Reviews by Dave
By David E Houston II
Show air date: April 20, 2021
Learned from NXT on USA that Vic Joseph does not know the name of the Slingshot Suplex and that was just one example of some putrid commentary this week. He really said Beth Phoenix was “speechless” after Beth went on a long soliloquy about Japanese women’s wrestling. Felt a lot like Tuesday Night Raw for the first hour with way too heavy an emphasis on their bad comedy and cliche WWE style matches. Sarray is announced as a new acquisition and immediately challenged by Zoey Stark. Damn. They are killing Zoey over.
Booked Themselves into the Main Event
Kyle O’Reilly is fine on the mic, talking about his future. Cameron Grimes added nothing to it but they booked themselves into the main event.
LA Knight defeated Dexter Lumis
LA Knight beat Dexter Lumis in a nothing match that then had a goofy finish with Indi Hartwell literally stumbling all over the place (the highlight of the whole thing) to lock eyes with Lumis. A lot of The Way goofiness ensues. Don’t worry about it. They had a good thing and now they’re running it into the ground.
Good promo from Leon Ruff
Grizzled Young Veterans defeated Breezango
Grizzled Young Veterans–Zack Gibson and James Drake–beat Breezango–Tyler Breeze and Fandango in an okay match. Nothing special.
Ted Dibiase beating out Grimes in a bidding war was funny. That’s something to work with.
Sarray defeat Zoey Stark
Sarray beat Stark as expected and it’s the first bright spot in the show. Stark loses again and then gets jumped by Toni Storm, who she beat at TakeOver.
It’s Starting!
Very good promo from NXT Women’s champion Raquel Gonzalez and Dakota Kai. It’s starting.
Really good promo from Mercedes Martinez.
KUSHIDA defeated Oney Lorcan
for the NXT Cruiserweight Championship
KUSHIDA issued an open challenge for his cruiserweight championship, which was answered by Oney Lorcan. Good TV match but no real heat to it. Big run ins from Legado del Fantasma and then MSK. It was okay if a bit messy. Six-man match next week.
EverRise. Hell no. Fast forward.
Main Event: Kyle O’Reilly defeated Cameron Grimes
O’Reilly beat Grimes in a very good main event. It got good after the commercial break (as is custom for WWE matches). O’Reilly won with his knee drop from the top rope. They just roll to black with no closing angle or anything. He “sold his soul to the Undisputed Era”? Wasn’t he a founder? Felt like week 2 of resetting after TakeOver.
Thanks for reading!
