BRM Reviews the 6/1/2021 NXT (ADAM COLE CUTS A PROMO OF DECADE CANDIDATE!)

[Big Red Machine]

TRIPLE THREAT MATCH WITH ONEY LORCAN & AUSTIN THEORY BARRED FROM RINGSIDE FOR AN NXT TITLE SHOT AT TAKEOVER: IN YOUR HOUSE 2021: Pete Dunne vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Kyle O’Reilly- 7.5/10
This was a great three-way where they always made sure that it felt like a three-way rather than two guys wrestling while the other hid/sold on the outside. Then Ada Cole ruined it all by killing everyone with a chair and attacking the referee. William Regal and security came out and Cole was removed from the building

EMBER MOON CALLS OUT RAQUEL GONZALEZ TO GET REVENGE FOR LAST WEEK’S ATTACK ON SHOTZI BLACKHEART- good
They had a little brawl until Regal came back out to pull Raquel away. Then Dakota Kai came out from the crowd and beat Ember up from behind while Regal and security were dealing with Gonzalez.
Wait… aren’t those the same security guards who were escorting Cole out of the building? Does NXT really only have two security guards? More budget cuts, I guess.

LEGADO DEL FANTASMA PROMO- great
Escobar is going to be with his guys tonight to watch them become champions.

L.A. KNIGHT PROMO- good
He says that tonight he will beat the guy who beat Cameron Grimes two weeks ago: Jake Atlas. He also told us that Ted Dibiase will be watching from the back, which means that he’s either shoot not here this week, or his in the back because he’s going to get attacked in some sort of angle (probably distracting Knight so that Atlas can beat him, too).

EARLY TODAY, A BAD SEGMENT HAPPENED IN THE PARKIGN LOT- It started with the cameraman asking Drake Maverick why he directed Indi Hartwell to Dexter Lumis’ closet last week. What a dumb question! Indi asked him where one of their coworkers was, and Drake said “the last time I saw him, he was over there.” This shouldn’t require a special investigation. It’s f*cking common courtesy.
Actually, it was worse than that. What the idiot really asked Drake is why he got involved in the “love triangle” with Indi and Dexter. There is no love triangle here because THERE ARE ONLY TWO PEOPLE INVOLVED!
Before Drake can answer, Ever-Rise show up to bother him. And that’s all Ever-Rise seem to do, isn’t it? They don’t wrestle. They just hang around the building and bother people, which makes you wonder why they employed at all?
Hit Row pulled up and got out of their car and made fun of the other three. They were fine, other than Top Dolla and Ashantee Thee Adonis singing a catchphrase at them in unison. Killian Dain showed up to stand up for Drake, and Swerve threatened Ever-Rise, Dain, and Maverick. I would have much preferred if they had given this time to Knight vs. Atlas.

L.A. KNIGHT VS. JAKE ATLAS- 5.5/10
Or maybe I’m wrong and they’ll just have Dibiase come out in the middle of the match for no reason. This, of course, led to his new charge distracting himself, and almost to a loss.
Beth Phoenix accused L.A. Knight of “pandering” to Dibiase last week. He didn’t “pander” to Ted. He said “pick me instead of that guy because I’m better than him. Beth also accused Knight of “pandering” to Dibiase during the aforementioned spot where Knight distracted himself with Ted. How the hell is it “pandering” to Dibiase if you’re doing the very thing he warned people not to do just last week (not focusing on your match)?
Beth also said that Knight said all he needs is “Ted Dibiase by my side to put that last piece in place.” She then used this quote assert that “Knight is pretty arrogant to think that he’s the total package.” YOU JUST SAID THAT HE THINKS HE NEEDS HELP TO PUT THE “LAST PIECE IN PLACE!” HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY SAY HE THINKS HE IS THE TOTAL PACKAGE IF HE THINKS HE IS MISSING A PIECE?!

They had an okay match. Grimes out came out o bother Dibiase, then distracted Knight, causing him to lose. Grimes went to the back, and Dibiase followed. Knight got all “NOOO! TEEEEEDDDDD!” It made him look like a goof, and giving a guy a manager only for the manager to walk out on him after one loss and consider him a lost cause is an absolute burial. Why the f*ck did they do this? If they wanted to put Dibiase with Grimes, why not just put them together? Why spend all of this time doing that they did and making Grimes and Knight both feel like losers?

OUTSIDE OF THE TRAINER’S ROOM, ONEY LORCAN AND AUSTIN THEORY GET INTO AN ARGUMENT OVER WHO WOULD HAVE WON THE #1 CONTENDERSHIP MATCH IF ADAM COLE HADN’T DESTROYED EVEYONE- good
This quickly turned into a pull-apart.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS TED DIBIASE- bad
McKenzie asks Ted who deserves to carry on the legacy of the Million Dollar Man. I was hoping against hope that he would say the only thing that might make this even a little salvageable and say “Jake Atlas, because he’s the one who has proved that he can keep focused on the match,” but instead Ted said that Knight “dropped the ball” while Grimes show both “brains and brawn.”
Correctly recognizing that this man is just an old fuddy-duddy with nothing useful to say (if there is one thing Cameron Grimes has not show that he has on this show, it’s brains), the cameraperson decided to go run off and follow Adam Cole instead, who was marching by. It doesn’t say much for security that Cole is back in the building (although, to be fair, they never actually said Cole was thrown out of the building. I was just making a logical assumption based on the situation).

ADAM COLE PROMO & SEGMENT WITH KARRION KROSS- F*CKING AMAZING!
Kross was excellent here, but… just… ADAM F*CKING COLE, BAY-BAY! I’m not ever going to say anything about what happened. You MUST go watch this for yourself, and see why Adam Cole comes off as the biggest star in professional wrestling. Bigger than Okada or Tanahashi or Naito. Bigger than Kenny Omega on Jon Moxley or Cody or MJF or Jericho. Bigger than Rush. Charlotte or Sasha or Bianaca Belair or Drew McIntyre or Bobby Lashley with MVP doing his talking for him. Even bigger than Roman Reigns. I’ll say that one again in case you missed it. Adam Cole came off like bigger star than Roman Reigns. Go watch this segment RIGHT NOW. Cole cut the promo of the year by MILES. This is going to wind up being a strong contender for Promo of the Decade

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS CANDICE LERAE WHILE INDI HARTWELL RUDELY STANDS THERE ON HER HEADPHONES- fine
Candice cut a good promo on several subjects. She yelled at Indi for listening to 80’s power ballads. They zoomed in on Candice leaving Indi’s phone and headphones on an equipment crate.

They showed us the announcers and I finally caught a glimpse of what Beth Phoenix is wearing… but only a glimpse because just that was enough to burn my eyes out. It’s jacked with vertical rainbow stripes. Like someone turned a clown’s pants into a jacket and then made it brighter. Who let her go on the air looking like a color-test pattern?

Wait…why is KUSHIDA coming out? Isn’t Indi & Candice’s match next? And if not, why did they just leave Indi’s phone and headphones there?

CARMELLO HAYES VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- good
They acknowledged his former “Chrisian Cassanova” moniker. He says that he is a generational talent and will be the next NXT Cruiserweight Champion.

XIA LI VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- meh
She and Boa watched footage of Mercedes Martinez snubbing her handshake and then beating her at the Mae Young Classic in her firs ever match. Xia says she feels shame when she looks back on this will avenge the disgrace that this loss brought upon her. She vows to “purge” Mercedes at TakeOver. Giving Xia a TakeOver match is certainly a big vote of confidence, and it’s one they really need to have more often in their home-grown talent. I might be missing someone obvious, but I’m struggling to think of anyone on the NXT roster who is home-grown other than Xia, Boa, Kacy Catanzarro, and B-Fab from Hit Row.

DEXTER LUMIS STEALS INDI HARTWELL’S HEADPHONES- Because there is no better way to show a girl you like her than committing petty theft of her property. I myself indicated my interest in my senior prom date by breaking into her house one afternoon and stealing several paperback novels and a carton of orange juice.
And that there sarcasm is me being charitable to Dexter and assuming that he watched the earlier segment and knows whose headphones he is taking. All we saw was him walk by, investigate the music that was playing, decide he liked it, put the headphones on, and walk off. And of course the camera operator watched this crime in total silence.

NXT CRUISERWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: KUSHIDA(c) vs. Carmelo Hayes- 6.5/10
This was an open challenge that Hayes answered.
Vic Joseph told us that Hayes comes from “the same area as” former champions like Sasha Banks and Tommaso Ciampa and therefore is from a “championship pedigree area.” Yeah. Because it’s not the training that helped them become champions. It’s just being from the area.
Hayes looked fine. KUSHIDA won clean, and we got a nice show of respect after the match.

MSK PROMO- bad
They are annoying.

FRANKIE MONEY BRAGS TO HER STEREOTYPICAL GAY STYLIST (#PRIDEMONTH, I GUESS?) ABOUT THE “REVIEWS” FOR HER MATCH LAST WEEK-
She only read positive ones, rather than something more realistic and objective like “meh squash
This went longer than it needed to. There was no reason for Jade to get any offense in.” She told the camera “am I’m just getting started” and winked.

ZAYDA RAMIER & ZOEY STARK vs. THE WAY (Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell)- 4/10
The Way won.

MERCEDES MARTINEZ PROMO- GREAT!

THERE IS A NEW “DIAMOND MINE” COMING TO NXT- Sure. Why not?

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS EMBER MOON- This was good, but I wanted to scream when said that Raquel “has been one of the most dominant champions in NXT history.” She hasn’t even been champion for two whole months!
Ember seems to think that she’s getting a title shot at TakeOver. I’m not sure what she has done to earn this.

NXT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: MSK(c) vs. Legado del Fantasma (w/Santos Escobar)- 7/10
The Grizzled Young Veterans came out to be menacing but Timothy Thatcher & Tommaso Ciampa came out to brawl away with them so that they didn’t interfere. Santos Escobar would later successfully interfere, so Bronson Reed came out and squished him against the board. MSK won a perfectly acceptable TV main event.



Overall, this was a very good episode of NXT. Yes, Cole’s promo (and that whole segment, really) is a big part of that, but all of the women’s singles division stuff was also strong, and they build a good (and quite different) card for TakeOver.