BRM Reviews the 11/7/2018 NXT

[Big Red Machine]

HEAVY MACHINERY vs. THE FORGOTTEN SONS (w/Jaxon Ryker)- 6.75/10
A very fun hoss-fight. Just when I was thinking that Heavy Machinery have been reduced to permanent NXT jobber to the stars status, they get a big win here.

CANDICE LERAE INTERVIEW- good follow up to last week’s segment with Nikki Cross. She is going to ask Regal for a match against Nikki Cross so that Nikki can’t run away from her and will have to answer her questions.

CATHY KELLEY INTERIVEWS SHAYNA BASZLER- okay
Baszler is sitting on a couch flanked by Marina Shaifr and Jessamyn Duke. She cut a promo saying that Kairi Sane was “insignificant” and bragged about being the first-ever two-time NXT Women’s Champion. Regal showed up to tell her that Kairi is invoking her rematch clause at TakeOver: War Games II, and because of their “history,” Regal is going to make it 2 out of 3 falls. How about banning Jessamyn and Marina from ringside so they can’t interfere and cost Kairi the match like they did last time.

DAKOTA KAI vs. TAYNARA CONTI- 4.25/10
Conti worked the arm. Dakota… kicked. The match was pretty fun, although the timing on Conti’s big face-first charge into the corner could have been better. For the first time ever, Dakota Kai’s finish didn’t look ridiculous. I’ve been way too nice to Dakota in my reviews recently. I think I might be starting to not hate her.

CATHY KELLEY INTERVIEWS MIA YIM- very good segment
Mia was a total babyface about everything. Bianca Belair showed up to interrupt Mia and demanded to know why Cathy was interviewing Mia instead of her, seeing as how she is Un-de-fea-ted while Mia is not. She also said she deserved a title shot, and that it was ridiculous that Mia could just walk in and get all of this attention. Mia did a good job of being someone who was slightly uncomfortable at meeting a very confrontational stranger while still not backing down. One imagines these two will be wrestling each other very soon.

OHNO, LEE, & RIDDLE BACKSTAGE AFTER LAST WEEK’S SHOW- good
Lee & Riddle were hanging out in a hallway when they bumped into Ohno, who was confrontational. Ohno told them he liked to break “shiny new toys,” then left. Lee and Riddle both had excellent “what is this guy’s problem?” faces. They teased possibly teaming together. I actually think they’re needed in the singles division. The tag division is already overloaded with Undisputed Era, War Machine, British Strong Style, Burch & Lorcan, Heavy Machinery, Street Profits, TMDK, Forgotten Sons, and the new very promising team we saw last week of Raul Mendoza & Humberto Carrillo. The singles division only has Cole, Dunne, Ricochet, EC III, Ciampa, Gargano, Black, Dream, Lars, EC III, Lee, and Riddle for THREE titles.

WAR GAMES VIDEO PACKAGE- fine, I guess

JOHNNY GARANO’S EXPLANATION- FANTATIC PROMO
He is insistent that he is “still the same Johnny Gargano and I still fight for what’s right.” But now he has learned that he has to play dirty sometimes. He also firmly believes that, as the good guy, he has to be the one to beat Ciampa, and that Black, who says that “there are no good men” and ‘there are no evil men” clearly doesn’t understand the difference and therefore should not be the one to beat Ciampa. But, he tells us, he is maybe starting to like “the darkness.”
The framing device of him walking the same path he took to sneak up on Aleister Black and leaving the camera in that spot was excellent, and allowed him to tie it in to their upcoming match at TakeOver as well, vowing to once again leave Aleister Black unconscious.

Next week we’re getting Bianca vs. Yim, and also a singles match to determine who gets the advantage in the War Games match.

THE VELVETEEN DREAM vs. LARS SULLIVAN- 7.75/10
This was the first time we have seen TVD work a traditional babyface style, and he was very good at it. They did the usual determined babyface vs. big monster stuff, Dream sold well, and the crowd was into it. Ciampa came out to distract TVD, allowing Lars to win with the Freak Accident.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
Ciampa attacked TVD and beat him up, but TVD fought back and nailed Ciampa with a Twisting DDT onto the title belt. He then ascended to the top rope to hit his big elbow drop but the referees all came out and got in the way. They took him to the back and he faked like he would go with them but then ran back and hit the move. The show closed with The Velveteen Dream posing with the title and the fans all chanting his name.

A very good episode of NXT. The build to the NXT Title match was especially good, but I also liked how they are able to keep building towards things that probably won’t be on the TakeOver card (Ohno vs. Lee or Riddle, Nikki vs. Candice, and stuff for next week like Bianca vs. Yim).

[KILLdozer]

Dream should have got the big win over the big fat guy to look incredible for the title match. Especially working the face style.

[Big Red Machine]

Dream should have got the big win over the big fat guy to look incredible for the title match. Especially working the face style.

This might have been done to set up a three-way. I don't think he was hurt by the loss due to the interference and coming out on top of Ciampa in the end.

[KILLdozer]

Taynara Conti deserves better...she's not just some jobber to others as they've been using her off and on...

[KILLdozer]

How can you hate Dakota Kai? During that Shayna Bazler thing...she was such an amazing natural underdog face...that Bob-O and I both thought they were going to seriously push her next.

[Big Red Machine]

How can you hate Dakota Kai? During that Shayna Bazler thing...she was such an amazing natural underdog face...that Bob-O and I both thought they were going to seriously push her next.

And I thought she was exactly the opposite.

[KILLdozer]

How can you hate Dakota Kai? During that Shayna Bazler thing...she was such an amazing natural underdog face...that Bob-O and I both thought they were going to seriously push her next.

And I thought she was exactly the opposite.

Not to mention...*more attractive than Alexa Bliss...*"