BRM Reviews the 2/5/2020 NXT

[Big Red Machine]

THE BROSERIWEIGHTS SHOW UP IN A… “CUSTOM GOLF CART” (REALLY MORE HALF WAY BETWEEN A GOLF CART AND A DUNE BUGGY) WITH THE DUSTY RHODES TAG TEAM CLASSIC TROPHY ON THE TOP- bad
This looked WAY too goofy and dorky. This double-act with the punchline being that Dunne doesn’t smile while everyone says “he looks ecstatic!” is not working for me at all. It makes Dunne feel like a comedy character.
Undisputed Era (sans Adam Cole) come out to interrupt their celebrations and cut promos. Matt Riddle giggles at the fact that Bobby Fish said the word “fish.” He then said “How many fish could Bobby Fish fry is Bobby Fish could fry fish.” I’m watching this while less than sober, and even I think Riddle is coming off like an idiot. Dunne made a pot joke, then the segment ended because Dunne’s music played rather than because anything actually happened to lead it to a natural end.

ANGEL GARZA vs. ISAIAH “SWERVE” SCOTT- 8/10
This was awesome! It was definitely spotty, but they did a great job of building things up.

ANGEL GARZA PROMO- very good
He brags about taking out Rey Mysterio Jr. on Raw, then points out that he wasn’t pinned to lose his Cruiserweight Title. He warns new champion Jordan Devlin that he will be watching him.

UNDSIPUTED ERA HAVE COMMANDEERED A CAMERAMAN AND ARE SEARCHING FOR TOMMASO CIAMPA- bad
They beat up some valued backstage crewmembers. They came across someone who was inexplicably getting a haircut in hallway backstage. Roddy grabbed the clippers and ruin his haircut. This felt like a waste of time. We know UE are bad people. Seeing them bully random people backstage doesn’t do anything for me.

KILLIAN DAIN vs. DOMINIK DIJAKOVIC- 4/10
This match is happening because they two had an argument at the Performance Center about who should be next for a North American Title match. The match was good for the time it got, but that time was rather short.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Mauro told us that Regal had just let him know that Dijakovic will be getting the North American Title shot at TakeOver: Portland. Keith Lee came out to tell Dijak this and they shook hands.

UNDISPUTED ERA ARE CAUSING MORE COMMOTION BACKSTAGE- a little better
It’s very polite of them to not cause a commotion during matches. They come across KUSHIDA and attack him when he can’t tell them where Ciampa is. Cole gave him an FU into a big wheelie pin. Some large dude with vaguely Samoan tattoos confronted them but got knocked with a sucker-knee-strike to the head by Roddy.

SPLIT-SCREEN INTERVIEW WITH JOHNNY GARGANO AND FINN BALOR- very good

MERCEDES MARTINEZ vs. KACY CATANZARO- 1.5/10
Good for what it was, but I want Kacy to win, dammit!

CATHY KELLEY INTERVIEWS RHEA RIPLEY- fine build for Charlotte’s appearance later.

CIAMPA JUMPS UNDISPUTED ERA BACKSTAGE- meh
I’m not sure how the production truck knew to cut to his, but they have good timing. Ciampa jumped UE from behind. He and Cole spill into the ringside area for bit until the rest of UE recovered and attacked Ciampa. Matt Riddle and Pete Dunne showed to help Ciampa. Security also showed up (FINALLY!) and broke things up. Regal showed up and booked a six-man tag for later tonight. Then they started brawling again. That second part of the brawl was totally unnecessary.

Dakota Kai vs. Tegan Nox in a street fight has been booked for TakeOver: Portland.

JORDAN DEVLIN vs. TYLER BREEZE-8/10
Devlin jumped the bell on Breeze and beat him up. Breeze was given a commercial break to recover. These two proceeded to have one hell of a match.

WOMEN’S TITLE SEGMENT- a mess
All three women (Charlotte, Bianca, and Rhea) were great… other than Bianca deciding to an odd interpretive dance in the background after Charlotte moved her out of the way. The segment was going along great… until all of a suden it turned into an NXT vs. main roster thing and the NXT wrestlers are double-teaming Charlotte even though the idea is clearly that Charlotte is disrespecting NXT by disrespecting Bianca.

TOMMASO CIAMPA, MATT RIDDLE, & PETE DUNNE vs. UNDISPUTED ERA (Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, & Kyle O’Reilly) (w/Roderick Strong)- 7.5/10
The babyfaces jumped the heels from behind on the ramp. Not a good look. Also, this is the second match in a row where someone has jumped the bell. We got a lot of action but also a lot of Roddy sticking his nose into things. That story would have been a lot more palatable if the payoff hadn’t been Roddy running in for a blatant DQ.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine, I guess
Undisputed Era beat up the babyfaces, then spray-painted a yellow X onto Ciampa’s back. I guess Cole was going to knee Ciampa in the X as revenge for last week’s powerbomb. Well… I guess they need to get some heat somehow- HOLY SH*T WHAT’S GOING ON?
VELTVETEEN DREAM IS BACK! He makes the save for Ciampa! If only he hadn’t had to adopt magical powers of TitanTron control, light-control, and teleportation to do so.
TVD coming back is definitely exciting. Obviously the first match will be Rodd at TakeOver: Portland, but I think it’s entirely possible that Cole beats Ciampa in Portland and drops the belt to TVD over Mania weekend.

This was a decent episode of NXT. I really liked a lot of the wrestling, but wasn’t a fan of a lot of the other stuff, especially the TakeOver build.

[KILLdozer]

That haircut thing is impossible to explain, in and out of kayfabe, which also brings me another strange point-

EVERYONE they ran into had the same hair-EVERYONE.

All had their hair up in the man bun , including Cole as well lol.