BRM Reviews the 8/8/2018 NXT (mostly filler)
Posted: Aug 8th, '18, 23:03
AMBER NOVA vs. NIKKI CROSS- 0.5/10
Cross wins a quick match. This felt like it was just filling time.
KEITH LEE VIDEO PACKAGE- disappointing. There really wasn’t anything here. Once again, it feels like we’re just filling time.
UNDISPUTED ERA ASSAULT RICOCHET DURING HIS ENTRANCE- Then Cole cut a great heel promo. This was excellent.
VANESSA BOURNE INTERVIEW- her promo was meh, but her shooing away of the cameraman afterwards and scolding him for interrupting her during her warm-up was good.
ADRIAN JAUODE vs. KASSIUS OHNO- totally unnecessary squash
EC III “EXPERIENCES THE DREAM”- terrible
The Velveteen Dream has invited Ethan to his lavish mansion. They joke around and are entirely too friendly and there is music playing in the background, and I’m having flashbacks to that awful segment from Impact a few years ago with EC III and Drew Galloway having a “summit” on the roof of a building. TVD purposely dropped his sunglasses. EC III bent down to pick them up but sensed the trap and gave TVD a TKO into the swimming pool. This wasn’t quite as bad as the TNA version of this segment because at least they came out of this with more of a reason to dislike each other than before, whereas that one killed their heat with each other right before a big match, but this was still really bad.
MARCEL BARTHEL vs. KEITH LEE- 3/10 (but fine for what it was)
So Barthel comes out first, and to his old the RingKampf music, no less, so I’m marking out and getting all excited because Percy Watson is warning me that Barthel doesn’t care about the “American style” of wrestling and putting smiles on fans’ faces… and then Keith Lee comes out, meaning that Barthel isn’t out here to finally be a player on NXT TV over year after signing; he’s just here to get squashed y Keith Lee.
Wow. This was less of a squash than I feared. Lee got to look dominant and they certainly got his personality over. They also allowed Barthel to look credible (if outmatched by Lee) and get some sort of personality over, which appears to be that of a stereotypical German.
STREET PROFITS STUFF- they cut a bad promo on the Street Profits. This is why Angelo Dawkins shouldn’t be doing the talking.
MAE YOUNG CLASSIC QUALIFIER: Taynara Conti vs. Vanessa Bourne- 2.5/10
For the record, Conti is the second Brazilian doing a martial arts gimmick we’ve seen in less than half an hour. They were fine for the time they got. Conti got the win, and I guess Bourne can continue on has a heel undercard dork, being able to use the cameraman interrupting her warm-ups for an interview as an excuse for losing this match.
JOHNNY GARGANO vs. ALEISTER BLACK- no rating, meh segment
As I’m sure you guessed, this ended in a DQ when Ciampa attacked both men. This would have been fine if it wasn’t the main event. They tried to make up for it by giving us a big brawl, but it was still frustrating to get a DQ in a short main event on a show full of short matches. Referees separated everyone, and Regal came out and made the title match at Takeover now a Triple Threat match.
This episode of NXT felt like one or two important things and then a sh*t-ton of filler. They tried their best make some of the filler feel important by trying to make Lee’s debut feel big and giving us an MYC qualifier, but the show really just like way too much filler.
Cross wins a quick match. This felt like it was just filling time.
KEITH LEE VIDEO PACKAGE- disappointing. There really wasn’t anything here. Once again, it feels like we’re just filling time.
UNDISPUTED ERA ASSAULT RICOCHET DURING HIS ENTRANCE- Then Cole cut a great heel promo. This was excellent.
VANESSA BOURNE INTERVIEW- her promo was meh, but her shooing away of the cameraman afterwards and scolding him for interrupting her during her warm-up was good.
ADRIAN JAUODE vs. KASSIUS OHNO- totally unnecessary squash
EC III “EXPERIENCES THE DREAM”- terrible
The Velveteen Dream has invited Ethan to his lavish mansion. They joke around and are entirely too friendly and there is music playing in the background, and I’m having flashbacks to that awful segment from Impact a few years ago with EC III and Drew Galloway having a “summit” on the roof of a building. TVD purposely dropped his sunglasses. EC III bent down to pick them up but sensed the trap and gave TVD a TKO into the swimming pool. This wasn’t quite as bad as the TNA version of this segment because at least they came out of this with more of a reason to dislike each other than before, whereas that one killed their heat with each other right before a big match, but this was still really bad.
MARCEL BARTHEL vs. KEITH LEE- 3/10 (but fine for what it was)
So Barthel comes out first, and to his old the RingKampf music, no less, so I’m marking out and getting all excited because Percy Watson is warning me that Barthel doesn’t care about the “American style” of wrestling and putting smiles on fans’ faces… and then Keith Lee comes out, meaning that Barthel isn’t out here to finally be a player on NXT TV over year after signing; he’s just here to get squashed y Keith Lee.
Wow. This was less of a squash than I feared. Lee got to look dominant and they certainly got his personality over. They also allowed Barthel to look credible (if outmatched by Lee) and get some sort of personality over, which appears to be that of a stereotypical German.
STREET PROFITS STUFF- they cut a bad promo on the Street Profits. This is why Angelo Dawkins shouldn’t be doing the talking.
MAE YOUNG CLASSIC QUALIFIER: Taynara Conti vs. Vanessa Bourne- 2.5/10
For the record, Conti is the second Brazilian doing a martial arts gimmick we’ve seen in less than half an hour. They were fine for the time they got. Conti got the win, and I guess Bourne can continue on has a heel undercard dork, being able to use the cameraman interrupting her warm-ups for an interview as an excuse for losing this match.
JOHNNY GARGANO vs. ALEISTER BLACK- no rating, meh segment
As I’m sure you guessed, this ended in a DQ when Ciampa attacked both men. This would have been fine if it wasn’t the main event. They tried to make up for it by giving us a big brawl, but it was still frustrating to get a DQ in a short main event on a show full of short matches. Referees separated everyone, and Regal came out and made the title match at Takeover now a Triple Threat match.
This episode of NXT felt like one or two important things and then a sh*t-ton of filler. They tried their best make some of the filler feel important by trying to make Lee’s debut feel big and giving us an MYC qualifier, but the show really just like way too much filler.