BRM Reviews the 12/30/2020 NXT

[Big Red Machine]

BRONSON REED vs. ISAIAH “SWERVE” SCOTT- 5/10
Other than the stupid stuffed lizard, Reed’s new entrance is pretty cool. Scott did a great job of bumping around for him. I don’t think you can argue that this didn’t accomplish the goal that NXT set out for it to accomplish, but given his story with Jake Atlas, I don’t think Scott was in a good position to take a loss right now.

THE 2020 AWARD FOR BREAKOUT STAR OF THE YEAR GOES TO SHOTZI BLACKHEART- I didn’t realize there were so many fans of annoying posers here in WWE. I mean really! How do you give Shotzi this award over Raquel Gonzalez?

THE GARGANO WAY ARRIVE AT THE BUILDING AND WALK PAST A BLACK CAT- Why is there a lose cat running around INSIDE THE BUILDING? Who brings their f*cking CAT to WORK?

GRIZZLED YOUNG VETERANS vs. TYLER BREEZE & FANDANGO- 6.75/10
Good stuff. Fandango’s knee got worked over a bit. GYZ win clean.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- didn’t like it
Ever-Rise came out to yell at GYZ. A referee was holding them back, but then she- completely unprofessionally- just gave up and left. The idea here was that Ever-Rise are actually cowards because they didn’t back up their fighting words when given the chance, but if you have to have a referee act completely out of character in order to accomplish your goal, you need to think of a better way to do it.

UE ARE THE TAG TEAM OF THE YEAR- More importantly, Cole announced that he and Roddy would be representing UE in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic (which starts in two weeks) rather than Fish & O’Reilly. Interesting.

XIA LI & BOA STUFF- You know how to do camera cuts. We get it. Enough already!
Their Higher Power figure opened a portal into another dimension and they all walked through into the light. Or something like that. They’re back next week.

MERCEDEZ MARTINEZ vs. VALENTINA FEROZ- squash

IO SHIRAI IS THE FEMALE SUPERSTAR OF THE YEAR- She cut a nice babyface promo putting everyone over and thanking the fans.

ADAM COLE IS THE MALE SUPERSTAR OF THE YEAR- Cole cut a promo thanking the rest of UE, and saying that Kyle winning the NXT Title next week will win even more to him than winning this award.

RODERICK STRONG vs. PETE DUNNE- 7.75/10
This was an awesome match other than the oddly abrupt finish.

MOTY IS BALOR VS. O’REILLY FROM TAKEOVER: XXXI- This was done for the sake of an angle where Regal was going to present Balor with his plaque but Balor said he would take Kyle’s and give it to him. Balor then headed to the ring but first got into an argument with Pete Dunne at Gorilla Position. Balor then headed out to the ring, and after a commercial break we got…

AN AWESOME VIDEO PACKAGE FOR THATCHER VS. CIAMPA FIGHT PIT MATCH- hooray!
But after that, we got…

FINN BALOR CALLS OUT KYLE O’REILLY- TREMENDOUS!
Balor says he doesn’t need a plaque because he’s the champion. Kyle says that while the plaque means that he belongs in the top tier of NXT, it’s also a reminder of his loss, and what he really wants is the title. It was nice to see guys emphasizing that having a great match doesn’t mean much if you don’t win.
Balor also vowed to make Kyle suffer as revenge for breaking his jaw. They had their big stare-down, at which point Scarlett and Karrion Kross came out and Scarlett started speaking in tongues before switching to English and saying that it doesn’t matter who wins because that person will just lose the title to Kross.
Damian Priest then came out behind Kross and waited for him to turn around before telling him that this is how you fight like a man and throwing a punch. Those two then had a great brawl that ended when they both went through the set. Kross appeared to get the worst of it, but Scarlett still seemed happy.

RHEA RIPLEY VS. RAQUEL GONZALEZ VIDEO PACKAGE- HATED IT!
This was one of those things where all of a sudden, out of nowhere, these two had been “as close as sisters.” And they had lots of evidence to back it up (lots of pictures, matching tattoos, etc.) but that doesn’t mean anything when it doesn’t mesh with your already-established continuity. These two have been feuding off-and-on for six months now. Why has any of this (they used to be as close as sisters, they were former tag team partners in NXT on the Florida loop) not been mentioned before?

LEGADO DEL FANTASMA (well… really just Santos Escobar) ARE INTERRUPTED BY LUCHA HOUSE PARTY- fine
LHP took a quick shot that their main roster booking, then went to brawl with the heels. A referee ran out telling us that Regal had just ordered…

LUCHA HOUSE PARTY vs. LEGADO DEL FANTASMA (Joaquin Wilde & Raul Mendoza)- 5.75/10
LHP picked up the clean win in a relatively short match. Gran Metalik signaled that he wants the title. It’s nice to see that at least one of this company’s brands seems to have plans to follow up on Gran Metalik pinning The Miz clean on Monday.

THE FUTURE STAR OF THE YEAR AWARD GOES TO- Austin Theory
There were a lot more nominees for this than any other award, and most of them should not have been there if we’re looking at this through a kayfabe lens. Theory won, but in terms of kayfabe, he’s far behind A-Kid, and probably behind Leon Ruff, too. People who should not have been listed included Xia Li, Pretty Deadly, Kayden Carter, Indi Hartwell, and Kacy Catanzaro. I was surprised that neither Dexter Lumis nor Trevor Grimes were listed as nominees.
Indi Hartwell was sad that they didn’t win. Johnny and Candice ordered Theory to “share with Indi.” This gimmick is going to kill both Theory and Indi. Theory said that Gargano would break the curse and retain his title tonight. Gargano got angry at him for jinxing it, so he grabbed his protein powder and threw it, breaking a mirror, which caused him to freak out even more. This was all bad comedy and they need to knock it off and start treating these people seriously again.

OVERALL COMPETITOR OF THE YEAR GOES TO IO SHIRAI- fine.

NXT NORTH AMERICAN TITLE MATCH: Johnny Gargano(c) (w/Austin Theory) vs. Leon Ruff- 8/10
Candice and Indi eventually came out to ringside as well. They leveraged the idea of the Gargano Curse as well as they could here before Gargano won cleanly. What they do next with Ruff with either make or break him.



This was a great episode of NXT, with very good wrestling and build to next week’s big show. I wasn’t a fan of all of booking decisions, but it wasn’t enough to drive me nuts, either.