BRM Reviews the 4/27/2021 NXT (bad, despite an awesome main event)

[Big Red Machine]

MERCEDES MARTINEZ vs. DAKOTA KAI (w/Raquel Gonzalez)- 6.5/10
This was a really good match that ended with a frustrating DQ. If you’re going to do the run-in DQ, then just go seven minutes, not twelve, okay?
The person who ran in here was Raquel, which I was not happy about. Yes, Raquel is going to be larger than most of the women she will face and that will make you more inclined to book her as the heel, but that should not be the deciding factor. There is something about Raquel Gonzalez that makes her come off as very likable. She can still be a gruff monster who mostly wrestles babyfaces, but trying to make her actively unlikable is swimming upstream (and especially against Mercedes, who is we have seen is a total mercenary with no loyalty other than to her own bank account).

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Gonzalez threw Mercedes into a whole bunch of walls and thins while yelling at her. It was certainly brutal.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS TEAM ANNOYING- bad
They are wrestling the Robert Stone Brand yet again this week for reasons that I don’t understand. They were annoying in trying to build up their title defense for next week against The Way. And that’s coming from someone who usually enjoys dumb wordplay.
Someone showed up with a delivery of flowers from both of them. Frankie Monet showed up and read the card. The flowers are from Dexter Lumis. Ember and Shotzi each insisted that Dexter was into the other. Maybe I’ll get lucky and Dexter will kidnap Shotzi and not being in proximity to Shotzi will allow me to enjoy Ember Moon again.

CAMERON GRIMES IS A LOUD, OBNOXIOUS CLOWN IN A JEWLER’S SHOP- This ended in a “to be continued.” Hopefully that means on Main Event and not later on in this show.

GRIZZLED YOUNG VETERANS PROMO- not good
They point out that MSK- who are in a six-man tag in the main event- are once again not wrestling in a straight-up tag team match. Zack Gibson was great.
Tommaso Ciampa and Timothy Thatcher interrupted them. The announcers noted that this was the first time we’d seen Thatcher in a long time. I guess everyone owes Imperium an apology, as they apparently did not kidnap or assault him. Ciampa said that everyone wanted a title shot. Thatcher began singing the “shoes off if you hate Gibson” diddy that the British fans do and he was very annoying. Ciampa took his shoe off, and then hit Gibson with it, completely unprovoked, like a total heel. The supposed babyfaces then beat Drake down, too, until the heels ran off. What a bunch of assholes.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS DRAKE MAVERICK & KILLIAN DAIN- bad
Maverick is paranoid that Dain will turn on him tonight, and I have no idea why. Dain told him to have faith.

XIA LI SPEAKS CHINESE WHILE HERS AND BOA’S DISEMBODIED HEADS FLOAT ON A SEA OF DARKNESS- I have no idea what this was.

ISAIAH “SWERVE” SCOTT PROMO- great!
He correctly notes that Leon Ruff’s attack on him was cowardly, but because he’s a heel, he’s actually proud of Leon Ruff for doing it. He challenges Ruff to a Falls Count Anywhere match for next week (which has apparently already been made official, which is fine because this was clearly pre-taped and edited together by Swerve in his studio).

TONI STORM PROMO- excellent heel stuff dismissively threatening Zoe Stark

TONI STORM vs. ZAYDA RAMIER- no rating, meh segment
Storm dominated Ramier until Stark came out and Toni allowed herself to be distracted, allowing Ramier to shove her off top rope and then hit a Shooting Star Press for the win (though unfortunately the referee started counting before she was actually pinning Toni). I guess there is a direction they could take this with Toni being driven to more desperate and violent acts for her losses, but I fee like they’ve damaged enough people recently with unnecessary losses (Gargano and Escobar in particular) or have just done enough bad finishes lately that I’d have much rather just seen Toni win a squash. Toni is going to have to do something that feels very big in order to win me over for this angle.

LEGADO DEL FANTASMA PROMO- fine
Escobar wants his title back.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS L.A. KNIGHT- fine

EVER-RISE SHOW UP TO BOTHER MCKENZIE AFTER KNIGHT LEAVES- whatever
They plugged their show on social media or YouTube or whatever.

IF BRONSON REED WINS, HE GETS A SHOT AT THE NXT NORTH AMERICAN TITLE: Bronson Reed vs. Austin Theory (w/The Way)- 6.25/10
Before the match, they showed us Reed walking past and glaring at Johnny and Candice at Gorilla. After he left, Theory came by and was a goof. This was counterproductive.
Indi Hartwell is distraught that Dexter Lumis sent flowers to someone else.
The referee absolutely should not have allowed Gargano to help Theory up, for the same reason that Luchasaurus helping Jungle Boy into the ring last week on Dynamite should have been a DQ. Helping your ally is still interfering in the match, just as much as hurting your enemy is.
Stuff happened. Reed is large. Dexter Lumis came down to ringside to stalk Indi. She initially didn’t want to talk to him and got into the ring to get away from him, but then started at him when he got up onto the apron. He pushed her out of the way of an on-coming Austin Theory and got bumped. Reed took out Gargano, then took Theory out with a Tsunami, so we’re getting Gargano vs. Reed again. That’s three matches and zero clean finishes. The Lumis/Indi thing would have worked if not one for the one major flaw in this whole story, which is that HE’S A F*CKING KIDNAPPING CREEPER SO WHY IN THE HELL WOULD WE WANT INDI (OR ANYONE ELSE, FOR THAT MATTER) TO BE WITH HIM?!

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS MSK & KUSHIDA- good
MSK were not annoying for possibly the first time since they debuted (although they got close at the end). They explain that they saved KUSHIDA last week because he has helped them transition to NXT backstage. If that’s going to be part of the story, maybe you should actually put that on TV once or twice before you make it relevant?

THE WAY BACKSTAGE- meh
Gargano is angry at Theory for losing, but then blames it on Lumis. Candice then instead blames it on Shotzi Blackheart & Ember Moon, saying that they are trying to steal Dexter from Indi in an effort to get her angry and motivated for next week’s match. They tell her to take care of her business, and she goes off, with Candice following.

PICTURES OF FINN BALOR FROM HIS INSTAGRAM- bad
I appreciate them telling us why he hasn’t been on TV (he’s on vacation), but I don’t need to see his f*cking vacation pictures, especially the one of him standing next to some statue (okay, technically it’s a bust, but if I said that you’d think I was talking about the picture of him getting the kiss from the woman in the bikini) in his Bermuda shorts, looking like a complete and total tourist. That’s the opposite of being a star.

DRAKE MAVERICK & KILLIAN DAIN vs. IMPERIUM (Fabian Aicher & Marcel Barthel) (w/Alexander Wolfe)- 6.75/10
Credit where it’s due: They played off the earlier promo very well, building up to the big spot with Maverick needing to tag Dain but Dain wasn’t there (having been yanked off the apron moments before), but then having him show up for the big save to prove his loyalty to Maverick moments later. Then they turned things on their heads by having Barthel order Wolfe to hit Dain with a chair on the outside but Wolfe refused. He’s still clearly with Imperium, as he would later get in Dain’s way, allowing Barthel to slip free and run him into the stairs, taking him out of the equation, but it’s at least something to keep an eye on within Imperium, even if the recruitment of Dain feels highly unlikely.

PETE DUNNE PROMO- fine
He still wants a title shot.

MORE DUMB SH*T WITH CAMERON GRIMES- dumb
The guy sitting in the back of the store with a newspaper blocking his face the whole time was Ted DiBiase, who shows that he has an even nice watch than Grimes. Then he laughed and left. Does Ted DiBiase not have anything better to do all day than sit around in a jewelry store and read the newspaper? And where is this even going? Are we going to get a match between Cameron Grimes and 2021 Ted DiBiase?

EMBER MOON & SHOTZI BLACKHEART vs. ROBERT STONE BRAND (w/Robert Stone)- no rating, fine segment
Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell attacked the “babyfaces” before the match and rubbed their faces in cupcakes and fruit baskets and so forth. Stone, Aliyah, and Kamea jumped around with the belts as if they had won the titles.

SOME GUY FROM ESPN DOES A SIT-DOWN INTERVIEW WITH ADAM COLE- meh
He said that people were crazy if they thought that Kyle O’Reilly could replace him and hinted that he would go after Karrion Kross and that he thought that Kross’ shoulder could be a chronic weakness. At the end of this, in one of those stupidly artsy things that would be fine if it didn’t come across as so staged, we cut from directly seeing the interview to seeing it on a TV, and then were shown (from several angles) that Kyle O’Reilly was sitting alone in a dark room and watching it.

Next week’s women’s tag title match has been made a Street Fight due to the earlier attack. That’s two gimmick matches for next week (Scott vs. Ruff in a Falls Count Anywhere match being the other).

MSK & KUSHIDA vs. LEGADO DEL FANTASMA- 8.25/10
Tremendous action. That segment with Wes Lee all alone was fantastic.


Even with an awesome main event, this was a bad show. Too much goofy crap and not enough clean finishes.