in-set promo. They need to not talk about goofy things like “global domination.”
Drake Maverick tried to get at Alexander Wolfe but Killian Dain picked him up and brought him backstage.

KYLE O’REILLY vs. CAMERON GRIMES- 7.75/10
O’Reilly passed Karrion Kross and Scarlett on his way to the ring, and had a stare-down with Kross. Kyle won clean, as he should have.

This was a pretty standard episode of NXT. The strengths and weaknesses are generally the same as they have been over the past few months. Women’s singles division: good. Male main event scene: good. KUSHIDA: good. The Way/Dexter Lumis: bad. Shotzi Blackheart: bad. Clowns: bad.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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Thelone
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Re: BRM Reviews the 4/20/2021 NXT

Post by Thelone » Apr 22nd, '21, 17:15

Big Red Machine wrote: Apr 21st, '21, 19:44 KYLE O’REILLY PROMO- meh
He is putting Adam Cole behind him. I thought the beginning of this (everything before he started talking about having learned to develop a “killer instinct”) was pretty rough. The stuff after that was a little better, but not much. This was a reminder of why people were skeptical of Kyle’s ability to play a top babyface in a promo-centric promotion.
Oh how things... well, don't change it seems like. O'Reilly is incredibly bland as a babyface, can't convey being a tough badass heel, and his in-ring style wouldn't match a more chickenshit heel that I feel would be the best for him. At least they didn't make him a teacher's pet yet I suppose.
ZOEY STARK vs. SARRAY- 6.75/10… but as a debut for Sarray, this was not good.
Look… this was a well-worked match, but if you are going to tell me that someone is as good as they are telling me that Sarray is, you can’t have her debut by going 50/50 with one of the most undercard women on the roster (I’d say that Stark is above Robert Stone’s crew and Indi Hartwell, but that’s about it).
Hunter sure loves his tall, buff (and mostly blonde) women. She's been around for barely six months and is getting... well I wouldn't say a push, but ample TV time at least.
Imperium cut a meh in-set promo. They need to not talk about goofy things like “global domination.”
Are you saying that they shouldn't have the Axis Imperium talk about world domination?

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