BRM Reviews the 5/25/2021 NXT (great!)

[Big Red Machine]

EMBER MOON & SHOTZI BLACKHEART vs. DAKOTA KAI & RAQUEL GONZALEZ- 6.5/10
I liked that early on, they shined up the heel champ instead of the babyfaces. She’s the champ and she should be portrayed as dominant. The match was good, with Team Insufferable winning clean. More than the clean win, the thing that stuck out to me the most was Ember countering the Towerbomb into a stunner.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Raquel Gonzalez attacked the “babyfaces” after the match. She beat up Shozi while Dakota made Ember watch. This was the closest I have come to feeling any sort of sympathy for Shotzi since early in her EVOLVE run, so I guess that makes this segment a success.

TIMOTHY THATCHER & TOMMASO CIAMPA PROMO- mixed
This started off strong and I thought Ciampa in particular was good throughout, but the ending killed it for me. Having Thatcher wait so long before his outburst made it feel less like genuine emotion and more like he saw his buddy Ciampa throw a chair, so he decided to throw a chair and be threatening, too.

PETE DUNNE vs. BOBBY FISH- 6.5/10
This was the first eight and a half minutes of a twenty-minute classic, and then they just cut to the finish. Surely they could have found more than just 8:40 for these guys!
Dunne won clean. I like heels winning clean, but for Fish to both lose cleanly and in such a relatively short amount of time in his first match back from injury felt like a mistake.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
Oney Lorcan, who had wandered to ringside during the match, attacked Fish. I like that they had this start while they showing a replay. Things like that make the show feel more spontaneous. Lorcan continued Dunne’s work on Fish’s arm, basically draping it over the edge of the apron and then standing on it. That’s a new one to me.

They showed a video package recapping Bronson Reed winning the North American Title last week, including showing some press clippings. Unlike when this happens on the main roster, I was fine with this because the focus was on the wrestler achieving success. When the main roster does this, either the focus is on something the company did/will do, and thus it comes off as them patting themselves on the back, or it’s them passing off what is clearly leaked info as actual news in an attempt to make themselves look important, like with the Hall of Fame announcements being “broken” by various media outlets and WWE putting it over on their TV in those words.

MERCEDES MARTINEZ PROMO- good
Yes, she didn’t win the title last week, but tonight she will start her road back to another title shot.
After she walked away, Boa poked his head into a doorway.

HIT ROW PROMO- GREAT!

MERCEDES MARTINEZ vs. ZAYDA RAMIER- 2/10
If you’re trying to let Ramier look strong in defeat, getting a bunch of offense in doesn’t do it if the match only goes three minutes. It just means that it takes less than three minutes of offense to put her down.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- more f*cking magic
Xia Li’s music and lighting played before it switched to Mercedes’, and when she looked down, she had magically gotten their Dark Mark on her hand.

“MILLION DOLLAR FACE-OFF”- I liked this a lot, but probably not in the way WWE wants.
Grimes told Dibiase that Dibiase was his hero and that Dibiase had taught him that if he had money he could treat people like sh*t. Dibiase said he had done what he had done to try to help Grimes learn to get focused because he is looking for someone to carry on his legacy (and somewhere, in a lonely corner, Ted Dibiase Jr. is watching this and crying). L.A. Knight comes out and says that Dibiase should ally with him. Grimes tell Knight to leave or else… but while doing this, dumbf*ck Grimes turns his back Knight, who grabs him, spins him around, and lays him out with his finisher. Dibiase laughs, and he and Knight leave together.
I liked this because I enjoyed seeing the entertaining braggart punk out the obnoxious clown. The problem is that I think the intent of this segment was to make me feel sorry for Grimes and to turn him babyface. And this segment completely failed at that because it’s really hard to feel someone who starts this segment out by proudly declaring that his M.O. is that he treats people like sh*t because he knows that they will still tolerate him because he has money.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL TRIES TO INTERVIEW INDI HARTWELL WHILE SHE RUNS AROUND THE BACKSTAGE AREA LOOKING FOR DEXTER LUMIS- bad
She runs into Ever-Rise who were loud and annoying clowns. I hope they team up with Cameron Grimes and go straight to the moon, where I will never have to see or hear them again. Drake Maverick shows up and scolds them for being annoying. He then points Indi the last place he saw Dexter Lumis… which just so happens to be that room right over there! Said room is some sort of walk-in closet or something that I guess everyone was just cool with Dexter taking over. He has drawn lots of pictures of broken hearts and himself being stabbed through the heart or a heart being ripped out and thrown in the trash, etc. You get the picture. This segment…
Look: This segment did a good job of expressing what the story wanted to express, but like the previous segment failed at making me feel sorry for Grimes because the way his character has been presented made me not want to see the outcome that NXT’s story presumes I want to see, this segment (and this entire storyline) will always fail for me because the way Dexter Lumis’ character has been presented (i.e. is a creepy, kidnapping stalker) has made me not want to see the end result that the story presumes I want to see, which is Dexter and Indi getting together. And if you think I’m exaggerating, just look at last week’s segment! He followed her to a spa with the intention of impersonating her masseuse so that he could touch her without her permission! Indi Hartwell is a heel and thus I’m not supposed to like her, but that doesn’t mean I want to see her get murdered, and that’s what I’m worried will happen to her if she lets her guard down around Lumis.

FRANKY MONET vs. CORA JADE- meh squash
This went longer than it needed to. There was no reason for Jade to get any offense in.

GRIZZLED YOUNG VETERANS PROMO- very good
They say they’re done with Ciampa and Thatcher, but they are certainly not done with MSK. They’re coming for whoever wins next week’s tag title match.

CLIPS OF BRONSON REED DOING AUSSIE MEDIA- fine

IMPERIUM VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- great
WALTER says that Alexander Wolf was kicked out of the group because he failed, and failure will no longer be tolerated. He then scolded Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel for losing the NXT Tag Team Titles to “showmen” like Fandango… happened nine months ago, but better late than never, I guess.

BRONSON REED PROMO & ENSUING SEGMENT- good
Reed came out and cut a basic babyface promo about working hard. Legado del Fantasma came out, and Santos Escobar cut the usual rich, entitled second-generation wrestler heel promo. His promo was also great, aside from Joaquin Wilde’s stupid comedic interlude. LDF surrounded Reed, but MSK came out to back him up and the babyfaces sent the heels packing.

WILLIAM REGAL ANNOUNCES A #1 CONTENDERSHIP MATCH FOR NEXT WEEK- We’re getting Dunne vs. O’Reilly vs. Gargano, with the winner getting the title shot at TakeOver: In Your House 2021.

NXT TITLE MATCH: Karrion Kross(c) (w/Scarlett) vs. Finn Balor- 8.5/10
An awesome hard-hitting match with Balor having to use his speed overcome Kross’ power, but not in the usual speed vs. power way. It was more like Balor had to strike hard and fast and always keep the pressure on when he had the chance. Balor also worked the mid-section quite a bit to soften it up for the Coup de Grace. Kross won clean, cementing himself as the new top guy.

This was a GREAT episode of NXT, delivering some big moments while setting up for a big show next week as well.

[NWK2000]

“MILLION DOLLAR FACE-OFF”- I liked this a lot, but probably not in the way WWE wants.
Grimes told Dibiase that Dibiase was his hero and that Dibiase had taught him that if he had money he could treat people like sh*t. Dibiase said he had done what he had done to try to help Grimes learn to get focused because he is looking for someone to carry on his legacy (and somewhere, in a lonely corner, Ted Dibiase Jr. is watching this and crying). L.A. Knight comes out and says that Dibiase should ally with him. Grimes tell Knight to leave or else… but while doing this, dumbf*ck Grimes turns his back Knight, who grabs him, spins him around, and lays him out with his finisher. Dibiase laughs, and he and Knight leave together.
I liked this because I enjoyed seeing the entertaining braggart punk out the obnoxious clown. The problem is that I think the intent of this segment was to make me feel sorry for Grimes and to turn him babyface. And this segment completely failed at that because it’s really hard to feel someone who starts this segment out by proudly declaring that his M.O. is that he treats people like sh*t because he knows that they will still tolerate him because he has money.

Surely, Grimes isn't the babyface in this. Ted Dibiase (and LA Knight by extension I guess) is the Bugs Bunny to Cameron's Daffy Duck, and certainly Daffy isn't the babyface in the old "Rabbit Season" sketch.

[Big Red Machine]

“MILLION DOLLAR FACE-OFF”- I liked this a lot, but probably not in the way WWE wants.
Grimes told Dibiase that Dibiase was his hero and that Dibiase had taught him that if he had money he could treat people like sh*t. Dibiase said he had done what he had done to try to help Grimes learn to get focused because he is looking for someone to carry on his legacy (and somewhere, in a lonely corner, Ted Dibiase Jr. is watching this and crying). L.A. Knight comes out and says that Dibiase should ally with him. Grimes tell Knight to leave or else… but while doing this, dumbf*ck Grimes turns his back Knight, who grabs him, spins him around, and lays him out with his finisher. Dibiase laughs, and he and Knight leave together.
I liked this because I enjoyed seeing the entertaining braggart punk out the obnoxious clown. The problem is that I think the intent of this segment was to make me feel sorry for Grimes and to turn him babyface. And this segment completely failed at that because it’s really hard to feel someone who starts this segment out by proudly declaring that his M.O. is that he treats people like sh*t because he knows that they will still tolerate him because he has money.

Surely, Grimes isn't the babyface in this. Ted Dibiase (and LA Knight by extension I guess) is the Bugs Bunny to Cameron's Daffy Duck, and certainly Daffy isn't the babyface in the old "Rabbit Season" sketch.

Bugs Bunny doesn't f*ck with people who don't f*ck with him first.
Dibiase had no reason to go around tormenting Grimes. I suppose you could claim that he was trying to help Grimes focus in the ring like Ted claimed, but if that's what he was doing, it would have made a lot more sense to just say something to the dude instead of continuously tormenting him. Before Ted said what he said, we had no indication that Grimes needed any help focusing in the ring. None of his losses before Ted showed up had anything to do with lack of focus. There was the one distraction loss to Atlas that Ted caused, but by that point, Ted had already established himself as Grimes' enemy by dicking with him for seemingly no reason every week for a month.
But even if you by this specious argument as to how Ted could be a babyface, he loses that babyface status the moment he decides to side with L.A. Knight, who has been portrayed as nothing but an arrogant jerk for his entire NXT tenure.

[NWK2000]

Dibiase had no reason to go around tormenting Grimes. I suppose you could claim that he was trying to help Grimes focus in the ring like Ted claimed, but if that's what he was doing, it would have made a lot more sense to just say something to the dude instead of continuously tormenting him. Before Ted said what he said, we had no indication that Grimes needed any help focusing in the ring. None of his losses before Ted showed up had anything to do with lack of focus. There was the one distraction loss to Atlas that Ted caused, but by that point, Ted had already established himself as Grimes' enemy by dicking with him for seemingly no reason every week for a month.
But even if you by this specious argument as to how Ted could be a babyface, he loses that babyface status the moment he decides to side with L.A. Knight, who has been portrayed as nothing but an arrogant jerk for his entire NXT tenure.

I agree. Ted's catchphrase is literally "Everybody has a price for the Million Dollar Man," he's so cartoonishly villainous and outfront about f*cking with people that I don't believe he would do this Mr.Miyagi type teaching you the lesson roundaboutly stuff. I just refuse to accept that Grimes is the babyface because he's such a doofus.

[Big Red Machine]

Dibiase had no reason to go around tormenting Grimes. I suppose you could claim that he was trying to help Grimes focus in the ring like Ted claimed, but if that's what he was doing, it would have made a lot more sense to just say something to the dude instead of continuously tormenting him. Before Ted said what he said, we had no indication that Grimes needed any help focusing in the ring. None of his losses before Ted showed up had anything to do with lack of focus. There was the one distraction loss to Atlas that Ted caused, but by that point, Ted had already established himself as Grimes' enemy by dicking with him for seemingly no reason every week for a month.
But even if you by this specious argument as to how Ted could be a babyface, he loses that babyface status the moment he decides to side with L.A. Knight, who has been portrayed as nothing but an arrogant jerk for his entire NXT tenure.

I agree. Ted's catchphrase is literally "Everybody has a price for the Million Dollar Man," he's so cartoonishly villainous and outfront about f*cking with people that I don't believe he would do this Mr.Miyagi type teaching you the lesson roundaboutly stuff. I just refuse to accept that Grimes is the babyface because he's such a doofus.

Which is my point. It's heel vs. heel. Bugs Bunny is a babyface, therefore, Ted is not Bugs Bunny.