Reviews by Dave
Show air date: November 4, 2020
NXT on USA was a show that had a lot of good wrestling, some good promos and some of the most mind-numbing finishes possible. If Dynamite is Nitro 97, NXT is the true TNA 06.
Dakota Kai defeated Ember Moon
NXT opened with what ended up the best match on the show for me when Dakota Kai (with Lady Diesel, Raquel Gonzalez) defeated her heated rival, Ember Moon. This was just all kinds of good up until the overbooked finish with a very cliche “distraction” finish as Gonzalez got on the ring apron as Moon looked to be about to win, setting up a Kai victory. Kai was room temperature vanilla ice cream to me as a babyface but she’s been very good as a heel.
KUSHIDA defeated Cameron Grimes
KUSHIDA beat Cameron Grimes in another good match with an even worse goofy finish as Grimes apparently has PTSD from his Haunted House match last week and freaked out when the ref (who they didn’t even bother to name) from that match came out once the official referee was knocked out. Note to all babyfaces everywhere: if you have your opponent in a submission hold, don’t let it go to check on the damn ref. Break the arm/leg before you break the hold!
Killian Dane and Drake Maverick vs Ever Rise
Killian Dane and Drake Maverick have a no-contest with Ever Rise (yawn) due to Pat McAfee’s band of merry men attacking Dane and Mav. How that’s not a DQ win for them is beyond me.
Last week, Pat Mac and the Boys had a good promo segment. This week? It was like they had four different people writing their scripts without working with each other. McAfee was doing alright, threw it to Pete Dunne with a question and instead of answering the question, Dunne starts a whole new monologue. Clumsy. The story here doesn’t quite add up either.
So the guys that Undisputed Era has victimized for over two years have finally banded together and THEY’RE the heels??? That’s like Dusty and Nikita being the heels when they linked up with the Road Warriors to take out the Four Horsemen. I think this is better than the failed Becky Lynch heel turn because the Dane/Maverick beatdown was completely unnecessary. Pat Mac is a real jerk.
Toni Storm defeated Shotzi Blackheart
Toni Storm beat Shotzi Blackheart in another really good match with a goofy-ass finish. Blackheart just beats a double count-out but is distracted by Candice LeRae running over her tank on the big screen. The announcers seem almost embarrassed to point out that Storm has a size advantage over Blackheart. They went out of their way to not say that the entire match.
Thatch-As-Thatch-Can
I love me some Timothy Thatcher Thatch-As-Thatch-Can segments. You never saw one of these before? It’s like watching an old Verne Gagne camp on TV.
Tommaso Ciampa defeated Velveteen Dream
Tommaso Ciampa not only beat Velveteen Dream (doing his worst Bob Orton Jr impersonation) in what should be the end of their situation, he beat him, eating up the match by at least 70-30. This feud has been almost as underwhelming as the Bucks-FTR in AEW. Another goofy finish but don’t worry about it. It wasn’t as good as either Women’s match.
A good overall show though. Just like TNA was in 2006.
