Reviews by Dave
Show air date: March 3, 2021
NXT on USA was okay. Some debuts, set up stories going forward, and some good wrestling but some of it didn’t really get out of second gear but a few times. Wade Barrett wasn’t live in the building so there was a lot less bickering and talking over each other so commentary was just “bad” and not “terrible”.
Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch defeated Timothy Thatcher and Tommaso Ciampa
A good start as NXT tag champions Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch got a victory in a non-title match against Timothy Thatcher and Tommaso Ciampa. There was a bit of good foreshadowing as Thatcher was talking to Imperium’s Marcel Barthel as Ciampa retrieves him for their ring walk. Imperium comes out and apparently just standing there distracted the two veterans enough for the tag champs to take advantage. Weak finish but starts a new thing.
Roderick Strong on the Mic. Oh no.
NXT champ Finn Balor confronts Roderick Strong and I sho do appreciate Strong punching him in the mouth of his bad rendition of the Dusty Rhodes “Follower” Speech Dream said about Arn Anderson in WCW. They set a match.
They Jumped the Shark
One skit with The Way–North American champion Johnny Gargano, Candice LeRae, Indi Hartwell, and Austin Theory–in therapy was funny enough but they jumped a whole shark by the third.
Ember Moon defeated Aliyah
Ember Moon beat Aliyah. That’s right. Aliyah was back on TV and making Moon work really hard for this to be anything worth watching and it still wasn’t. Though I was irked at Moon for the whole “Who do you think you are?” moment. Just hit the bih back. Don’t talk. It’s corny.
A Good Video Package
Good video package for the upcoming Io Shirai-Toni Storm Women’s title match.
Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler (c) defeated Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez
For the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship
Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax successfully defended their Women’s tag titles against Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez in a match that was not as good as I thought it would be. Just felt flat most of the match with an awkward finish involving Adam Pearce.
Next week, because of this finish, William Regal is going to make a big announcement.
If you know now, why not now?
Swerve is Just Different
Swerve Scott with a pretty good promo.
Cameron Grimes defeated Bronson Reed
LA Knight made his TV debut (NXT return actually) and cut a solid promo that seemed to go a bit long. They start the “Colossal” Bronson Reed vs Cameron Grimes match before Knight is done and they have the worst finish of the week. Grimes won though so there’s that.
Legado del Fantasma Beats Everyone Up
Legado del Fantasma beat up Breezango and EverRise. Bless their hearts.
Main Event: Finn Balor defeated Roderick Strong
Balor and Strong save the show with a very good main event with Balor picking up the win with the 1916 DDT. Balor’s title challenger, Adam Cole, comes out and they go black with a distant staredown. Good close to a soft show.
Thanks for reading!
