BRM Reviews the 12/16/2020 NXT (DUNNE VS. O'REILLY!)

[Big Red Machine]

LEON RUFF & KUSHIDA vs. THE WAY (Johnny Gargano & Austin Theory) (w/Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell)- 6.75/10
Ruff slipped on the top rope going for a dive and fell down to the floor, just missing hitting his head on the steps. Ruff was the babyface in peril. The heels won mostly cleanly.

DEXTER LUMIS WAS SHOWN SITTING UP ON A PLATFORM, DRAWING SOMETHING- Are you telling me that NXT constructed a special platform so this dude could it up there and DRAW?

TONI STORM VS. RHEA RIPLEY VIDEO PACKAGE- great!

LEGADO DEL FANTASMA VIDEO PACKAGE, SPONSORED BY PROGRESSIVE- fine

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS SHOTZI BLACKHEART- good… until she did that stupid f*cking howl.
Shotzi and Candice led teams against each other into WAR GAMES… and they’re still feuding. NO! Stop it! That’s not how War Games is supposed to work!

TYLER RUST vs. TOMMASO CIAMPA- 6.5/10
This only went nine minutes, but they let Rust look A LOT more competitive than I was expecting, and the announcers put him over HUGE after the match. Thatcher came out to watch at ringside but left after Rust accidentally kicked him. He tried to get at Ciampa after the match after Ciampa wiped his sweaty head with a Thatch-as-Thatch-can shirt, but was held back by a swarm of referees.

GRIZZLED YOUNG VETERANS VIDEO PACKAGE- fine

KILLER KROSS (& SCARLET) VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- meh

DURING THE COMMERCIAL, MALCOLM BIVENS RECRUITS TYLER RUST- cool. More Stokely is always a good thing.

DEXTER LUMIS IS DRAWING A LOGO FOR NEW YEAR’S EVIL- Um…sure. Why not? I’m not sure why he has to do it on this platform and we have to pay attention to it before it’s done, though.

#1 CONTENDRSHIP MATCH: Kyle O’Reilly vs. Pete Dunne- 8.75/10
Burch & Lorcan came out to ringside with Dunne, but got taken out by the combination of UE, Drake & Dain, and the returning Breezango. All the while, O’Reilly and Dunne kept staring at each other intensely. That last part came off as a little ridiculous with everything going on.
The match itself was twenty-two minutes of awesome. Wrestling, striking, big spots, great build… this match had all of that in spades. Kyle won with a diving knee drop, which I guess is a new finisher for him now, as he won both this match and War Games with it.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS RHEA RIPLEY- Fine promos from Rhea building up her match against Toni Storm tonight and an eventually match against Raquel Gonzalez.

BOA AND XIA LI ARE STILL BEING TRAINED/TORTURED- Xia was ordered to beat the sh*t out of Boa and did. Lots of screaming and crying happened. Why does no one in NXT seem concerned about any of this?

SHOTZI BLACKHEART vs. INDI HARTWELL (w/the Way)- 3.5/10
Shotzi now has a bigger tank that has a big skull on the front, because nothing says “I’m a wanna-be badass” more than putting a skull on the hood of your vehicle. They did some stuff. Indi hit Shotzi with Candice’s trophy from last week for the DQ. She and Gargano then held Shotzi up so Candice could hit Wicked Stepsister.

KARRION KROSS VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- This was a different (and much better) one than before.

BRONSON REED VIDEO PACKAGE- He will “return” next week. Was he injured or something?

DESMOND TROY vs. KARRION KROSS (w/Scarlet)- squash
After the match, Kross cut a promo into the camera on Damian Priest, challenging him to a match at New Year’s Evil.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS ISAIAH “SWERVE” SCOTT- GREAT!
Scott did an excellent job playing that guy who you know is about to turn heel because despite his best efforts, he can’t keep his true feelings bottled up.
Scott has gotten himself a rematch with Atlas next week
EVER-RISE TAKE OVER THE INTERVIEW AFTER SCOTT LEAVES- bad
They’re clowns. I was entertained by McKenzie being frustrated with them but doing her best to stay professional.

DEXTER LUMIS HAS FINISHED HIS DRAWING- He has drawn a picture saying that he is the “host” of New Year’s Evil. The announcers seem to think that this is now a fact, even though there is no evidence that this is anything more than a crazy dude drawing a picture. Who’s to say that this isn’t his way of asking to be the host, rather than announcing to that he going to be the host?

FINN BALOR VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- good build for his title defense against Kyle O’Reilly

TONI STORM vs. RHEA RIPLEY- 7/10
The story was that Toni and Rhea knew each other’s moves and were able to counter them. Toni Storm won after interference from Raquel Gonzalez, building up Raquel vs. Rhea. I’m fine with the heel finish here, but I don’t understand why they made this the main event instead of Dunne vs. O’Reilly, which had higher stakes and a clean finish (you can just play that Balor promo next week).



This was a great episode of NXT. Pretty much everything built to something in a useful manner, and the wrestling was great. It doesn’t mollify my concerns about the show lacking a compelling overall direction, but the nuts and bolts were there this week a lot more than they have been recently.