BRM Reviews the 7/6/2021 NXT (Great American Bash)

[Big Red Machine]

NXT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: MSK(c) vs. Timothy Thatcher & Tommaso Ciampa- 7.75/10
This was an action match, but they did a good job of having Ciampa and Thatcher control enough of it to mesh with the “MSK feel like the underdogs” storyline. MSK winning by roll-up soon after Ciampa and Thatcher had things won if not for a broken-up submission is a fine finish if it’s building to some sort of 2 out of 3 falls rematch where MSK really prove themselves, but if this was the blow-off, then MSK should have won with a finisher, because they really do need the credibility boost.

WILLIAM REGAL & SAMOA JOE DEMAND THE PRESENCES OF KARRION KROSS & JOHNNY GARGANO- bad
Promos were cut. Gargano’s would have been good if it wasn’t for the fact that the things he said seem to have taken place in an alternate universe. Gargano was a delusional, annoying heel while Kross came across like a bully. Regal gave Gargano a title shot just to stop them from fighting every week. That’s not a good reason to give someone a title shot. In fact, didn’t he bring Joe in to stop people from fighting?
Speaking of Joe, Regal makes him the special guest referee for next week’s match. How about instead of that, we make him the special enforcer and let a referee who has actual experience refereeing big matches do the refereeing?

KUSHIDA VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- good
He’s coming for the Diamond Mine.

SINGLES MATCH FOR THE MILLION DOLLAR CHAMPIONSHIP IN WHICH IF CAMERON GRIMES LOSES, HE MUST BECOME L.A. KNIGHT’S BUTLER: L.A. Knight(c) vs. Cameron Grimes- 7/10
There is no time limit on this butler stipulation. I hope Knight wins, and then he buys a giant quarry somewhere in the American southwest or northern Mexico, and instead of having Grimes be a domestic servant, he orders Grimes to move every single stone in the quarry, BY HAND, to the North Pole, so that I never have to see or hear Cameron Grimes again.
They did some back-and-forth stuff. Knight won after a DDT onto a title belt for a near-count-out, then, when Grimes got back into the ring, Knight hit a Snapmare Driver that didn’t look very good for the win. But hey! Grimes lost! Off to the rock quarry you go, Loudy, McGoofball! And then off to the North Pole. And then back to the rock quarry! And then back to the North Pole again! Have fun, dummy!

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS DAKOTA KAI & RAQUEL GONZALEZ- meh
They’re angry at Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart and want to beat them up. An understandable sentiment, especially where Shotzi is concerned.

THE NXT BREAKOUT TOURNAMENT PARTICIPANTS ARE- Carmello Hayes, Trey Baxter, Andre Chase (F.K.A. Harlem Bravado), a completely unrecognizable Josh Briggs, an equally unrecognizable Joe Gacy, Duke Hudson (Brendan Vink, who I also didn’t recognize, but haven’t seen as much of as I have of Briggs and Gacy), Ikemen Jiro (Jiro Kuroshio), and Odyssey Jones.
Someone needs to tell the person who made the graphics for these guys that “intangibles” is not just a synonym for “adjectives.”

NXT WOMEN’S TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Way (Candice LeRae& Indi Hartwell)(c) vs. Zoey Stark & Io Shirai- 5.75/10
The lights went off in the middle of the match and the “charging” graphic reached 100%. It turns out it’s Tegan Nox. She was on the stage when the lights went back on. Any excitement I had for her was killed when Beth Phoenix immediately tried to say “THE GIRL WITH THE SHINIEST WIZARD” in a way that indicated we were somehow supposed to consider this a big deal and something to be excited about. It’s such a stupid, terrible f*cking name. Also, she looked like a total goof wearing a flannel shirt that was about eighty sizes too big for her.
And why would NXT management do this in the middle of a match? Turning the lights off is problematic and annoying on its own, but to have a graphic on the screen that matches a series of hype bits we’ve gotten over the past four weeks makes the company feel a million times more complicit (you can’t give the 2004 ROH explanation that some ally of the person making the surprise return/debut shut off the power in the arena by flipping a switch, because the TitanTron and similar systems were a part of this whole presentation).
Anyway, Candice is shocked to see her and distracted. Did they have an issue? I have no memory of this. This led to a babyface win soon after, with Candice getting tossed out of the ring and Indi getting pinned by Zoey Stark after hitting a finisher. Tegan got some shots in on Candice but Candice got free and ran away. Tegan chased after her.
Also, just to throw that flag on the field (again), but we’re now on our fourth champions for these belts in under four months. Not a good start.


MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS TONI STORM- good build for the match against Sarray which they started building up last week.

DURING THE BREAK, DEXTER LUMIS CAME OUT TO WHISK INDI HARTWELL AWAY- I’d be very happy if we just never saw these two again… although considering who is involved, I should specify that I don’t want to see Dexter murder Indi and then flee justice, either.

HIT ROW NORTH AMERICAN TITLE CYPHER CELEBRATION- boring
When this was advertised earlier tonight, I assumed it meant they were going to do complex codebreaking, but apparently “cypher” can also mean something else. You learn something new every day.
Their music was fine… but is a wrestling show. I didn’t tune in to see a concert. Concerts are known ratings-killers in wrestling, and that’s when there are big names Megadeath involved. This was an upper-midcarder and his undercard friends. This was seven minutes of what, as far as storyline advancement, character development, or action goes, might as well have been dead air.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS SAMOA JOE & WILLIAM REGAL- fine
Regal put the show over and built up next week’s title match. Joe assured us that he isn’t seeking to “change the outcome” of the title match, but that he would defend himself if he were provoked.

ADAM COLE vs. KYLE O’REILLY- 9/10
They played the Hell in a Cell-lowering music while Kyle was waling to Gorilla. I didn‘t like that. Don’t bastardize something relatively special.
This was your big, long, “pick a limb and work on it” old-school world title match style of match… except without the world title on the line. This was these guys just doing what they do best. Not much else to say about the match itself. Cole winning clean sets up a rubber match.

This was an awesome episode of NXT, but that’s to be expected when you’re running what was essentially a miniature TakeOver. They also did a good job of building some things up for next week, so that show should be pretty good as well.