BRM Reviews the 6/24/2020 NXT

[Big Red Machine]

WE GET FOOTAGE OF THE AFTERMATCH OF WHAT I GUESS WAS CAMERON GRIMES SLAMMING DAMIAN PRIEST’S CAR DOOR ON HIM AS HE TRIED TO GET OUT FO THE CAR- Priest is in a lot of pain and his injured back is now even more injured.

CAMERON GRIMES DEMANDS TO BE AWARDED HIS MATCH AGAINST DAMIAN PREIST VIA FORGEIT-
Grimes was a good smarmy heel here. Priest fought his way past the referees and out to the ring. He has apparently been cleared because the referee rang the bell and Mauro said he was cleared, but if that’s the case then why were the referees trying to stop him from coming out for his match?

CAMERON GRIMES vs. DAMIAN PRIEST- 4.5/10
As soon as Priest got into the ring (even before the bell), Grimes went after his ribs, which are now all taped up. The match was relatively short but they did a great job with their story and Priest sold extremely well. My main problem with this match is that I thought they let Priest get WAY too much offense in. The point of having him be so injured is so Grimes can win and Priest will b protected. He looks brave just for showing up and trying. You don’t need to give him so much of the offense. When you do that, you wind up making Grimes look good for getting beaten up for so much of the match by someone who was so injured.

ROBERT STONE INTERRUPTS A RHEA RIPLEY INTERVIEW AS SHE ARRIVES AT THE PERFORMANCE CENTER- TERRIBLE segment… unless this was supposed to be a double-turn, in which case it was perfect.
Robert Stone is no longer on his bender. He credits this to Aliyah signing with the Robert Stone Brand. He offers Rhea a chance to reconsider and sign with him. Once again, when Rhea could have simply said “no,” she responded by punching Stone in the stomach, picking him up, and throwing him into something. In this case, the something was a dumpster, which is a perfectly logical thing to find in a parking lot (and a nice, safe landing stop instead of the hard asphalt), but if I was booking this, I would be making a conscious effort not to do something AEW did just last week.
Thankfully, Aliyah was in the area and went to stand up for her friend. “Don’t treat my manager like that!” she bravely told the big bully. Rhea responded by claiming that Stone “isn’t worth it,” so Aliyah slapped her. Rhea responded with the wrestling equivalent of “I’m gonna beat you up later, you little pipsqueak” and walked away. These two have been booked in a match for later tonight. I know who I’m rooting for.

MORE OF TIMOTHY THATCHER ABUSING TRAINEES- meh
So is this going on in the PC after hours? Or is WWE airing footage that Thatcher sends him advertising his own kayfabe training school?
Thatcher is a sadist. We get it. You can’t just keep doing the same thing over and over again in these videos. You need to show us something new about Thatcher or move a story along in some way.

JAKE ATLAS vs. SANTOS ESCOBAR (w/Legado del Fantasma)- 5.25/10
I really hoped that this would get more time so that Atlas could look strong in defeat. Guys aren’t going to get over if you don’t let them at least look strong when they lose (and especially newer faces).

MORE UNDISPUTED ERA GOOFERY FOLLOWING UP ON LAST WEEK- bad
Roddy is not afraid of the trunk anymore. Good for him. Cole then tells him that he is going to wrestle Dexter Lumis tonight. Roddy didn’t look pleased with this.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERIVEWS MALCOLM BEVINS (& INDUS SHER)- good
He says they just wanted to watch last week’s tag title match from ringside and that Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan attacked them for no reason. They want a match with them.

KAYDEN CARTER & KACY CATANZARO vs. RAQUEL GONZALEZ & DAKOTA KAI- 3.75/10
This was short. Again. But G-d dammit I can’t be too angry because we got to see the Towerbomb, one of my favorite moves of all time. The heels won clean, and Dakota cut a promo on Io Shirai after the match.

BRONSON REED vs. KARRION KROSS (w/Scarlet)- 4/10
Don’t let the rating fool you. This was GREAT for the time it got. This was one hell of a hoss-fight, and I love the way Kross does his fighting spirit, getting up but still selling rather than just popping up, or going backwards and then coming right back rather than just not selling a strike.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS ADAM COLE- very good
McKenzie asks Cole which of the three possible contenders in the main event he would rather face. Cle says it doesn’t matter because he’ll win no matter who it is.

RHEA RIPLEY vs. ALIYAH (w/Robert Stone)- DUD!
This was a pointless squash that just made both Aliyah and Stone look like crap.
Stone threw his shoe at Rhea to get her to break the Prism Trap, causing Beth Phoenix to ask “throws a shoe?” Well Beth…
Theodore R. Long, that’s who!
https://external-preview.redd.it/CVy1gs ... 1899ed118a

DEXTER LUMIS vs. RODERICK STRONG (w/Bobby Fish)- no rating, bad segment
It turns out Roddy wasn’t ready to face Lumis. He ran away from him all the way backstage and got counted out, including running straight into the plexiglass on his way to make him look like even more of a clown. Lumis then grabbed Fish from behind in his signature chokehold.

ROBERT STONE & ALIYAH ASK WILLIAM REGAL TO BOOK A REMATCH AGAINST RHEA RIPLEY- good
Regal books a handicap match with both of them. Stone doesn’t want to wrestle but eventually gives in. He asks that in exchange for him wrestling, a stip be added that Rhea must join the Robert Stone Brand if they win. Regal says he can’t do that without Rhea’s approval. Rhea just happens to be walking by and agrees to the stip. I really hope she loses this match. That would teach that bully a lesson.

WOMEN’S #1 CONTENDERSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT & VIDEO PACKAGE- mostly good
The four women in the #1 contendership match will be Mia Yim, Tegan Nox, Candice LeRae, and Dakota Kai. Tegan seems a little bit out of place, considering that she just got a totally unearned title shot last week and lost it, and I can’t remember the last time she won. The match will take place next week.
Also announced for next week is Roderick Strong vs. Dexter Lumis in “NXT’s first-ever strap match.”

Just because, next week’s show will be The Great American Bash. Considering that this was only referenced in a commercial during the main event and never mentioned once by the commentary team or William Regal all night, my guess is that this was a VERY late decision to give this show a name so it will feel bigger opposite the first week of FyterFest.

NXT NORTH AMERICAN TITLE MATCH FOR A SHOT AT THE NXT TITLE IN TWO WEEKS: Keith Lee(c) vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Finn Balor- 8.5/10
The story of this match was that Keith Lee is huge giant of a man. They gave everyone a lot, but the point here was clearly to put Lee over, and put Lee over they did. Adam Cole came out and had a face-off with Lee after the match.


This was an okay episode of NXT. The main event was awesome, but there was a lot of stuff that wasn’t good, and the other matches might have been good for the time they got, but were all rather short.


STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. Beth Phoenix- “A lot of history recently between Johnny Gargano and Keith Lee.”

[cero2k]

Just because, next week’s show will be The Great American Bash. Considering that this was only referenced in a commercial during the main event and never mentioned once by the commentary team or William Regal all night, my guess is that this was a VERY late decision to give this show a name so it will feel bigger opposite the first week of FyterFest.

And people are still out there saying that WWE doesn't even pay attention to AEW and that NXT isn't their tool to get ratings away from them.