Reviews by Dave
By David E Houston II
Show air date: June 8, 2021
NXT on USA put forth a good, but absurd uneven show. The highs were highs but the valleys were really low.
Oney Lorcan defeated Austin Theory
While it felt like a randomly booked match, Oney Lorcan (with Pete Dunne) and Austin Theory (with Johnny Gargano) of The Way had a very good match. Good to see Theory look a little more like EVOLVE Theory for a change. It got a little too busy (a theme for the night) when Dunne and Gargano got into a scuffle at ringside. I was surprised to see Lorcan get the win with The Way being the hotter heel act but it was fine.
TF?!?!?
Just a cliche-ridden, dull promo exchange started with Legado del Fantasma in the ring, killing time before the obligatory interruption by North American champion Bronson Reed, who was not hot on the mic here. Then tag champs, MSK, came down and the two sets of champions accepted a challenge where both put up their titles in a six-man match against Legado at In Your House (IYH). TF?? And I thought Karrion Kross was obtuse last week, defending against four guys instead of just one. This was nearly as obtuse.
Swerve Scott defeated Killian Dain
Swerve Scott, with Top Dolla, B-Fab, and Ashante Thee Adonis of Hit Row, defeated Killian Dain accompanied (to his detriment) by tag partner Drake Maverick, in a generally good match. It felt a little long near the end and they went with “too busy” again with the finish that had Dain repeatedly get distracted by damn near anything Hit Row did outside. Hit Row vs Dain and Drake next week makes a lot of sense.
I don’t know what a Poppy is.
Mercedes Martinez Wins
Since the point of the segment was more hyping Mercedes Martinez vs Xia Li at IYH, I had no issue with them not naming Martinez’ opponent, who she wiped out with a running kneestrike and Air Raid suplex after a good brawl with Li.
The Show Dragged After That!
The show dragged after that with some shenanigans with Cameron Grimes and LA Knight and their freshly announced ladder match for the Million Dollar Belt, a double dose of nothing with Candice LeRae, Poppy, and Io Shirai, and then a tag match that went on way too long with the Grizzled Young Veterans–James Drake and Zack Gibson–beating August Grey (TF happened to Malcolm Bivens?) and Ikemen Jiro, who wrestled in an uglass jacket, right before some nothing with Timothy Thatcher and Tomasso Ciampa, who are not thriving as a team.
Ember Moon defeated Raquel González
By DQ
Got back on track with the feature match of the night with Ember Moon, facing Dakota Kai, with champion Raquel González (wearing the longest red leather pants ever) in Kai’s corner.
Good match.
No more dives from Moon or anyone else from the ring to the announcer table side. I can’t be the only one who saw her hit her head on the edge of the table. She clearly was okay but why test fate any further with a pointless maneuver? Moon won by disqualification when González came to her aid, which led to Moon and González getting into a fight and Moon coming out on top.
Main Event: Face-Off
They closed with a lot of jawing with everyone involved in the IYH NXT title main event: champion Karrion Kross, Kyle O’Reilly, Johnny Gargano, Pete Dunne and Adam Cole (who did nothing to deserve a title shot) from the big monitor. Nothing special with everyone getting in some move before Cole got the best of Kross and stood over everyone. O’Reilly deserved to get his eye blacked for SLAPPING Kross instead of closing his fist and punching him. Okay end to the show but they got a segment for each pay-per-view match and that’s always a good thing.
Solid enough show.
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