BRM Reviews the 5/4/2021 NXT (awesome wrestling, terrible booking)

[Big Red Machine]

FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE MATCH: Leon Ruff vs. Isaiah “Swerve” Scott- 7.75/10
Look… I REALLY liked this match. They did a great job of having a match that felt dangerous and violent without actually doing anything too risky. The pacing was excellent, and the psychology was very good, with the notable exception of the spot where Ruff crawled to the back and it felt like he was running away from Swerve.
Then the finish came. Yes, that move that AJ Francis (or whatever this new guy’s name is) gave Ruff looked really great, but can we please have a heel win clean at some point? I LOVE Leon Ruff, but the dude excels as an underdog babyface. He doesn’t need to be protected! He just needs to stay in the match and feel like he has a chance of winning. If you do that and remember to have him actually win occasionally, he’ll stay over forever. This didn’t need interference. If you want Swerve to have an interfering entourage, you can come up with some other way to introduce them!

JOHNNY GARGANO AND AUSTIN THEORY INTERRUPT WILLIAM REGAL’S MEETING WITH SCARLETT- very bad
The storyline purpose of this was that so Gargano claiming to be the “#1 champion in NXT” can anger NXT Champion Karrion Kross when Scarlett tells him about it. To that I say that you shouldn’t even tease an angle like this if you’re not prepared to follow through by unifying the titles, because that’s really the only logical way for it to end.
But that wasn’t why this was bad. The reason this was bad was combination of the Gargano/Theory clown show with what has to be the most Attitude-Era segment we’ve seen in a very long time in terms of sexualization. We get it. Scarlett has big boobs. But we all also knew that they weren’t just going to have Theory point it out like that, so we knew it was a set-up for a punch-line where he would be talking about something else, and with that kind of joke, if you see the direction of the punchline coming a mile away, it kills the joke.
And the opportunity cost of telling this dead-on-arrival joke was something that will only get criticized by wokesters. I’m not saying that just because something will be criticized by a certain segment of the fanbase/potential fanbase doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. But there is always an opportunity cost. How many people are you turning off by doing this vs. how many people will see it as a positive? In this case, I can se a lot of people at least being annoyed by it (and many of them are the type of people who will make a big deal about something that offends them as loudly and as publicly as possible- that’s not a judgment; just a statement of fact. Okay, maybe there is a bit of judgement in there, but it doesn’t change the facts), and very few people (if any) seeing it as a positive.
And that’s not me being naïve and assuming that there aren’t many people out there for whom a part of their enjoyment of pro wrestling- could be large, could be very small, depending on the person, but just because something is a small percentage of why you enjoy something doesn’t mean it isn’t there- comes from seeing people they find attractive wearing revealing outfits. I’m saying that calling attention to the size of Scarlett’s breasts doesn’t add anything for anyone who enjoys seeing Scarlett on the show in part because those people (and, again, no judgement. I’m not going to lie and pretend that I’m not one of them) find her physically attractive because they’ve already noticed them.
So what positives did this stupid joke provide? None. And what was the opportunity cost? People complaining on Twitter that you objectified poor Scarlett, and people getting annoyed at your bad comedy. And- again- I’m not saying that avoiding a Twitter mob should be your guiding principle. I’m saying that if you can accomplish the same goal with equal effectiveness two ways, and one will result in annoying a portion of your fanbase while the other won’t, why the hell would you choose to do it the way that annoys a segment of your fanbase?

CAMERON GRIMES vs. ASHER HALE- 3/10
Asher Hale is Anthony Henry with an atrocious blond dye-job.
This match was REALLY good for three minutes, full of great back-and-forth action… but is that really what you should be doing with Grimes?

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS TEAM KC- bad
They wrapped up their storyline with Xia Li by saying “we’ve all seen that scary movie. If the ghost tells you to get out of the house, you get out of the house.” I’m not going to deny that there is a logic there when you’re dealing with an unstoppable force… but we’ve gotten no indication that Xia actually is an unstoppable force. These two are acting like she’s possessed by an Aztec god on Lucha Underground. I thought they came off as cowardly here, so that’s yet another team in this division with screwed-up babyface/heel dynamics.
They say they’re going after the tag titles. Frankie Monet came by to be condescending to them. It’s been a month since Frankie signed her contract. Is Regal going to book her in a match at some point, or did he just hire her to walk around backstage and annoy his other employees?

CAMERON GRIMES AND EVER-RISE IN THE LOCKER ROOM- bad
This felt like a main roster segment, with the camera there for no reason whatsoever. At least they made it feel natural that they were all facing the same direction. Anyway, Grimes was a jerk to Ever-Rise for no reason. What did this accomplish? Are they building to a heel vs. heel match?

GRIZZLED YOUNG VETERANS vs. TOMMASO CIAMPA & TIMOTHY THATCHER- 7.75/10
GYV cut a good heel promo before the match. And Gibson’s not wrong. People should keep their shoes on their f*cking feet in public. Don’t take your shoe off and hold it in the air. No one wants to smell that crap. Not even Tony Atlas.
Anyway, these two teams had an excellent, hard-hitting tag team match… with an unconscionably bad finish. Said finish saw Timothy Thatcher hit Zack Gibson with Wade Barrett’s shoe, which had come lose during the chaos, to set up for an armbar.
1. If he’s going to hit the guy in the head with a shoe, just have that be the finish! How does getting hit in the head all of a sudden make you need to urgently tap out in an arm submission?
2. WHY THE F*CK ARE THE BABYFACES THE ONES WHO ARE CHEATING?! Between this week and last week, I don’t how anyone can watch this feud and think Ciampa & Thatcher are babyfaces.
Earlier in the show, Beth Phoenix had scolded Wade Barrett for attempting to justify heel cheating. After this finish, Wade rightfully called Beth out, and she had no answer for him.
(That being said, I popped so hard when Vic Jospeh insisted to Wade that if Wade’s shoe was off, Wade must therefore hate James Gibson. And Wade’s reaction was tremendous as well. He is BY FAR the best announcer in pro wrestling right now.)

GARGANO COMPLAINS TO REGAL ABOUT HAVING TO DEFEND HIS TITLE- meh
Gargano insists that Bronson Reed only beat Austin Theory because of Dexter Lumis, and that Reed therefore should not have earned a North American Title match. Regal did not accept this logic. He also informed Theory that because of his earlier comments, Karrion Kross wants a match against him next week, so that has been booked.

ISAIAH “SWERVE” SCOTT PROMO- fine.
He is walking around with his entourage. He tells the camera that he delivered on his promise to beat up Leon Ruff. He and his entourage all chuckled and then left the building.

KARRION KROSS PROMO/WORLD TITLE CONTENDERS SEGMENT- very bad
He wants to know why no one has stepped up to challenge him. He also cut a promo on Theory. He was very good.
Eventually he was interrupted by Kyle O’Reilly. Kyle says he’s not afraid of Dunne and says that he wants a title shot. He was interrupted by Pete Dunne. I’m dead sure we already did the segment where Kyle is demanding a title shot and then Dunne interrupts him and also demands a title shot a few months ago, back when Finn Balor was champion.
Speaking of Balor, he interrupted Dunne. He walked right up to Kross and forearmed Kross in the face. Kross barely stumbled back a bit, then came right back with a shot of his own that floored Balor. What a loser this made Balor look like!
Kross had stare-downs with first Dunne- who backed off- and then O’Reilly- who didn’t. Dunne used this opportunity to attack Kross from behind, bumping him into Kyle, which send Kyle down for quite a while. Kross was only on one knee, and weathered Dunne’s attack, then gave him a back body drop over the top rope. Balor then came at Kross before he could get himself back into a defensive position after the back body drop and landed a bunch of shots to the stomach, but Kross sent him down with just one knee to the stomach. Kyle jumped in and kicked Kross in the knee but Kross took care of him, too. Balor used the fact that Kross was distracted with beating up Kyle to hit a shotgun dropkick, sending Kross into Kyle in the corner. He threw some more punches and locked in a front facelock, but Kross just picked him up and slammed him into the turnbuckle. Security came out to get beat up by Kross and Balor as Kross was also beating up on Balor. Caveman Steve Corino came out and ordered Balor to go to the back, and Balor went.
Theory and Gargano came out of the crowd and attacked Kross from behind. Kross even held is own with them despite it being two on one before they finally took him out with a double-superkick followed by a belt-shot from Gargano.
To recap, Kross beat up his top three challengers single-handedly, despite each of them coming at him when he wasn’t ready. Then he got jumped two-on-one from behind and was still able to hold his own for a bit. This is intended to build up to a match for next week against someone who we have no reason to believe he can’t obliterate with ease. Unless, of course, the opponent gets outside help, in which case… what? I’m supposed to be looking to forward to interference that will make a match competitive?
And where does that match take us? Either 1) Kross overcomes a bunch of interference to beat a guy we all thought he’d beat anyway (so it’s just more interference) or 2) Theory wins because of the interference, in which case we’ve gotten another match full of interference to set up a title match where we all know the title won’t change hands.
And that will lead us to a Kross vs. Gargano match where we do the same thing we did last year where the person who wins drops North American Title? Or a non-title match where one champion does a job that doesn’t lead to anything? How is any of that helpful?

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS JOHNNY GARGANO & AUSTIN THEORY AS THEY LEAVE THE BUILDING- not good
She asked them why they attacked Karrion Kross. Is she dumb, or does she just not watch the show? Neither of those possibilities is good.
She points out that they are leaving before Candice and Indi have their title match. They say Candice and Indi can do it on their own and that they are going to prepare the celebration.

SARRAY vs. ZAYDA RAMIER- 5.25/10
Vic Joseph asks his colleagues which of these two women had the more impressive debut. How about the one who won her match CLEANLY?!
This was INSANE for the time it got, which was just 3:37, so you have no excuse to not watch it. Sarray definitely isn’t being booked in a way that makes the hype around her feel justified, but this showing did feel like it elevated Ramier quite a bit. She feels like an equal to Sarray.

WALTER YELLS AT IMPERIUM OVER ZOOM IN WHAT I THINK WAS GERMAN (WITHOUT SUBTITLES) BUT WITH THAT AUDIO QUALITY, IT MIGHT WELL HAVE BEEN ENGLISH THAT I JUST COULDN’T UNDERSTAND- So yeah, that was bad. But you could make out the word “incompetence,” so I guess he’s angry about last week’s loss.

STUFF HAPPENS BACKSTAGE AFTER THE MATCH (AND AFTER A COMMERCIAL BREAK- good
Sarray is checking on Zayda. Toni Storm starts to march towards them but is intercepted by a shove from Zoey Stark. They have a stare-down that is quickly defused and broken up by referees. Stark then went to check on Zayda as well.

DIAMOND MINE VIDEO- Someone is training. It doesn’t look like Scott Hall and DDP, so there goes my best guess (and the internet says it’s not Tessa Blanchard, either).

L.A. KNIGHT vs. JAKE ATLAS- 3/10
Knight cut an awesome little promo on Knight before the match, leading to a hot, aggressive start from Atlas. Knight won clean in another match that was short (three minutes) but great for the time it got.

CANDICE LERAE & INDI HARTWELL BACKSTAGE- snore
They walked into their locker room. Candice LeRae found a picture of Indi and Dexter Lumis with a heart around them that Dexter presumably drew. She hid it in a cabinet. Lumis was creepily staring through a window, holding flowers. Candice shut the blinds on him. Hey, moron. If you like Indi, maybe you should attempt to actively give her the flowers instead of standing creepily in a window and hoping she notices you.

TONI STORM CUTS A PROMO ON ZOEY STARK- F*CKING AWESOME!

LEGADO DEL FANTASMA PROMO- fine
Escobar is going to regain the Cruiserweight Title. Wilde and Mendoza think they deserve a title shot because 1) they beat the tag champs in a six-man tag last week, and 2) they didn’t get pinned in the match for the vacant titles at TakeOver. Solid points.
KUSHIDA showed up on the TitanTron to accept Escobar’s challenge and say they should have the match next week. He also said that Escobar “crossed a line” last week. I have no idea what that is referring to.

MERCEDES MARTINEZ AND RAQUEL GONZALEZ SPLIT-SCREEN TRON INTERVIEW TO BUILD UP NEXT WEEK’S TITLE MATCH- This was a strange mix of really good lines and lines that felt very scripted and forced.

FRANKY MONET’S DOG (AND, BASED ON THEIR COMMENTS, MAYBE SOMEONE/SOMETHING ELSE) TOOK A SH*T IN SHOTZI BLACKHEART’S TOY TANK- Say it with me everyone:
“YOU DESERVE IT!” *clap!*clap!* *clap!*clap!*clap!* “YOU DESERVE IT!” *clap!*clap!* *clap!*clap!*clap!* “YOU DESERVE IT!” *clap!*clap!* *clap!*clap!*clap!*
But I’m pretty sure that’s not the reaction they wanted me to have.

CAMERON GRIMES IS A LOUD ANNOYING CLOWN WHO ISN’T ALLOWED INTO A CLUB- Ted Dibiase apparently rented out the whole club. Does Ted Dibiase really not have anything better to do than f*ck with Cameron all day? And why was there a DRONE filming all of this?
And where is this going? Are we building up to a match between Cameron Grimes and an old-as-f*ck Ted Dibiase? Is there really anyone in the world who wants to see that?

STREET FIGHT FOR THE NXT WOMEN’S TAG TEAM TITLES: Ember Moon & Shotzi Blackheart(c) vs. The Way (Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell)- 8.5/10
Vic Joseph invoked the “human demolition derby” cliché at the end of this one, but I think that was pretty accurate. Lots of violent and crazy stuff. And holy crap a f*cking CLEAN FINISH. And even better… EMBER & SHOTZI LOST!


I don’t know if I have ever seen a show with such a disparity between the quality of the wrestling and the quality of the booking. I know I’ve said that about several episodes of Dynamite, but this might have topped them all. I don’t know what the f*ck is going on with the booking on this show, but it’s getting in the way.