BRM Reviews the 7/22/2020 NXT

[Big Red Machine]

KEITH LEE ANNOUNCES THAT HE WILL VACATE THE NXT NORTH AMERICAN TITLE- I don’t like it
Lee doesn’t want him having two titles to limit the opportunities of others, so he is relinquishing the Norther American Title with the caveat that as many people as possible get the chance to win it.
It’s nice that Lee gets to be the babyface here by being shown as the one with the idea to do something that will not limit the opportunities of others, and this allows you to avoid the vicious cycle of rematches where someone would take one of Lee’s belts and then Lee his rematch and loses, but in losing that guy has now pinned the NXT Champion and thus earns a shot at that and when Lee beats him he has now pinned the North American Champion and thus earned a shot at that belt, etc. And, of course our big babyface star doesn’t have to lose… but none of those reasons- or even all three together- do not outweigh the negative that whoever wins the ladder match Regal announced for the belt will not feel like the real champion because he didn’t win the belt by besting the previous champion.

Regal announces that the next champion will be crowned in a ladder match at TakeOver: XXX (SummerSlam weekend), and there will be a series of three-way qualifiers for that ladder match over the next few weeks.

DEXTER LUMIS vs. KILLIAN DAIN- 6.75/10
The announcers keep saying that “some people are saying” that Robert Stone was behind getting this match booked. Maybe he was… but if that’s the case and we’re supposed to think there is something wrong with that then it’s the babyface authority figure William Regal who is either getting duped by something the rest of us see through, or else acting corruptly. Neither of those are good.
This was fine for the time it got, and definitely benefitted from being a competitive match between two guys at equal spots on the card. I genuinely had no idea who would win.


MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS RODERICK STRONG, FEATURING INTERRUPTIONS BY JOHNNY GARGANO AND BRONSON REED- decent
Roddy was meh and Gargano was good. Reed… spoke passionately, but came across as too much of a programmed WWE “opportunity!” babyface. I don’t care how many opportunities you think Undisputed Era have gotten. The automatic rematch seems to be a thing on NXT, and Roddy is correct that he never got his, so he deserves one. End of story.

DAKOTA KAI VIDEO PROMO- decent

EVER-RISE vs. TYLER BREEZE & FANDANGO- 4.5/10
I popped huge for The Mountie’s music! Also, the only good thing Beth Phoenix does on commentary is not understand that Breezango are coming on to her.

MCKENZIE MITCHELL INTERVIEWS DOMINIK DIJAKOVIC- good

They showed us a Tweet from Io Shirai warning Dakota Kai that her actions last week will have consequences.

SHOTZI BLACKHEART vs. ALIYAH (w/Robert Stone)- 4/10
Being a total asshole, Shotzi decides her drive her stupid little tank right into the stairs that Stone is standing on. The man is already in a boot because Shotzi maliciously ran him over with her tank without any valid provocation to do such a thing, and now she’s doing this. What a f*cking asshole. How is anyone supposed to cheer for this woman.
When she got out of her tank, Shotzi shouted “WELCOME TO THE BALL-PIT!” She shouted it during the match as well. This might be the single worst catchphrase in wrestling history.
Shotzi kicking Stone when he tried to get involved was legit (and Stone, of course, landed on his injured foot). Unfortunately, Shotzi won.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Being a sadistic bitch, Shotzi then ran over Stone’s foot AGAIN. FOR NO REASON OTHER THAN TO INJURE HIM. He was no threat, and the basically tried to shatter his foot. What a f*cking asshole. How is this woman a babyface?
Shotzi once again leaves the tank parked on Stone’s ankle and get sup and does her idiotic wolf howl… and Mercedes Martinez runs down the ramp and kicks her right in her f*cking face! The only way this could have been better is if Aliyah had gotten into Shotzi’s stupid little tank and drove it back and force across Shtozi’s ankles about fifteen times to make something broke. That’s what’s Shotzi deserves.
Mercedes stared down at Stone (and Aliyah, who was tending to him), but didn’t actually help by moving the tank.

ISAIAH “SWERVE” SCOTT VIDEO PACKAGE- good
This was a fine personality piece, but it contained the important note that Swerve is the only person to beat WWE Cruiserweight Champion Santos Escobar during his WWE tenure.

NXT NORTH AMERICAN TITLE LADDER MATCH QUALIFIER: Bronson Reed vs. Roderick Strong vs. Johnny Gargano- 8.5/10
Alicia Taylor introduced this in some ridiculous way, saying something about a “match series” instead of just calling it a qualifying match.
These three had an AWESOME match, telling the story of the two heels teaming up against the babyface but knowing that it can’t last. Reed getting the win was big shock, but it serves to elevate him effectively, and I REALLY hope we get Strong and Gargano blaming each other for their loss and facing off at TakeOver.

TIMOTHY THATCHER vs. ONEY LORCAN- 6.75/10
Give more of this!
Another great WRESTLING match, with a finish that was basically the Cody vs. Hager finish from AEW a few weeks ago done right, where it was shot from angle that fans could realize what happened, and with a move that made it easier to do that with. Also, you didn’t have to have someone pretty much fluke into a win because the opponent pinned himself while choking the winner out. Lorcan managed to get ahold of the arm and almost had the Kimura in but Thatcher managed to maneuver himself over so that he got the pin.
Okay…now having seen it with the replay and with the announcers pointing out the “handful of tights,” I’m a little angry. This is the sort of sh*t I HATE because it shows that no one is thinking. Not only would grabbing the tights like that no affect Lorcan’s ability to get his shoulders up, but it actually looked like it was pushing him UP, which would just make it more likely that Thatcher slips off of Lorcan and Lorcan escapes the pin.

MERCEDES MARTINEZ, ROBERT STONE & ALIYAH BACKSTAGE- AWESOME!
Mercedes came up to Stone and basically proposed that they do the Stokely Hathaway/Timothy Thatcher gimmick from EVOLVE where this loner babyface is willing to associate with a heel manager because the heel manager is actually skilled at promotions and contract negotiations and so forth and the babyface really doesn’t like doing that stuff and isn’t good at it because they put their effort into being a great wrestler, so they have the heel manager manage their career and it works out fine as long as the heel doesn’t- as Mercedes warned Stone not to do here- “overstep your bounds.”

FINN BALOR PROMO- AWESOME (other than that stupid need to talk about someone’s “push”)
And he’s calling Lee out for “not being man enough to defend the title.” Also, he’s apparently facing Dexter Lumis and Timothy Thatcher in a qualifier next week. That sure is going to be interesting. I don’t think you could have come up with any three guys on the roster who are more different.

DOMINIK DIJAKOVIC vs. KARRION KROSS (w/Scarlet)- 6.75/10
This was great main event brought down by the decision to do this ridiculously over-dramatic finish with Keith Lee coming out when Dijakovic is getting his ass kicked and Lee wanting to throw in the towel but Dijakovic telling him not to. Kross told Lee to look while he choked Dijakovic out. There was a brief stare-down, and then Kross left while Lee checked on Dijakovic. This felt like they were trying WAY too hard, and it’s not like Lee and Dijakovic are best friends, either. There is a mutual respect, but this isn’t Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi here.

This was a decent episode of NXT, but it was really one awesome match, one awesome segment, and a lot of stuff that was okay at best.