BRM Reviews the 7/25/2018 NXT (FANTASTIC!)

[Big Red Machine]

ADAM COLE vs. SEAN MALUTA- 4.25/10
They’ve got the house lights turned down. Hmm. The match was fine for the time it got.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- awesome
Cole talked himself up as a guy giving people opportunities, but then made the mistake of saying “if there is anyone back there who wants an opportunity,” at which point Ricochet came out and cut BY FAR the best promo of his career on Adam Cole, challenging Cole to defend the title against him at Takeover: Brooklyn III. Cole refused and walked off, but Ricochet again called him a coward, and almost managed to goad Cole into accepting.
Strong and O’Reilly came out and they got ready to march down to the ring and go after Ricochet but the War Raiders’ music played so Undisputed Era tried to take a circuitous route backstage, only for that to be blocked by Moustache Mountain, who sent them scurrying.

WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH CONTRACT SIGNING- excellent
Baszler cut a promo saying that everyone has forgotten that she has actually beaten Kairi since the finals of the Mae Young Classic. I had, in fact, forgotten this. Baszler cut an awesome promo on Kairi (and everyone else in the division), to which Kairi responded by insisting that she can beat Shayna and that Shayna knows it. Baszler was freakin’ awesome here.

We’re getting EC III vs. Kona Reeves next week.

LACEY EVANS vs. TENILLA PRICE- fine squash
After the match, Lacey Evans pulled a handkerchief out of her gear, wiped up her sweat with it, and then dropped it on Price’s unconscious face.

BIANCA BELAIR INTERVIEW- Good promo by Bianca. I’m pretty sure the interviewer for this segment was making her debut.

SHAYNA BASZLER BACKSTAGE- she cuts a short promo on Kairi, then is confronted by Candice LeRae, who is being held back by Sara Del Rey (I think?), who tells her “this is not the time.”

NXT TITLE MATCH: Aleister Black(c) vs. Tommaso Ciampa- 9/10
They had a fantastic, intense match, with the story being Ciampa working over Aleister’s back. I also loved off of Ciampa’s little attempts to get inside Aleister’s head. Eventually we got a big ref bump and Black hit Black Mass for a visual pinfall. Ciampa was able to recover, raked Black’s eyes, then went to hit him with the title belt but Gargano tried to stop it, only for the tug of war to result in Gargano falling backwards and accidentally hitting Black with the belt, allowing Ciampa to hit the Angel’s Wings (which he hasn’t used before but somehow feels appropriate for this situation) and win the title. The crowd was furious in exactly the right way.

An absolutely FANTASTIC episode of NXT! Pretty much everything that happened felt big, we had some great promos, and an amazing and historic main event. This might be one of the best individual television shows of the year.

[Bob-O]

Just finished this, and I have to agree. This is the most I've enjoyed a weekly program in a very long time, an episode I'd want to show to non-fans or ex-fans.

I think it's pretty clear they've been working with Ricochet on his mic work, but I'd also point out how much better Lacey was in the ring from the last set of tapings. Her match here felt a lot more fluid and her spots less rehearsed than before.

I'm not calling it the better match, but I enjoyed Ciampa/Black tonight I think more than I enjoyed Almas/Black. His match with Almas felt like a video game - very button smashey until somebody won. The match with Ciampa tonight had a defined beginning, middle, and end.

For whatever they've got planned moving into TakeOver, they obviously wanted to move the belt for it, but this is going to be really hard to top for the go-home...

[Big Red Machine]

For whatever they've got planned moving into TakeOver, they obviously wanted to move the belt for it, but this is going to be really hard to top for the go-home...

My guess is that it will involve a three-way brawl.