BRM Reviews the 4/29/2015 NXT

[Big Red Machine]

Anyone notice the girl with the tattoos on her arms doing the YMCA? The craziest part about it that, based on the angle, I’m not sure she even knew she was on camera at the time.

OPENING SEGMENT- they invert the contract signing from before their first match so it is Zayn now forcing Owens to put the title on the line because Owens “needs” to fight Zayn so badly. That match take place at the next Takeover special on May 20th.

Well… we’ve got some weird-ass matches on tonight’s show: Hideo Itami vs. Adam Rose and Dana Brooke vs. Bayley.

BLAKE, MURPHY, CARMELLA, ENZO, & COLIN- decent stuff. Also ALEXA BLISS!
I really this doesn’t lead to Alexa turning heel and joining Blake and Murphy when their pursuit of Carmella fails. Her facial expression seemed to say that she wasn’t having any of their BS, but I’m a little concerned because turning Alexa Bliss heel would be the worst thing that could ever possibly happen.

ZAYN, REGAL, & RILEY BACKSTAGE- GREAT!

WESLEY BLAKE & BUDDY MURPHY vs. COLIN CASSADAY & ENZO AMORE (w/Carmella)- 2.5/10
On the bright side, Enzo’s beard is no longer atrocious. On the dark side, the zooming effects for Blake and Murphy’s entrance made me nauseous.

BECKY LYNCH VIDEO PACKAGE- eh.
(BRM’s editing note: one of these days, my oft-made typo of “Becky Lunch” will accidentally make it into one of my reviews).

DEVIN INTERVIEWS BAYLEY- Oh no! Bayley can’t find any of her headbands!
The reason for this is because Emma stole them. This is one of the angles that is SOOOO stupid on paper, but somehow the personalities involved make it work perfectly.

BARON CORBIN VIDEO PACKAGE- snore.

DANA BROOKE vs. BAYLEY- 4.5/10
Dana has a grand total of ONE dance move. Also, her hair looks a lot grayer. Like it had aged fifty years in one week, but the rest of her body stayed the same age.
Okay… the match. It was good for the time it got, but I didn’t like the way they did the whole headband thing. Bayley was so worried about not having them when she was backstage, but it didn’t seem to affect her here at all. What they should have done was have Bayley be thrown off by not having the headband on (like when you have a bracelet that you wear all the time but you forget to put it on one day and it feels weird and your touching your wrist all day). This way you can give Dana a clean win that also protects Bayley so you don’t have to do the distraction finish. To make things worse, I thought that the execution here made Bayley look stupid (well... stupider). Then you can have Emma come out and run away from Bayley when Bayley goes after her (and Bayley can’t catch her because she’s selling Dana’s finisher).

REGAL ANNOUNCES A #1 CONTENDERSHIP MATCH FOR TAKEOVER: Balor vs. Breeze vs. Itami. Um… what did Balor do to earn a spot in this match.

HIDEO ITAMI vs. ADAM ROSE (w/the Rosebuds)- squash. Itami completely beat the sh*t out of Rose. To the point where he pinned him after a DROPKICK… and didn’t even feel out of place.

BECKY LYNCH vs. SARAH DAWSON- no rating.
I wonder if Sarah is related to Scott Dawson. The match was mostly a squash, but Dawson got the chance to show that she definitely has some technical ability.

RHINO PROMO- great.

ALEX RILEY vs. SAMI ZAYN- 4/10
Kevin Owens is on commentary and he just completely buried Riley. There was a point where Rich Brennan asked him if he had gained any respect for Riley after the two matches they have had together, and I was fully expecting Kevin to answer the question by bursting into laughter.
The match consisted of Riley getting in offense and Sami selling it, Sami kicking out of Riley’s finisher, then making a short comeback that ended when Owens attacked them both, including powerbombing Riley onto the apron.

Not the best show in the ring from NXT, but it was still enjoyable and productive.