BRM Reviews the 6/8/2021 NXT

[Big Red Machine]

AUSTIN THEORY vs. ONEY LORCAN- 7/10
These two had a confrontation last week, and earlier today there was a brawl in the PC lobby of Austin Theory and Johnny Gargano vs. Pete Dunne and Oney Lorcan.
Lorcan won a strong opener cleanly. I like Lorcan a lot, but this feels like the wrong move. Theory is much younger (twelve years!), and is a guy who has real singles star potential. Even I, who - as I previously said and can’t emphasize enough- like Oney Lorcan a lot, would not make Lorcan my top guy. Not even in a wrestling-focused promotion like EVOLVE. Theory has top guy potential. On top of that, Theory is a singles guy while Lorcan is, at this point, a tag guy, and will be looked at as such until his team officially breaks up (even if his partner is currently injured). The singles loss hurts him a lot less than it does Theory.

Pete Dunne came out in the middle of the match (right before a commercial, naturally). Gargano came out later to brawl this him. This felt like a manufactured angle rather than something that happened organically. Even for his friends, Dunne just doesn’t come across as the kind of guy who comes out to ringside during someone else’s match when he has nothing to gain from it.

L.A. KNIGHT VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO FOR TED DIBIASE- didn’t like it
There was some good stuff here: Knight came across like a dick and flaunted how rich he is, and the bikini models stopping laughing when he told them it was enough was a good semi-subtle way of saying “I’m not just rich, but I’m enough of an egotist that I’m willing to throw my money around to pay people to laugh on cue for me, and I don’t even care if other’s know that that’s what’s going on because that means they understand how rich I am, which is exactly the sort of thing I feel like Ted Dibiase would appreciate.
The reason I didn’t like this was the overall idea of the promo. Essentially, it’s Drake auditioning for the role “new Ted Dibiase” to Ted Dibiase, and if the goal for him is to be the new Ted Dibiase, then that makes him a lesser star. His pitch to Dibiase should be “you want to manage me because I’m so awesome,” not “you want to manage me because I’m the best at being a knock-off version of you.”

DOC HENDRIX DOES THE PPV RUNDOWN- passable nostalgia, I guess

SANTOS ESCOBAR’S PROMO IS INTERRUPTED BY BRONSON REED-
Escobar starts to cut a promo on Reed, but Reed comes out on the stage. The “I’d say you’re full of it, but after last week I think I squeezed it all out of you” line was good, but constantly replaying himself squishing Escobar on the TitanTron is a dick move and a babyface shouldn’t do it. It’s childish, and in this case, that made Reed’s opening quip feel less like a clever line and more a poop joke.
Escobar challenged Reed to come fight himself and LDF. Reed was happy to do so, but also got some back-up in the form of MSK. Escobar challenged the babyfaces to put all of their titles on the line in a six-man tag. They were fine with it. MSK was also annoying.
At the end of the segment, Hit Row came out and had a stare-down with the babyfaces. When we got back from a commercial, we were told that Regal had made the six-man tag for the titles official for TakeOver.

KILLIAN DAIN (w/Drake Maverick) vs. ISAIAH “SWERVE” SCOTT (w/Hit Row)- 5.75/10
Swerve won after distractions on the outside. That’s two matches and two brawls on the outside.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL ASKS CANDICE LERAE WHY SHE’S SO ANNOYED ABOUT POPPY BEING HERE- dumb
Candice says it’s because Poppy is getting attention that should be going to herself and Indi Hartwell, who are the NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions. She’s not wrong.
Speaking of Indi, she tells Candice that she heard that Dexter Lumis listened to her headphones last week and cried, so she has to go find him. She has presumably been at the building for quite a while, but she only decided to look for Dexter now? Why? Is it that hard to have someone come up to her during the interview and tell her that Dexter cried while listening to her music last week? Hell, you can just have McKenzie tell her! If you don’t do that (or something else to explain why she is choosing to act on this info now), then it feels like she is making the choice to act now because this is the only time that info can be relayed to the viewing audience. What the viewing audience does or doesn’t know should not be a factor in a how character asks when attempting to pursue a relationship!

CAMERON GRIMES’ VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO TRYING TO IMPRESS TED DIBIASE- I didn’t like this for the same reason I didn’t like Knight’s, but it was also annoying because Grimes is a clown. I wish he would go to the moon and stay there.

XIA LI JUMPS MERCEDES MARTINEZ BEFORE HER MATCH- bad!
Despite jumping Mercedes from behind, Xia lost the fight. This wouldn’t have been good under normal circumstances, but considering that Xia is the less established wrestler in this feud, her losing like this makes her feel like she’s not on Mercedes level going into the PPV, which is exactly the opposite of what the goal of this segment should have been.

MERCEDES MARTINEZ VS. SOME JOBBER- squash
Despite being jumped from behind and having a had a brawl, Mercedes still squashed the jobber. They were trying to get over that this made Mercedes tough, but the jobber getting no offense in and losing in two moves made her feel like someone who shouldn’t have been in a ring in the first place, so Mercedes beating her despite being hurt doesn’t feel that impressive.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS BREEZANGO- fine
Build for a match with against Imperium.

TRIPLE H & WILLIAM REGAL GREET POPPY BACKSTAGE- They put her sh*t over. Hunter asked when her next album would drop. She said “right now.” Hunter didn’t quite go into D-X plug mode, but he was close.
Then Dexter Lumis showed up. William Regal had the good sense to look nervous that the mega-creeper was approaching his big celebrity guest. Hunter had this big grin on his face. Lumis gave Poppy a picture he drew of her. She hugged him… and that’s when Indi Hartwell showed up. Obviously, this greatly upset her, and she ran away crying. Hunter declared this to be “a little awkward” in a way that was too comedic for what is theoretically a big dramatic moment that we are supposed to care about (because we’re apparently supposed to want to see Indi and Dexter get together).

DEXTER LUMIS AND CAMERON GRIMES SHOW UP AT THE BUILDING- bad
Dibiase’s security guy orders them to stop bothering each other and go to the ring. They bickered. Also, Grimes was a jerk to the security guy. We were shown them bickering more as Dibiase, already in the ring, ordered their presence.

TED DIBIASE MAKES HIS ANNOUNCEMENT- bad
He announces that Grimes and Knight will be having a Ladder match at TakeOver (that’s two in a row, now) for Ted’s stupid, made-up championship. Why do either of these guys want this thing? It’s not a real championship, so you don’t get any extra money for being the champion!

SECURITY BREAKS UP KYLE O’REILLY AND KARRION KROSS BRAWLING BACKSTAGE- Regal yelled at them. Why are these guys upset at each other enough to have a backstage brawl? I didn’t remember there being any major heat between these two.

EVER-RISE ARE CLOWNS BACKSTAGE- They can join Grimes on the moon.

GRIZZLED YOUNG VETERANS vs. AUGUST GREY & GIRO- 2/10
GYV won clean. Timothy Thatcher and Tommaso Ciampa came out to watch from ringside.

Whatever happened to Stokely Hathaway and Tyler Rust?

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- okay
GYV challenged Ciampa and Thatcher to a Tornado match next week. The babyfaces accepted in a promo that was far too goofy. They charged the ring and heels bailed.

BOBBY FISH PUNCHES A PUNCHING BAG AND TELLS ONEY LORCAN HE HASN’T FORGOTTEN ABOUT HIM- fine

CANDICE LERAE CALLS OUT POPPY- good
Now that she can use it to go after Poppy for “breaking them up,” she is behind Indi being with Dexter Lumis. Candice says that Poppy can either come out here and Candice will kick her ass in the parking lot. Poppy came out and brought out Io Shirai to fight on her behalf. Io beat Candice up and sent her running.

EMBER MOON vs. DAKOTA KAI (w/Raquel Gonzalez)- 7/10
This was a great match and I didn’t even hate the DQ finish (it’s Raquel lashing out after Ember had bested her on the outside in a fight Raquel started), but if you’re going to do this finish, don’t have this be the main event.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- great
Raquel attacks Ember some more but Ember makes a comeback, lays out the champ and poses with the belt. Great go-home show stuff.

KARRION KROSS PROMO- fine
He wants all of his challengers to come out to the ring and fight with him.

CLOSING SEGMENT-
When we came back from a commercial, William Regal was in the ring face to face with Kross and told him this wasn’t happening. Kross said that Regal doesn’t run the show anymore. Kyle O’Reilly came out and cut a good promo on Kross. Johnny Gargano came out from the crowd and stood on the announcers’ table to cut a promo on Kross, trying to get him to go beat Kross up. Kross called Gargano a mark. Pete Dunne came out and said they should all fight right now. Adam Cole then showed up on the Tron and cut a promo on everyone. O’Reilly got in the ring and started a fight with Kross. Security tried to stip the fight but failed. Kross beat everyone up, then got taken out from behind by Cole when he was posing. I liked Cole and O’Reilly’s promos, but this whole segment came off like something that someone booked rather than something that would ever happen naturally (any time you have people coming out from different places and standing a strategic distance apart from each other so as to answer the question of “why aren’t they fighting?,” it’s not going to come off as natural).


This was an okay show from NXT. It hit the important points for a go-home show, but a lot of the TakeOver build was mediocre. Other than the women's title match, it wasn't the sort of stuff that is going to get anyone that excited for the show.