BRM Reviews the 8/14/2019 NXT
Posted: Aug 18th, '19, 12:17
TYLER BREEZE & FANDANGO vs. THE FORGOTTEN SONS (w/Jaxson Ryker)- 6/10
The Fashion Police won a match that was amazingly good for five and a half minutes it was given. One thing that bugged me a bit, though, was Mauro’s simplistic framing of Cutler as someone who served some tours in Afghanistan and then went to “pursue a career in sports entertainment.” Even if you replace the hated “sports entertainment” with “professional wrestling,” this is still problematic, as it seems to leave out the defining piece of what little we know about the Forgotten Sons. If I remember from their video package a few months ago, the idea is that they are former military men who weren’t cut out for any walk of life but fighting, so despite their best efforts, they could fit back into society very well and thus the combat oriented and semi-lawless environment of WWE’s brand of pro wrestling is just about the only place they can fit in. Mauro’s comment makes them seem like everyone else, who we are always told has dreamed of bring a pro wrestler since childhood.
(BRM continuity note: On the surface level, this doesn’t quite mesh up with Wesley Blake’s past NXT history in that nothing ever seemed out of place about he guy during his Blake & Murphy run, but I am willing to believe that he is a lot better adjusted than the other two, and that he was the one who told them that WWE would be a good fit for them to make a living. Of course, per my standing policy, you don’t get storyline credit for things that you don’t actually make part of your storyline. I just love pointing out how things could be made to work with relatively little tweaking.
CATHY KELLEY INTERVIEWS PETE DUNNE- fine
He says he would have won at TakeOver if not for The Velveteen Dream stopping the referee from counting. He says he doesn’t begrudge Dream for “doing everything he had to do” to win, but vows that from now on, he will also be doing everything he has to do to win.
CATHY KELLEY INTERVIEWS BOBBY FISH & KYLE O’REILLY AFTER TAKEOVER- great
They’re claim that the illegal man got pinned in their match so they shouldn’t have lost. And Nigel McGuiness provides us with an alternative camera angle to back that claim up, and yet it’s completely understandable that the referee wouldn’t have seen the tag from his/her vantage point in the ring. Well done, NXT.
IO SHIRAI VIDEO PACKAGE- We were promised a closer look at the new Io, but what they gave us was just a music video from some sponsor song with footage of heel Io spliced in. As a wrestling music video it was great, but it definitely was not the look into her character that it was teased as.
SHAYNA BASZLER PROMO FROM AFTER TAKEOVER- awesome
Basically, Cathy Kelley asked her a question designed to get her to say something diplomatic about Mia Yim, but Baszler refused to play along and simply said “and still” and walked away. “And still” is such a perfect, simplistic catchphrase for a heel who can also win cleanly half the time. I think Baszler might wind up being my vote for best promos in 2019.
Killian Dain vs. Matt Riddle has been signed for next week.
NXT BREAKOUT TOURNAMENT FINALS: Cameron Grimes vs. Jordan Myles- 7.5/10
Good for the time it got, but I wish a match this big would have gotten more than just ten minutes.
This was a better post-TakeOver episode of NXT from an in-ring perspective, but it definitely did feel bogged down with way too much time in video packages. Can’t we have more fallout interviews instead of what felt like a ten-minute video package on the Cole vs. Gargano match?
The Fashion Police won a match that was amazingly good for five and a half minutes it was given. One thing that bugged me a bit, though, was Mauro’s simplistic framing of Cutler as someone who served some tours in Afghanistan and then went to “pursue a career in sports entertainment.” Even if you replace the hated “sports entertainment” with “professional wrestling,” this is still problematic, as it seems to leave out the defining piece of what little we know about the Forgotten Sons. If I remember from their video package a few months ago, the idea is that they are former military men who weren’t cut out for any walk of life but fighting, so despite their best efforts, they could fit back into society very well and thus the combat oriented and semi-lawless environment of WWE’s brand of pro wrestling is just about the only place they can fit in. Mauro’s comment makes them seem like everyone else, who we are always told has dreamed of bring a pro wrestler since childhood.
(BRM continuity note: On the surface level, this doesn’t quite mesh up with Wesley Blake’s past NXT history in that nothing ever seemed out of place about he guy during his Blake & Murphy run, but I am willing to believe that he is a lot better adjusted than the other two, and that he was the one who told them that WWE would be a good fit for them to make a living. Of course, per my standing policy, you don’t get storyline credit for things that you don’t actually make part of your storyline. I just love pointing out how things could be made to work with relatively little tweaking.
CATHY KELLEY INTERVIEWS PETE DUNNE- fine
He says he would have won at TakeOver if not for The Velveteen Dream stopping the referee from counting. He says he doesn’t begrudge Dream for “doing everything he had to do” to win, but vows that from now on, he will also be doing everything he has to do to win.
CATHY KELLEY INTERVIEWS BOBBY FISH & KYLE O’REILLY AFTER TAKEOVER- great
They’re claim that the illegal man got pinned in their match so they shouldn’t have lost. And Nigel McGuiness provides us with an alternative camera angle to back that claim up, and yet it’s completely understandable that the referee wouldn’t have seen the tag from his/her vantage point in the ring. Well done, NXT.
IO SHIRAI VIDEO PACKAGE- We were promised a closer look at the new Io, but what they gave us was just a music video from some sponsor song with footage of heel Io spliced in. As a wrestling music video it was great, but it definitely was not the look into her character that it was teased as.
SHAYNA BASZLER PROMO FROM AFTER TAKEOVER- awesome
Basically, Cathy Kelley asked her a question designed to get her to say something diplomatic about Mia Yim, but Baszler refused to play along and simply said “and still” and walked away. “And still” is such a perfect, simplistic catchphrase for a heel who can also win cleanly half the time. I think Baszler might wind up being my vote for best promos in 2019.
Killian Dain vs. Matt Riddle has been signed for next week.
NXT BREAKOUT TOURNAMENT FINALS: Cameron Grimes vs. Jordan Myles- 7.5/10
Good for the time it got, but I wish a match this big would have gotten more than just ten minutes.
This was a better post-TakeOver episode of NXT from an in-ring perspective, but it definitely did feel bogged down with way too much time in video packages. Can’t we have more fallout interviews instead of what felt like a ten-minute video package on the Cole vs. Gargano match?