BRM Reviews the 9/12/2018 NXT

[Big Red Machine]

TOMMASO CIAMPA ARRIVES AT THE BUILDING AND IGNORES AN INTERVIEWER- this was shot as a cold open, before the theme song. That’s a little interesting. I’m not I remember ever seeing something before the opening video that wasn’t a recap package.

ONEY LORCAN & DANNY BURCH vs. CEZAR BONONI & ADRIAN JAOUDE- 4.25/10
This was relatively short, but was a very several minutes of professional combat.

TOMMASO CIAMPA PROMO- AWESOME!
Ciampa has music again. He cut an AWESOME promo denying that he was the one who attacked Aleister Black and said that anyone who thinks he did it is stupid. He claims that he was planning on attacking Aleister Black before Takeover but someone else beat him to the punch. He also asserted that even if Aleister Black had been in the match at Takeover as originally scheduled, it still wouldn’t have changed the outcome.

SHAYNA BASZLER vs. VIOLET PAYNE- squash
Baszler tortures the jobber, but in a much more “all business” way than she did when she was champion. She slapped her a few times after the match. She finally left… and then came back to choke the jobber out again. She let go of the hold after the referees begged her to… and then locked it again less than a minute later. Then she let the hold go again… and then went back and tossed the jobber out of the ring. This felt like overkill.

HEAVY MACHINERY BACKSTAGE- Otis Dozovich thinks Tommaso Ciampa’s name is “tomato chips.” Ciampa came up behind them to reprimand them but Regal also showed up and ordered Ciampa to his office right now.

UNDISPUTED ERA BACKSTAGE- great, as always.
They made fun of the War Raiders. The highlight line here was “Viking helmets are so seventh century.” Cole then said that he doesn’t care who wins next week’s Ricochet vs. Dunne title vs. title match because he’ll just beat the winner.

LARS SULLIVAN vs. RAUL MENDOZA- 4.5/10, but perfect for the time it got and the story it told.
This was a fantastic rendition of the dominant monster vs. the smaller but faster and determined underdog babyface.

PETE DUNNE PROMO- EXCELLENT build to his big title vs. title match against Ricochet next week.

CATHY KELLEY INTERVIEWS RICOCHET- a very good response to Dunne’s promo.

FORGOTTEN SONS VIDEO PACKAGE- I didn’t like it. It didn’t actually give us any insight into these guys or their mindsets.

WOMEN DRESSED IN VERY WEIRD CLOTHING YELL AT EACH OTHER IN PUBLIC- A result of this is us getting Deonna Purrazzo & Dakota Kai vs. Lacey Evans & Aliyah next week. My (well-deserved) snark about their outfits aside (seriously, I thought Aliyah was wearing pajamas!), the way they shot this was very raw and believable and logical.

KASSIUS OHNO GOES TO WILLIAM REGAL & THE LAWYER- GREAT!
This actually started with Kairi Sane leaving Regal’s office and Regal thanking her for her help. Then Ohno showed up, all excited to answer Regal’s questions but Regal said he didn’t need to talk to Ohno because Kairo had just given him an alibi… at which point Ohno got upset because he feels like Regal is once again ignoring him. Ohno cut an excellent promo that was basically saying to Regal everything he said to us last week, but in a more professional way. They’re setting up Hero vs. Riddle!

NIKKI CROSS vs. BIANCA BELAIR- 6/10
Nikki Cross is going full Eugene. The match accomplished it’s job of setting up for Bianca the challenge of someone she has now failed to defeat and yet still keeping her undefeated streak intact. The post-match brawl helps make a future gimmick match (likely Falls Count Anywhere) feel more necessary.


A good episode of NXT, but I’m even more excited for next week’s show.