BRM Reviews the 4/18/2018 NXT

[Big Red Machine]

JOHNNY GARGANO PROMO- AWESOME!
This promo served as a perfect cap to the Ciampa feud, and Johnny and Candice are ready to embark upon their next journey.

“THE ONE AND ONLY” RICOCHET vs. FABIAN AICHNER- 4.5/10
I really hope this means Ricochet is going to start using Billy Gunn’s oft-forgotten second finisher.
Nope. He’s still using the 630 Senton. Oh well.
His stomach got worked over, but he was still able to do his flippy stuff and won. This was perfect for what it was supposed to be.

KAYLA BRAXTON INTERVIEWS RICOCHET- Ricochet cut the very basic babyface on his first week on the TV show type of promo. It was okay.

EC III VIDEO PACKAGE- meh

LARS SULLIVAN PROMO- awesome.
I especially loved the way they shot it from an upward perspective to make him seem even bigger.

THE WAR RAIDERS vs. “J.C. & CHRIS”- no rating, AWESOME SQUASH

SHAYNA BASZLER VIDEOTAPES HERSELF BEING A COLOSSAL ASSHOLE- the fact that Sarita- an NXT coach, is letting Baszler walk all over her has to lead to Baszler vs. Death Rey, right?

KONA REEVES VIDEO PACKAGE- meh.

PETE DUNNE IS ASKED TO COMMENT ON RODERICK STRONG BETRAYING HIM- he says he’ll give his thoughts when he comes back in a few weeks.


NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH: Lars Sullivan vs. Killian Dain- 8/10
I love Sullivan’s evil laughing.

UNDISPUTED ERA STUFF- good. Mauro says we’ll get answers next week. Also next week, Cole will defend the North American Title for the first time. His opponent will be Oney Lorcan, who is getting this title shot because… um...

CANDICE LERAE vs. ZELINA VEGA- 4/10
Almas showed up to distract Candice so Vega could cut her off, so Gargano came out to ringside to back Candice up. Candice made her comeback and won. Almas tried to interfere but Gargano took him out. The match was okay for the time it got. It was really a reminder why it’s better for Vega to be a manager who can do some unique Lucha-style interference and take bumps when necessary than it is for her to be a full-time wrestler.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- didn’t really like it
Gargano says he wants a shot at the NXT Title. Aleister Black comes out and says Gargano can have a title shot next week. Props to Mauro for reminding me that Gargano is the only man to pin Black in NXT. Watching this whole thing really drove it home to me that it would have been better for Almas to stay in NXT for one more Takeover cycle, losing his rematch to Black on an early show, then putting Gargano over at Takeover before being called up.

A pretty great episode of NXT. The new status quo is being established.

[Bob-O]

“THE ONE AND ONLY” RICOCHET vs. FABIAN AICHNER- 4.5/10
I really hope this means Ricochet is going to start using Billy Gunn’s oft-forgotten second finisher.
Nope. He’s still using the 630 Senton. Oh well.
His stomach got worked over, but he was still able to do his flippy stuff and won. This was perfect for what it was supposed to be.

KAYLA BRAXTON INTERVIEWS RICOCHET- Ricochet cut the very basic babyface on his first week on the TV show type of promo. It was okay.

He's got 'it'. I'm not familiar with him really, I'm a hype-sheep with this one. I've heard of him, I'm excited because other people are excited, and I like what I've seen so far. What captivates me with him is the 'it' factor. When he walks out he looks like a star. Most of the experienced guys they sign debut with an established "presence", they look like they belong, but at Takeover and again on this show, Ricochet looks like a star. He has the thing I can't put my finger on that Cole is missing - I'm really excited to see what they do with him!

That said, dude's gotta protect himself. Politically, I'm saying. He sold a little too much for Aichner here. The match went, what, 5 or six minutes? Ric looked gassed as hell throughout! I'm all for selling, I'm all for a match having some psychology and a story, but it was almost like he was trying to get Fabian over in the loss here which wasn't what this match was all about. "Nice Guy" Ricochet isn't going to reach his potential.

THE WAR RAIDERS vs. “J.C. & CHRIS”- no rating, AWESOME SQUASH

War Raiders were the other debut I was psyched for tonight, and I get it was a squash, but they fell flat with me. Unlike Ricochet, I'm very familiar with War Machine and have always really enjoyed them! They don't look right in nxt. Maybe because the crowd wasn't as into them as I thought they would be, maybe I'm used to them having real opponents. To be honest, when I heard they were signed I was super psyched for a War Machine/AOP feud which isn't going to happen now, so maybe it's that. After hearing how hot the crowd was for Gargano and Ricochet, this whole thing was a little disappointing.

Not to mention JC and Chris here. WTF was that!? They needed squashable jobbers, I get that, but come on - the effort they put into making these guys as generic as possible was awkward. If they're not careful, they're going to run into another Blue Pants situation with that Full Sail crowd and seriously doom these guys (who I assume they've got plans for down the road, hence the forgettable ring attire). They should bring back the Executioner masks for these occasions and let "The Executioners" or "The Conquistadors" get over ironically. Just a thought...

Props to Mauro for reminding me that Gargano is the only man to pin Black in NXT.

I must've heard it wrong, but I SWEAR they made a big deal at Takeover out of the fact that Black had never been pinned, he'd only lost in tag matches. But I missed the rest of the segment because it threw me. I'm with you on keeping Almas around to tidy up some angles. I'd prefer to see Gargano beat Almas to earn a title shot, it's the right thing to do.

Props to Percy Watson this week! I was worried that Nigel wasn't there, but I thought Percy did a nice job in his absence. He actually talked and he wasn't an idiot! His eyes are still too far apart, and I can hear it in his voice, but I enjoyed his commentary tonight!

[NWK2000]

War Raiders were the other debut I was psyched for tonight, and I get it was a squash, but they fell flat with me. Unlike Ricochet, I'm very familiar with War Machine and have always really enjoyed them! They don't look right in nxt. , maybe I'm used to them having real opponents.

That's exactly it Bob. They need to wrestle a team, be booked in a match where they can go all out, as well as get their characters across . That's what gets big guys like Dain and Sullivan over.

[Big Red Machine]

“THE ONE AND ONLY” RICOCHET vs. FABIAN AICHNER- 4.5/10
I really hope this means Ricochet is going to start using Billy Gunn’s oft-forgotten second finisher.
Nope. He’s still using the 630 Senton. Oh well.
His stomach got worked over, but he was still able to do his flippy stuff and won. This was perfect for what it was supposed to be.

KAYLA BRAXTON INTERVIEWS RICOCHET- Ricochet cut the very basic babyface on his first week on the TV show type of promo. It was okay.

He's got 'it'. I'm not familiar with him really, I'm a hype-sheep with this one. I've heard of him, I'm excited because other people are excited, and I like what I've seen so far. What captivates me with him is the 'it' factor. When he walks out he looks like a star. Most of the experienced guys they sign debut with an established "presence", they look like they belong, but at Takeover and again on this show, Ricochet looks like a star. He has the thing I can't put my finger on that Cole is missing - I'm really excited to see what they do with him!


That said, dude's gotta protect himself. Politically, I'm saying. He sold a little too much for Aichner here. The match went, what, 5 or six minutes? Ric looked gassed as hell throughout! I'm all for selling, I'm all for a match having some psychology and a story, but it was almost like he was trying to get Fabian over in the loss here which wasn't what this match was all about. "Nice Guy" Ricochet isn't going to reach his potential.

Aichner's gimmick seems to be that he always has very fast matches with people that only go about five minutes, then he disappears for several months only to return to repeat the cycle. In theory you're not wrong, but Ricochet is mostly a flippy dude, so someone getting offense on him really doesn't matter so long as he gets to do his flips he'll come out of it looking good.

THE WAR RAIDERS vs. “J.C. & CHRIS”- no rating, AWESOME SQUASH

War Raiders were the other debut I was psyched for tonight, and I get it was a squash, but they fell flat with me. Unlike Ricochet, I'm very familiar with War Machine and have always really enjoyed them! They don't look right in nxt. Maybe because the crowd wasn't as into them as I thought they would be, maybe I'm used to them having real opponents. To be honest, when I heard they were signed I was super psyched for a War Machine/AOP feud which isn't going to happen now, so maybe it's that. After hearing how hot the crowd was for Gargano and Ricochet, this whole thing was a little disappointing.

Not to mention JC and Chris here. WTF was that!? They needed squashable jobbers, I get that, but come on - the effort they put into making these guys as generic as possible was awkward. If they're not careful, they're going to run into another Blue Pants situation with that Full Sail crowd and seriously doom these guys (who I assume they've got plans for down the road, hence the forgettable ring attire). They should bring back the Executioner masks for these occasions and let "The Executioners" or "The Conquistadors" get over ironically. Just a thought...

I would totally be down for the return of The Conquistadors with a revolving door of wrestlers under the hoods.

Props to Mauro for reminding me that Gargano is the only man to pin Black in NXT.

I must've heard it wrong, but I SWEAR they made a big deal at Takeover out of the fact that Black had never been pinned, he'd only lost in tag matches. But I missed the rest of the segment because it threw me. I'm with you on keeping Almas around to tidy up some angles. I'd prefer to see Gargano beat Almas to earn a title shot, it's the right thing to do.

Mauro saying that does sound kind of familiar. Maybe Mauro said he had never been pinned one-on-one? I know Gargano pinned him in that four-way #1 contendership match.

[XIV]

There are 10 names I'd put ahead of Lorcan for the North American Title. Not least, either member of Moustache Mountain (bearing in mind they're building towards a British Strong Style vs Undisputed Era feud).

Then you could have Dunne vs Strong in their grudge match.
For example Trent Seven vs Adam Cole for the title (Seven could lose this match with no damage done and it could be done via cheating or help)
Then in turn that could set up Tyler Bate vs O'Reilly (With Bate beating O'Reilly which would lead to a way in that Moustache Mountain could face Undisputed Era for the Tag Championships..) then you've got a classic stable vs stable feud with all the titles involved and it's all fluid. Dunne would focus on Cole in some cool Champion vs Champion stuff and if they traded equal victories, neither title is damaged, because it's two champions who could beat each other on any given day.

[KILLdozer]

Dude...wtf is a "War Raider"?

Surely there was something else better...what's wrong with "Barbarians of War"?

[cero2k]

Dude...wtf is a "War Raider"?

Surely there was something else better...what's wrong with "Barbarians of War"?

you know, those who raid....wars.

idk what was wrong with WarMechanisms or InternationalIncidentMachine

[KILLdozer]

That makes them sound like vultures lol.

Or just...Destruction Machine.

[Big Red Machine]

"Police Action Raiders." Harry Truman approved!


But really, guys. War Raiders are guys who go on raids during a war. Why are people hating on this so much?

[Bob-O]

But really, guys. War Raiders are guys who go on raids during a war. Why are people hating on this so much?

Because it sucks.

"War Machine" is an awesome name for a tag team! THAT tag team! It's got a nice ring to it and it fits them.

Trade marks and blah blah blah, we get "War Raiders"? That's not even scary, it's like the translated Japanese knock off name of a quality product. They're the Robertcop of wrestling.

Road Warriors/Legion of Doom - I can live with that. WAR MACHINE/War Raiders - That's bullsh*t. They got neutered.

Above all, I KNOW they had a meeting where they where like; "Ok, well, let's just avoid any turbulence with Marvel here and come up with a new name for you guys..." and a bunch of people, Triple H and War Machine and Norman Smiley and whoever the hell else, got out their notebooks and had a big ol brainstorming sesh on what a great new name would be for these animals and... WAR RAIDERS...!? Somebody tossed that name out there, and the room was like "THAT'S IT!!! CASH MONEY, BABY!" What I want to know is what they passed on before they settled on "War Raiders"? We've all heard what great ideas they had for Stone Cold before the legend was born...

To be fair, I think "Authors of Pain" is a stupid name for a tag team as well. Equally stupid - and I got over it, but they weren't awesome before they got named by a 6 year old Youtuber. This one's going to take me a while...

...AND, related/unrelated, we're supposed to know who EC3 is (they debuted him in a title match) but we're supposed to forget what it stands for!? Just stop already, I don't know why they even brought it up if they didn't want to talk about it.

/rant

[KILLdozer]

Part of that is exactly what I thought. Someone actually said "War Raiders!" And someone else actually jumped up and said "YES! GOT DANG RIGHT!"

...?

[Big Red Machine]

But really, guys. War Raiders are guys who go on raids during a war. Why are people hating on this so much?

Because it sucks.

"War Machine" is an awesome name for a tag team! THAT tag team! It's got a nice ring to it and it fits them.

Trade marks and blah blah blah, we get "War Raiders"? That's not even scary, it's like the translated Japanese knock off name of a quality product. They're the Robertcop of wrestling.

Road Warriors/Legion of Doom - I can live with that. WAR MACHINE/War Raiders - That's bullsh*t. They got neutered.

Above all, I KNOW they had a meeting where they where like; "Ok, well, let's just avoid any turbulence with Marvel here and come up with a new name for you guys..." and a bunch of people, Triple H and War Machine and Norman Smiley and whoever the hell else, got out their notebooks and had a big ol brainstorming sesh on what a great new name would be for these animals and... WAR RAIDERS...!? Somebody tossed that name out there, and the room was like "THAT'S IT!!! CASH MONEY, BABY!" What I want to know is what they passed on before they settled on "War Raiders"? We've all heard what great ideas they had for Stone Cold before the legend was born...

To be fair, I think "Authors of Pain" is a stupid name for a tag team as well. Equally stupid - and I got over it, but they weren't awesome before they got named by a 6 year old Youtuber. This one's going to take me a while...

...AND, related/unrelated, we're supposed to know who EC3 is (they debuted him in a title match) but we're supposed to forget what it stands for!? Just stop already, I don't know why they even brought it up if they didn't want to talk about it.

/rant

I agree about EC III. They should let him keep the Ethan Carter part of the name.

As for the War Raiders thing... is it worse than War Machine? Yes. But I don't think it's particularly bad in any way. As for the Marvel thing, I'm sure that's exactly what happened. Don't forget that they have run into issues with Marvel before:

In 1984, similarities between Hogan's character and that of The Incredible Hulk led to an quitclaim deal between Titan Sports, Marvel Comics and himself wherein Marvel obtained the trademarks "Hulk Hogan", "Hulkster" and "Hulkamania" for 20 years, and Titan agreed to no longer refer to him as "incredible" nor simply "Hulk" or ever dress him in purple or green. Marvel also subsequently received .9% of reportable gross merchandise revenue associated with Hogan, $100 for each of his matches and 10% of Titan's portion of his other earnings under this name (or 10% of the earnings, if Titan held no interest).

(this is from Wikipedia, but it has appropriate sourcing)

It feels to me like they sat down and made a logical move and everyone is crapping on them because of it.

[KILLdozer]

The logical part is understood since that happens. It's just really ridiculous sounding is the problem.

[Bob-O]

The logical part is understood since that happens. It's just really ridiculous sounding is the problem.

Agreed.

WWE is bad at names. They always have been.

But, joking/ranting aside, they were most likely in a situation where they couldn't come up with anything WWE-friendly without completely rebranding themselves. War is a touchy subject around the world, they had to try to keep the spirit of the team without offending anyone.

War Raiders keeps the spirit of the team, and is only going to offend people on the internet who are going to be offended about something silly anyway.

The name does suck though. They could do better.

On the plus side, if they abbreviate it like they like to do, we could buy tshirts for the website from wweshop.com!