BRM Reviews the 7/13/2021 NXT

[Big Red Machine]

EMBER MOON vs. DAKOTA KAI (w/Raquel Gonzalez)- 7/10
Ember has a goofy new entrance mask. Unlike the guys in ROH it at least gits in with her aesthetic, but it still looks lame and it feels like a thing someone gave her and said “you need an entrance accessory to be a star!” rather than something with any sort of meaning. Speaking of her current presentation… she is SOOOOOO much less cool than the original Ember Moon presentation was.

This could have gone better in some places, but on the whole I thought it was a great opener. Ember took a hell of a bump for Dakota’s… Reverse Flatliner, maybe? It looked like a CrossRhodes, but with a release into a DDT-type landing away from Dakota instead of the Cutter.
After Ember kicked out of the above move, Beth Phoenix said “Ember Moon; leaving heavily on Ember’s Law.” How much do you want to bet that if Wade Barrett had followed up on this by asking “Hey, Beth? What, exactly, is Ember’s Law?” Beth would have to fumble around for answer? I’d bet a lot. Because I put “what is Ember’s Law” into Google, and despite all of the results being about WWE, not one of them had an actual f*cking answer.
Dakota won clean. At best, for Ember, you can argue that she distracted herself by yelling at Raquel, but Raquel was nowhere near her, so that’s her own fault. Hopefully this is the beginning of the build to a Raquel-Dakota split instead of a screwed-up finish meant to continue Ember vs. Raquel.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
Xia Li came out and got in Gonzalez’s face. Well… more like her chest because Raquel is literally a head taller than Xia, but you know what I mean. Xia expressed a desire for a title shot, which Raquel was willing to give her. Heel vs. heel is unusual for WWE, so I assume that either the Kai turn is going to happen before the match or- hopefully- the match is a one-off that will be used as part of the story to set up the heel turn (for example, Dakota is upset that Raquel is so willingly handing out this title shot, but has never once asked Dakota it she would like one).

EARLIER TODAY, MCKENZIE MITCHELL’S INTERVIEW WITH THE DIAMOND MINE IS INTERRUPTED BY BOBBY FISH- good
Malcolm Bivens did all of the talking, as it should be. He laid out everyone’s role in the group. Roddy is the star, Rust is the “prospect,” and Suzuki is the “coach.” He said there would be an open challenge tonight. Bobby Fish showed up and said he’d take the challenge. Fish and Roddy squared up, but Bivens said that Fish would face Rust instead. Fish said he didn’t care because he’d get them all eventually. Roddy said it would be over once Rust was done with Fish. Fish disagreed. I’m not really sure what Fish’s beef with them was, but this was good character-building stuff for everyone involved.

IKEMEN JIRO VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- good

FOOTAGE OF CAMERON GRIMES BEING L.A. KNIGHT’S BUTLER- not irritating yet
Alas, this was not the footage of Grimes carrying a heavy boulder through a polar landscape that I had been hoping to see. Do you think this means that L.A. Knight doesn’t read my reviews?
They labeled this “earlier today” but then said that this was the beginning of Grimes’ servitude. Why did Knight wait so long to start with this?
The first thing Knight made Grimes do was get a haircut and trim his beard. They made it clear that this was being filmed on Knight’s behalf to humiliate Grimes. Knight was happy with this, and enjoyed his butler suit. I didn’t knot see this going this way.

BOBBY FISH vs. TYLER RUST (w/the Diamond Mine)- 1.5/10
Hideki Suzuki’s new name is Hachiman. That’s much less cool than Hideki Suzuki. Fish didn’t get his entrance shown. Rust won a short match with a Buzzsaw Kick after Roddy distracted Fish.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
Roddy berated Fish and heels surrounded him, but KUSHIDA ran out to chase them off, brandishing his NXT Cruiserweight Title as a weapon. I so badly want to see Fish & KUSHIDA vs. Roddy and Suzuki!

SAMOA JOE AND KARRION KROSS HAVE A CONFRONTATION BACKSTAGE- meh
Kross is punching a heavy-bag when Joe walks up to him. Through what plot device are we seeing this? NXT doesn’t usually do magic cameras, so their presence is attention-puling and emersion-breaking.
Anyway, Joe gives Kross the usual pre-match referee instructions. Kross ignores him, so Joe kicks the bag away. Kross turns to Joe and says that Joe had better not screw him. I will admit that my initial reaction to this was that Joe was being a dick by interrupting Kross for something he should have just done in the ring, but then I realized that we don’t see NXT referees do the big pre-match instructions bit, so maybe that does usually happen backstage before the matches. Kross was definitely a dick by not answering Joe, but Joe also could have waited until Kross was done. I don’t think Kross was going to go on punching the bag for five minutes just to annoy Joe.

THE WAY ARRIVE AT THE BUILDING, DECLINING INTERVIEWS… BUT THEY LOST INDI HARTWELL ALONG THE WAY, SO BETH PHOENIX GAVE HER ADVICE- Nothing happened between her and Dester. “He was a perfect gentleman.” She made clear that she wanted something to happen, so Beth told her that she had to take a chance. This would be nice, but I just don’t trust that Dexter Lumis isn’t a murderer, so I can’t get behind what will make Indi happy because that happiness seems like it will result in Dexter carefully chopping her body up into pieces.

LAST WEEK ON THE WWE NETWORK, GIGI DOLIN ASKED SARRY FOR A MATCH- meh
I don’t get whatever Gigi’s gimmick is. Also, maybe I’m remembering wrong, but I’m pretty sure Toni had accepted Sarray’s challenge.

SARRAY vs. GIGI DOLIN- 2/10
It looked like Dolin landed on her head in a headlock takeover. Sarray’s finisher looked quite good (by which I mean it looked scary as hell but then looked shockingly safe when slowed it down. Her dropkick to Dolin’s face looked like it killed her, though. In the middle of the match, Mandy Rose showed up on the stage in what can best be described as a “sexy businesswoman” Halloween costume. She left after the match, not saying anything.

SANTOS ESCOBAR PROMO- good
He seems to be under the impression that Bronson Reed is gone. He and his pals did not like Hit Row’s celebration last week. Escobar wants the North American Title. He says he’ll beat Dexter Lumis tonight.

DUKE HUDSON VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- awesome!

DEXTER LUMIS vs. SANTOS ESCOBAR (w/Legado del Phantasma)- 5/10
Escobar won after a lot of interference. Hit Row came out and they and LDP jawed at each other on the stage.

EARLIER TODAY, WADE BARRETT CONDUCTED A SIT-DOWN INTERVIEW WITH KYLE O’REILLY- great!
He vows to be the guy will “finish” Adam Cole, but realizes that he needs to “make some changes.”

That Raw commercial is embarrassing. I don’t know if it’s WWE or USA, but whoever is putting these together needs to be fired

MORE OF CAMERON GRIMES BEING L.A. KNIGHT’S BUTLER- fine, I guess
Grimes is in quite good spirits, happy to mow Mr. Knight’s lawn.

DURING THE COMMERCIAL BREAK, INDI HARTWELL CAME OUT TO CARRY DEXTER LUMIS AWAY, BUT CANDICE LERAE STOPPED HER FROM KISSING HIM- fine

NXT BREAKOUT TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINAL MATCH: Ikemen Jiro vs. Duke Hudson- 4/10
Hudson is large and strong. Jiro is quick and does flips and kicks. Also, he wore his jacket for the entire match. Hudson won clean.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS PETE DUNNE (& ONEY LORCAN)- good promo, bad angle
He’s certain he can beat either Kross or Gargano one-on-one, so he wants the winner. Timothy Thatcher showed up to distract him, allowing Tommaso Ciampa to swoop in like a total heel and blindside Dunne for no reason. Fortunately, a large flock of security guards were right there to break the brawl up. Why did this even happen? What’s the beef here?

KACY CATANZARO & KAYDEN CARTER vs. ROBERT STONE BRAND (Jessi Kamea & Aliyah) (w/Robert Stone)- 3/10
Team KC win a short match cleanly with a 450 version of MCMG’s Skull & Bones.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good… or maybe bad?
Aliyah turned on Stone and beat the crap out of him, shouting “I’VE DONE MORE FOR YOU THAT YOU’VE DONE FOR ME!” Kamea seemed unsure of who to side with until Frankie Monet came out and told her follow her to the back.
The crowd reacted to this like it was a big babyface turn for Aliyah, but I don’t think it is. Has Stone done much for Aliyah? No. But it’s not like Aliyah had done anything on her own before that, either. She was a loser. Being with Stone took her from a 1 to a 1.5 on the importance scale. That’s not much, but it was more than she was doing on her own, and it’s not like he was costing her matches, either, so her assaulting him like this feels like a big overreaction. Add in residual sympathy for Stone from the Shotzi thing last year and the fact that he is getting his faction stolen out from under him by this other heel, and Stone feels like the babyface here.

EARLIER TODAY, SAMOA JOE VISITS JOHNNY GARGANO- bad
Joe gave his referee’s instructions to Gargano while The Way were clowns.

JOE AND PETE DUNNE HAVE A STARE-DOWN- This felt like something they did “because this is what we do with Joe” rather than for any real purpose.

MORE OF CAMERON GRIMES BEING L.A. KNIGHT’S BUTLER- bad
Grimes is relaxing by the pool, having paid a child to mow the lawn… and then rake it even though there are no leaves. Knight yelled at him and was going to stop Grimes from paying the kid. The kid kicked him in the shin, then Grimes knocked him into the pool trying to rake up the money off of the cement pool area. Not only was this stupid, but it being aired made no sense, as the previous segments were all clearly shot and provided by Knight for the purpose of humiliating Grimes, so why would he air this?

ADAM COLE PROMO- good
Cole cut a good promo on everyone, including Samoa Joe. Bronson Reed came out and cut a promo on Cole. Cole tried to superkick him but Reed caught his leg. A short brawl ensued, which Reed won, sending Cole to the outside. Samoa Joe came out and ended he brawl with his very presence, including having a stare-down with Cole.

Roddy & Rust vs. KUSHIDA & Fish as well as Raquel Gonzalez defending against Xia Li have been made official for next week.

NXT TITLE MATCH WITH SPECIAL GUEST REFEREE SAMOA JOE: Karrion Kross(c) (w/Scarlett) vs. Johnny Gargano- 7.75/10
This was great, but it was one of those matches that was hurt by the fact that you knew it wasn’t going to end until a certain thing happened (in this case Joe and Kross having a confrontation). They did, and the match ended soon afterwards.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- meh
Kross and Joe got into it some more, instigated by Kross. Joe went to leave, and Kross grabbed him from behind and choked him out. I just don’t see what Kross gets out of doing this. It felt like something that happened because the plot wanted it to happen.


This was a good episode of NXT, moving the various stories along nicely.

STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. Vic Joseph asked Wade Barrett “what have you learned about the goals surrounding Diamond Mine?”
The goals surrounding them? What? If you meant “what are their goals,” then just ask that! Don’t purposely torture the question in a way that both sounds a lot weirder and technically changes the meaning!
Also…They’re pro wrestlers! I assume their goals are to win championships and make money.