BRM Reviews the 10/5/2021 NXT

[Big Red Machine]

EMBER MOON vs. MANDY ROSE (w/Toxic Attraction)- 4.5/10
Mandy won clean with the big running knee.

WE ACKNOWLEDGE THAT SETH ROLLINS INVADED EDGE & BETH PHOENIX’S HOME, AND ALSO THAT HIT ROW GOT DRAFTED TO SMACKDOWN- fine

LEGADO DEL FANTASMA VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- this was a good video package, but Hit Row having already been drafted to Smackdown makes the finish of the title match Escobar is challenging Strickland to feel like a foregone conclusion.

ODYSSEY JONES vs. L.A. KNIGHT- 4.5/10
Jones was large; Knight was arrogant. Knight won after attempted interference by Andre Chase allowed Knight to hit a neckbreaker, and Chase pushed Jones’ foot out from under the rope. Even in getting his heat, they have to make Chase look like a chump.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL’S INTERVIEW WITH CAMERON GRIMES IS INTERRUPTED BY PETE DUNNE & RIDGE HOLLAND-
As usual, Grimes was a clown. He’s looking for a girlfriend (or at least a woman to make out with. I was half-expecting him to offer McKenzie money, but thankfully they didn’t go that route. Pete Dunne showed up to be a serious professional wrestler. He told Grimes that “no woman would ever touch you,” and I sincerely hope that’s true. The idea of more Cameron Grimeses in the world is a very scary one.
Grimes saw some women, sauntered over to them, and immediately asked if they were single.

KYLE O’REILLY AND VON WAGNER BACKSTAGE- meh
Just to dive me nuts, this segment happened between Ciampa’s entrance and the beginning of his promo.
Kyle thanked Von for saving him. Von said he was “taking an opportunity” but also that he respected Kyle. He comes off as the most generic person I have ever seen. He said that Kyle could trust him, but Kyle said that he can’t trust anyone after the past year, so he asks Wagner to not save him anymore.

NXT TITLE SEGMENT- very good
Tommaso Ciampa needs a challenger for the next big show, so he asks which of the hungry young wrestlers in the back has the guts to challenge him. Bron Breaker came out and cut a pretty good promo saying that he wanted the title. Ciampa cut a good promo accepting the challenge.

JOE GACY PROMO- the usual terribleness

INDI HARTWELL AND HER FRIEND BACKSTAGE- dumb
We were told that Dexter Lumis has a large penis. They saw a door with smoke coming from underneath it. They went to investigate. Boa was in there, with Mei Ying on her throne. Boa yelled at them to leave, so they did. The friend called it “freaky,” to which Indi responded that she had “seen freakier.”

IKEMEN JIRO vs. JOE GACY- 4/10
Vic Jospeh claimed that Joe Gacy has “made national headlines over the past few weeks.” I can’t imagine they were positive ones.
This was another short match. Gacy won clean, the hugged Jiro after the match. After the match, a large fan with tattoos in the crowd stood up and stared at Gacy.

CORA JADE VIDEO PACKAGE- she skateboards

DUKE HUDSON VIDEO PACKAGE- dumb
He’s been on TV for a few weeks already, but all of a sudden he’s now a power player, too.

CORA JADE vs. FRANKIE MONET (w/Robert Stone)- 0.5/10
Money came out of the crowd and destroyed Jade’s original opponent. Robert Stone then said that Money was Jade’s new opponent, and apparently we’re just going to go with that.
Monet dominated early on. Trey Baxter came out to cheer her on. Monet dominated some more, then got pinned with a victory roll.

MCKENZIE MITCHEL’S INTERVIEW WITH MSK IS INTERRUPTED BY GRIZZLED YOUNG VETERANS- 98% dumb
Zack Gibson accused MSK of getting a Fatal Four-Way Title defense booked because they know they can’t beat pin GYV. That was the part that wasn’t dumb.
One of the MSK guys said they would change it to an elimination match, even though the other two teams weren’t there to agree.
Or maybe they were, as Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen just happened to be walking by… and Briggs started a brawl for absolutely no reason. And the Trick Williams and Carmelo Hayes jumped into the frame, because apparently they just so happened to be strolling by at this moment as well. This was contrived and hokey and stupid, and made Briggs and Jensen feel like heels. If this guy goes around starting fights just for crazy cuz’, his ass should be in jail.
A horde or referees swarmed in to break it up… and apparently we’re just going with this proposed change to the main event, even though no one in power has okayed it.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL’S INTERVIEW WITH TOMMASO CIAMPA IS INTERRUPTED BY JOE GACY- meh
Gacy uses buzzwords that the person who wrote doesn’t understand in order to try to talk himself into a title shot. Ciampa says that he’ll let Gacy into the Halloween Havoc main event if he can beat him next week. On the one hand, I don’t have a problem with Ciampa’s answer, but on the other hands, it’s not like Breaker has done that much more than Gacy that you couldn’t just include Gacy without him having to beat Ciampa.

RAQUEL GONZALEZ ARRIVES AT THE ARENA, AND THE ANNOUNCERS SAY SHE IS ANGRY- I say she’s also late.

CAMERON GRIMES vs. PETE DUNNE (w/Ridge Holland)- 6.75/10
Beth Phoenix accused Dunne of surrounding himself with goons in NXT UK. When did that happen?
Easily the best thing on the show thus far. Kyle O’Reilly ran in to stop Holland from interfering. He attacked the heels after the match, too, but got overwhelmed and hit with a combination finisher.

TONY D’ANGELO PROMO- snore

HIT ROW PROMO- fine

TONY D’ANGELO vs. MALIK BLADE- 2/10
D’Angelo won. This should have been a full squash.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERIEWS CARMELO HAYES & TRICK WILLIAMS- fine

INDI HARTWELL(w/Persia Perota) vs. MEI YING (w/Boa)- 1.5/10
Mei Ying lost a short match.

LASH LEGENDS BRAGS TO A BUNCH OF FOLLOWERS IN THE KITCHEN- dumb
Tony D’Angelo showed up and wanted to be on her fake show.

DIAMOND MINE VIDEO PACKAGE- AWESOME!
(Other than them all shouting “DIAMOND MINE!” at the end.)

SAMANTHA IRVIN INTERVIEWS RAQUEL GONZALEZ- great segment
Gonzalez cut an awesome promo. I’m always a sucker for “did your hair die seep into your brain” or similar lines (the best of which was Alexa Bliss asking Bayley if her ponytail was tied so tightly that it was cutting off circulation to her brain), but I also loved Gonzalez describing all of the way she would brutalize Mandy Rose if Mandy touched her title again.
Toxic Attraction came out and cut some good promos, too. They surrounded the ring, but Zoey Stark and Io Shirai came out to even the odds, so the heels left.

VON WAGNER TELLS KYLE O’REILLY THEY’VE BEEN BOOKED AS A TEAM AGAINST DUNNE & HOLLAND NEXT WEEK- wow. This guy’s lack of charisma is astounding.

THE FEMALE CHAMPIONS ARGUE BACKSTAGE FOR NO REAL REASON- Indi Hartwell and her friend showed up and said they would win the tag titles. Gonzalez saw that this wasn’t her problem, so she just walked away. Persia clearly doesn’t understand the “blood in the water” metaphor because she talked herself up by saying that she was the “fresh blood in the water.” Barbs were exchanged. It was dull.

FOUR-WAY ELIMINATION MATCH FOR THE NXT TAG TEAM TITLES: MSK(c) vs. Grizzled Young Veterans vs. Josh Briggs & Brooks Jensen vs. Carmelo Hayes & Trick Williams- 6.75/10
Only GYV and the champs got their entrances shown. Even thought this is a tag match their graphics said “Carmelo Hayes with Trick Williams.” Oops. Then again, after my typo in his week’s Dynamite review, I’m probably not one to talk.
They kept the GYV vs. MSK issue going by having GYV have a pin on MSK but Zack Gibson didn’t realize that Briggs had tagged himself in, so it essentially amounted to a visual pinfall, and Briggs and Jensen eliminated GYV soon afterwards.
MSK won with a roll-up after Briggs and Jensen got a lot of offense in, which felt like it elevated Brooks and Jensen in defeat.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Imperium jumped MSK after the match. Brooks and Jensen came back to make the save. Some fans were chanting “THANK YOU, IMPERIUM!”

This was another meh episode of the new NXT. There were some good promos in here and the booking of the main event was very good, but I just don’t have faith the in-ring product will deliver, and for every good promo, there are often two bad ones.