BRM Reviews the 8/5/2020 NXT

[Big Red Machine]

#1 CONTENDERSHIP MATCH: Rhea Ripley vs. Dakota Kai- 6.5/10
This was good, but I thought it could have been a lot better if it was more even. Especially with an interference finish, I thought that Rhea taking so much of the match undermined Dakota as a threat going into her title match.
The aforementioned interference was by Mercedes Martinez, who also attacked Rhea after the match. There are one of two ways I think this could go. The first one is essentially “now that she is aligned with Stone, she is a heel, so she is getting revenge for him.” This would be a mistake, as it would destroy the necessary dynamic to make her alliance with Robert Stone more than just a generic pairing.
The other way it could be going- and the far better way- is if Stone convinced her to attack Rhea because she needs to get in the big dog’s face to make a name for herself… and the fact that it allows Stone to get revenge on someone who assaulted and humiliated him is just a happy bonus for Stone. Or so he’ll claim publicly, at least.
I was expecting a similar finish to this, but with Raquel Gonzalez doing the run-in, giving Dakota the win while protecting Rhea and propelling her into a feud with someone she can beat as she climbs her way back up to a title shot against Io at the TakeOver after TakeOver: XXX.

BRONSON REED vs. SHANE THORNE- 3.5/10
A fine showcase win over a guy barely over jobber level for Reed.

BREEZANGO ARE JUMPED BY LEGADO DEL FANTASMA IN THE PARKING LOT- They abduct Fandango. I’m curious o see where this goes, as these two units are SOOOO opposite.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL ASKS THE ROBERT STONE BRAND WHY MERCEDES MARTINEZ ATTACKED RHEA RIPLEY EARLIER- crap. They’re going the bad way with this.

NXT NORTH AMERICAN TITLE LADDER MATCH QUALIFIER: Oney Lorcan vs. Ridge Holland vs. Damian Priest- 7/10
Lots of great, hard-hitting action here. Priest wound up with this HUGE lump on the side of his face.

CAMERON GRIMES vs. KEITH LEE- 5.5/10
Once again, they went too long with the shine, and Grimes came across as a good because of it. The idea here was supposed to be that Lee was taking out his aggression from the last few weeks of Karrion Kross incidents on Grimes, but I didn’t quite see it that way.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Karrion Kross has beaten up a whole bunch of other people backstage and demands that Lee get Regal to book a title match because Lee is the one “who can make things happen.”

REGAL MAKES AN ANNOUNCEMENT- bad
Lumis suffered an ankle injury last week and won’t be back in time for TakeOver, so he’s out of the ladder match. Gargano and Balor- the two guys who lost their qualifiers but weren’t pinned- complained about it to Regal, and Regal agrees that they have a valid complaint, so the final two spots will be filled by the winners of two singles matches, which will feature “the four men who weren’t pinned or submitted” in their qualifiers. If Regal thinks it’s a valid complaint that a wrestler doesn’t get to go to the ladder match even though he wasn’t pinned or submitted in his qualifier, why did he book these as Triple Threat matches in the first place? If you have a problem with someone not moving on to the next round if they aren’t pinned or submitted, then you either shouldn’t be booking three-way qualifiers, or you should have made them elimination matches!
Next week’s qualifier will be Cameron Grimes vs. KUSHIDA vs. a mystery man.

LEGADO DEL PHANTASMA DRAGS FANDANGO INTO THE ARENA- GREAT!
Santos Escobar cuts a great promo on Breezango for mocking Lucha Libre by dressing up as luchadors for their entrance at the Great American Bash. He orders his crew to put another beating on Fandango but Breeze comes out to try to make the save. He gets overwhelmed and laid out as well. Escobar then warned Isaiah Scott or anyone else who disrespects him that this will be their future. This has been the best thing on the show so far by miles.

DAMIAN PRIEST INTERVIEW & SEGMENT WITH BRONSON REED- very good
Priest cut a good promo. Bronson Reed interrupted this interview in the parking lot to congratulate Priest on his victory. Priest went over to him and told him that the result at TakeOver would not be a fluke like Reed’s other victory was. They traded barbs, and eventually agreed to have a singles match at some point.

TEGAN NOX vs. INDI HARTWELL- 3.5/10
Pat McAfee replaced Mauro on commentary for this match. McAfee’s gimmick appears to be annoying suck-up. Tegan won clean, so Hartwell doesn’t follow her victory over Shotzi up with another one.

Signed for next week is Reed vs. Priest, as well as Karrion Kross vs. Danny Burch, who was apparently one of the guys that Karrion Kross beat up.

NXT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Imperium (Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel)(c) vs. Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly) (w/Adam Cole & Roderick Strong)- 6/10
The match was pretty clearly not going to be too much because it was really just a backdrop for the angle with Cole and McAfee. Usually in this situation I’d say that in that case this shouldn’t have been given the main event spot, but looking at everything else that was booked and could have possibly been put in this spot (the #1 contendership match, Lee vs. Grimes, the ladder match qualifier) all had something that needed to be followed up with in a segment or an announcement on this week’s show so they couldn’t be the last thing on the show. Throw in the fact that this match was the only title match, and I’m fine with this having gone on last.
As for the angle itself, I thought it was TREMENDOUS. McAfee played his role PERFECTLY, being annoying, but in that “I’m just playing around”/not taking things seriously way rather than the over the top crap we get from people (and especially heels) on commentary on the main roster. He also built things up well, and the announcers did a tremendous job in their rolls playing off of that. Tom was the host who was trying to engage McAfee but rein him in, and eventually getting exasperated and just bluntly telling him “Adam Cole is standing twenty feet away. He can hear everything you’re saying.” Beth was trying to be non-confrontational, but eventually got so annoyed by McAfee that she left the commentary booth. Mauro did his usual play-by-play role and mostly ignored McAfee, which made it all the more powerful when he finally did tell him off after Beth left.
Cole eventually got fed up, went over to McAfee and yelled at him. Many barbs were exchanged (and, of course, Imperium took at advantage of UE being distracted by this to get the win. Hunter, HBK, and many referees poured out of the back to get between them and seemingly managed to de-escalate things, but then McAfee turned around and insulted Cole’s height and called him a bitch. Cole tried to dive over the announcers’ table at him but Shawn and various others held onto Cole so he wound up horizontal, half hanging off the table while they tried to pull him back… leaving him in the perfect spot for McAfee to run up and give him a punt in the head, knocking him out. This ROCKED.


This was an okay show from NXT, saved from being bad by the angle at the end. Nothing was too bad here, but with one or two exceptions, nothing was good, either. I definitely wish I had chosen to watch AEW first this week. We’ll see if I regret making that statement after watching Dynamite tomorrow.

[NWK2000]

Props to Cole for selling McAfee's kick like he just got hit by a car. One of the best sell jobs I've ever seen.

[Serujuunin]

Props to Cole for selling McAfee's kick like he just got hit by a car. One of the best sell jobs I've ever seen.

Channeling his inner Ricochet and selling like he's made of playdoh.