BRM Reviews the 11/4/2020 NXT

[Big Red Machine]

EMBER MOON vs. DAKOTA KAI (w/Raquel Gonzalez)- 7.5/10
Kai worked the arm so Ember had to do a most of her fighting back with her feet. They kind of lost the story a bit towards the end, but the match was pretty great and the crowd got hotter and hotter throughout. The one thing that really bugged me was the finish. They’ve used the “Raquel Gonzalez interferes/causes a distraction” finish way too much over the ten months these two have been together.

CAMERON GRIMES IS SCARED AFTER THE HAUNTED HOUSE OF TERROR LAST WEEK- So now he’s just going to be a total clown forever, I guess. Well… at least they’re following up on it and not just ignoring it.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS SHOTZI BLACKHEART- a rare good interview from Shotzi… until she ruined it at the end.
McKenzie congratulates Shotzi on hosting last week’s show, and for doing so, Regal has allowed her to choose her own opponent. I’m sorry… since when is hosting a show some sort of accomplishment, or even hard to do? All she had to do is cut some promos and spin a wheel twice!
Anyway, Shotzi has chosen Toni Storm as her opponent tonight, so at least Shotzi will be losing.
She cut a real, human-sounding promo about how much she looks up to Toni Storm and what a big deal it is to her to get to wrestle Toni and what a big moment it would be to actually beat her… and then she ruined it by putting on her poser voice and shouting WELCOME TO THE BALL PIT!” and howling.

KUSHIDA vs. CAMERON GRIMES- 7.5/10
I’ll give them a pass on this ref bump because the babyface still won and the heel didn’t really get the chance to cheat. I’d normally object to this as being pointless, but I do think it’s important to do this sort of thing once in a blue moon (like, maybe two or three times a year) just to keep people guessing on the other ref bumps.

TONI STORM VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- I hope this “whole new Toni Storm” obliterates Shotzi.

IO SHIRAI VIDEO PACKAGE- good
She wants to defend her title against Rhea Ripley

EVER-RISE vs. DRAKE MAVERICK & KILLIAN DAIN- no rating, bad segment
This went on for a while, at which point we cut to McAfee and his pals showing up and mugging for the camera, nWo-style. They then came t the ring and beat everyone up while McAfee grabbed a camera and filmed it to be a jerk.

ANTI-U.E. PROMO- TREMENDOUS heel stuff
Dunne notes that he set Kyle O’Reilly as revenge for Roderick Strong turning on him to join UE a few years ago. Burch & Lorcan went with McAfee because they of people saying that they’d never be top guys as long as UE were around. McAfee is tremendous at getting his message across without doing anything cool or likable.
Killian Dain attacked them as they returned to their car, but Dunne slammed a door on him. We would later be told he was taken to the hospital and the announcers were outraged, but I don’t think that’s fair in this case, because this was clearly self-defense. I’m not saying they didn’t have the attack coming, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not morally to defend themselves, either.

JOHNNY GARGANO PLAYS LIFE WITH THE PERSON IN THE SCREAM MASK- meh
He also says he’ll defend the North American Title against a “worthy opponent” next week. This at least told us that Johnny knows who the person in the Scream mask is.

TONI STORM vs. SHOTZI BLACKHEART- 5/10
No stupid Fischer Price tank for Shotzi. Good. Hopefully this means someone threw off a bridge or blew it up. Apparently Shotzi thinks Toni took it, as if Toni Storm doesn’t have better things to do with her time.
Shotzi botched the first thing she tried. They had a rather mediocre match with a terrible finish. Said finish first saw a situation where Shotzi should have won by count-out but the referee just kept talking to her instead of keep counting Toni Storm out. Then Candice LeRae appeared on the screen. It turns out she stole the tank. It looks like Shotzi owes Toni Storm an apology.
Toni used this distraction to roll Shotzi up for the win, making Toni look like a heel. Then Toni ran over the tank with a monster truck (which I guess is where AEW got the idea for this weekend). Shotzi was in tears over this.
1. You make WWE money now. You can just buy another dumb toy.
2. I don’t care if this is a nod to your cousin in the military or whatever they said before the match (which I’m pretty sure is not what they said when the tank was introduced by the way). You look like an idiot while riding it and have used it for nothing other than torturing an innocent person. How is that honoring your cousin.
3. Everyone I know in the military HATES civilians running playing military.
4. Again… why am I supposed to be sad that this stupid toy got crushed and have sympathy for Shotzi crying over it when she GLEEFULLY ran over Robert Stone’s legs on several different occasions.

JAKE ATLAS INTERRUPTS LEGADO DEL FANTASMA’S INTERVIEW IN THE PARKING LOT… WITH A STEEL PIPE (I mean he used the pipe to interrupt the interview, not that Legado Del Fantasma were interviewing a pipe)- good

THATCH AS THATCH CAN- holy f*ck something actually happened!
Anthony Greene (I didn’t catch his NXT name) showed up and attacked Thatcher as revenge for torturing him last week.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS XIA LI- didn’t like it
She is very evasive about why she is suddenly desperate for win, other than saying it has something to do with her family. Regal arrives with a letter for her. She reads it and tells Regal that she absolutely must face Raquel Gonzalez next week because “she dishonored me.”
This built up a mystery around this well, but the “she dishonored me” thing is not a good look. I’m not saying you can’t make it work, but I don’t trust… well… pretty much any promotion in the world right now to do it well.

RHEA RIPLEY VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- great

TOMMASO CIAMPA vs. THE VELVETEEN DREAM- 6.75/10
Ciampa is wearing the beginnings of a Shredder costume. It’s not good. This match underdelivered, but the finishing sequence was pretty great.


This was a good episode of NXT. It certain had its missteps, but the quality of the first two matches and the McAfee & Pals promo more than made up for them.