BRM Reviews the 5/18/2021 NXT

[Big Red Machine]

ZOEY STARK vs. TONI STORM- 6.75/10
This was very good, but I think it would have served the promotion a little better if Stark had gotten more offense in instead of it being the traditional “heel dominates until the babyface starts the comeback” formula. Establishing that Stark can take a lot of punishment and still keep going is one thing, but we’ve already done that. The next step for Stark is showing that she can take it to someone like Toni Storm offensively. Stark did get to kick out of the Strong Zero, but then Toni hit her with some sort of ridiculous head-drop move for the finish. I rewound it several times and can’t figure out how to describe it. It was like a Saka-Otoshi that suddenly turned into a Crucifix Driver. It looked pretty darn cool.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- meh
Franky Monet came out to steal Toni Storm’s moment.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL’S INTERVIEW WITHLEGADO DEL FANTASMA IS INTERRUPTED BY TIMOTHY THATCHER & TOMMASO CIAMPA- bad
Escobar is MIA. Mendoza and Wilde told McKenzie not to worry about him. Wilde said that they deserve a title shot for beating MSK. Thatcher and Ciampa showed up and said that they neither LDF nor MSK had beaten them. Thatcher said something in Spanish that I think didn’t actually make sense but Ciampa insisted that it did. Why are we turning the guys who are supposed to be the mean, hard-nosed old-school wrestlers (and who have actively complained about the others in the locker room) into comedic figures?

EARLIER TODAY, CAMERON GRIMES HAD A CONFRONTATION WITH JAKE ATLAS WHEN HE ARRIVED AT THE ARENA- meh

EARLIER TODAY, CANDICE LERAE & INDI HARTWELL GO TO THE SPA TO CELEBRATE WINNING THE NXT WOMEN’S TAG TEAM TITLES- bad
On the bright side, Indi has finally realized that Dexter Lumis is a creeper and doesn’t like him anymore. Dexter heard this because he can now magically transform into people or switch places with them or something, so he took the place of the person giving Indi her face massage or whatever. So yeah. More pointless magic. And does anyone really feel sorry for Dexter Lumis? Really?


PRIME TARGET: BALOR VS. KROSS II- fine
Unlike previous Prime Targets, this didn’t go forever, so that was good. They had Heyman but the match over as “too close to call.”

CAMERON GRIMES vs. JAKE ATLAS- 4/10
Before the match, Grimes tried to embarrass Ted Dibiase by showing a video package of him getting humiliated, but the fans responded to this by chanting for Dibiase because… um… the script told them to. The match went exactly how you would expect it to, which was good action that was hard to get into because we all knew what the finish was going to be: Dibiase shows up to distracted Grimes when Grimes has the match won.
After the match, Grimes tried to attack Atlas but got punched in the face and thought better of it. He went after Dibiase after the match but Dibiase laughed at him from inside the limo and then left, leaving Grimes screaming into the night in the parking lot. This just made Grimes look like even more of a clown.

BRONSON REED PROMO- very good
He told us what winning the North American Title tonight would mean to him.

SOME GUY’S SIT-DOWN INTERVIEW WITH PETE DUNNE- bad
He came off like the world’s most bland babyface when he’s supposed to be a heel, and he talked about stuff that was way too inside.

KILLAN DAIN (w/Drake Maverick) vs. ALEXANDER WOLFE (w/Imperium)-no rating, bad segment
I’m sorry, but whole storyline just isn’t working for me. Barthel gave Wolfe the chair. He didn’t seem to want to use it, but then tried to do so right on front of the referee. Dain hit him with a running crossbody before he could get a chairshot off, and got the pin off of that. Vic and Beth tried to sell me that it was Wolfe’s hesitance that stopped him from being able to get away with the chairshot, but I am fully in agreement with Wade Barrett: The referee was on top of things the whole time. The babyfaces celebrated and left. Then Imperium posed as if they had accomplished something.
This posing was apparently to throw Wolfe off guard, as the others attacked him and kicked him out of the group. I don’t see this being good for either Wolfe or the Wolfe-less Imperium in the long or even medium run.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS DAKOTA KAI & RAQUEL GONALZEZ- not good
They talk about some angle from Twitter that I didn’t see and they didn’t show a replay of, so I’m not really sure what they’re talking about. The gist of it is that Dakota and Raquel seem to disagree on whether Mercedes Martinez deserves respect. They said it’s okay for friends to disagree.
They say they want to regain the NXT Women’s Tag Team Titles, which brings Ever-Rise into the picture for some reason. They say that they shouldn’t go after the belts because Raquel is already a champion. Ever-Rise are clowns. They point out that Dakota is not a champion but Raquel is. They plug their dumb internet show that the real stars told us that they don’t watch. They taunt Raquel into taking a swing at one of them, so she knocks the moron out with a slap. At least one of these clowns got what he deserved, but I have to ask what the purpose of this was? Why are these guys even on this show?

TIMOTHY THATCHER & TOMMASO CIAMPA vs. LEGADO DEL FANTASMA (Raul Mendoza & Joaquin Wilde)- 7/10
This was a great action-match with an interference finish (in this case, Grizzled Young Veterans interfered to help LDF).

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS BOBBY FISH- great!
Fish clarifies that he saved Kyle O’Reilly last week not because of Kyle but because he wants revenge on Pete Dunne and friends for injuring him during War Games. He wants a match against Pete Dunne next week.

MORE OF CANDICE & INDI GETTING A MASSAGE EARLIER- dumb
Their credit card was declined because of an unpaid expense. Candice and Indi assumed that this was Ausitn Theory charging for pizzas on the card. Austin Theory is a f*cking GROWN ADULT! He should not be using Candice LeRae’s credit card!
It turns out that the unpaid expense was from a florist three weeks ago… and it turns out that Candice LeRae was the one who ordered the flowers to Ember and Shotzi with the cards saying that they were from Dexter Lumis. Are you telling me that Candice came up with this genius plan… and then f*cking FORGOT TO PAY FOR THE FLOWERS? And how does anyone even have an unpaid expense nowadays? Doesn’t she use autopay like everyone else?
So yeah. Candice is dumb, and Indi is back in love with the creeper. This is supposed to be a good thing?

JOHNNY GARGANO PROMO- fine

SARRAY vs. ALIYAH (w/Robert Stone Brand)- 4.5/10
Sarray won clean. Stone was dressed in a completely ridiculous manner.

SHOTZI BLACKHEART & EMBER MOON PROMO- terrible
Stupid, empty catchphrases coming from people who sound like they’re trying to play tough on TV as opposed to actually being tough.

ARIYA DAIVARI & TONY NESE vs. HIT ROW (Ashantee Adonis & Top Dolla) (w/B-Fab & Isaiah Scott)- squash

HIT ROW PROMO- They’ve got the delivery down, but verbiage from everyone but Scott was cringeworthy. Scott wants the winner of the main event, whoever that might be.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS WILLIAM REGAL- good
Legado del Fantasma are now the #1 contenders. We’re getting Kai & Gonazlez vs. Team Insufferable next week. Regal wants to see people step up in the Cruiserweight and women’s singles divisions.

Ted Dibiase and Cameron Grimes are going to talk at each other next week. Snore.

STEEL CAGE MATCH FOR THE NXT NORTH AMERICAN TITLE: Johnny Gargano(c) (w/Austin Theory) vs. Bronson Reed- 7.5/10
Beth Phoenix says that Regal is punishing Gargano because he “broke his favorite pencil.” We’re supposed to believe that this grown adult has a “favorite pencil” that he let an angry man take out of his hands. So in Beth’s mind, Regal is both childish and stupid. Why did she say this?
You know what? We’re past that with her. The real question with Beth Phoenix is
why does she still have a job?”
When she’s not actively encouraging Indi Hartwell to get with a creeper and excusing f*cking ABDUCTIONS, she’s just saying words. They’re all words that make sense in the situation, but she seems to have no idea how to use any of them in an intelligent manner. As Reed was walking to the ring, she told us that he “has determination on his heart and in his mind.” The announcers on the main roster are bad because they’re being so controlled and aren’t allowed to talk natural or say intelligent things. Someone like Matt Striker is bad because he just can’t help himself but try to sound smart and try to show you how much a wrestling fan he is that he overdoes it and winds up saying ridiculous things. Kevin Kelly is a bad announcer because he’s a horrendous hypocrite. But at least I don’t doubt that any of them could string an intelligent sentence together. Beth on the other hand…
Is there really no other woman that they could put in this role? Really?

Anyway, the match was really great, with lots of big bumps and making good use of the size differential between them, but I just can’t get over the fact that they kept having Theory get involved. The whole point of the cage is to prevent that! I don’t care that Reed eventually overcame the odds and won. The whole point of the cage is that there aren’t supposed to be odds for him to overcome! The gimmick is dead!
On the bright side, Reed’s win means that the champion will no longer be a clown.


This was a meh episode of NXT. There wasn’t enough bad stuff on here for me to call it bad, but there was certainly enough to drag the good and great stuff down.