Kevin’s WWE NXT Review 7.13.21

NXT

July 13th, 2021 | Capitol Wrestling Center in Orlando, Florida

The show opened with the expected recap video of The Great American Bash and hype for Gargano/Kross tonight.

Dakota Kai vs. Ember Moon

The big explanation for Shotzi moving to Smackdown? Her contract was purchased. I mean, it’s better than when we sometimes get no explanation, so I’ll take it. These two have faced off a lot, so you kind of know what to expect. Ember brought the high impact offense and Dakota had to get aggressive and wear her down to withstand the onslaught. They worked through a break and the second half was stronger, with Ember busting out a top rope rana for a near fall down the stretch. That made Ember seem to second guess herself. She went up top and Kai pulled her down before hitting the GTK to win in 12:59. A good opener between two talented women and a surprisingly clean finish. [***]

Post-match, Xia Li came out to walk right past Dakota Kai and challenge Raquel Gonzalez for the Women’s Title. Raquel seemed to accept but the focus was seemingly on Dakota being annoyed at this entire thing.

Diamond Mine was interviewed earlier and said they were all about challenges. Bobby Fish stepped up to challenge Roderick Strong but was told he had to go through Tyler Rust first.

A vignette aired for Ikemen Jiro, who is in the Breakout Tournament.

Earlier today, Cameron Grimes arrived at LA Knight’s house for his butler duties. He was interested in it but got sad when he got in the barber’s chair. They slicked his hair back and trimmed up his beard, which he ended up liking.

Bobby Fish vs. Tyler Rust

It looks like this will be Fish’s role going forward. Guy who has random matches against younger dudes he can help. Of course, this didn’t actually last all that long. As soon as Bobby got going, Roddy distracted him and Rust attacked, winning with a kick to the head in 2:39. Not much here. [NR]

Diamond Mine looked to jump Fish but KUSHIDA made the save.

Backstage, Samoa Joe and Karrion Kross had intense words.

Earlier today, Beth Phoenix spoke with Indi Hartwell about Dexter Lumis. Indi said he was a gentleman last week but she wanted more. Beth suggested Indi take a chance on what she wants.

Gigi Dolin vs. Sarray

I do love me some Gigi Dolin. Earlier today, Dolin made the challenge since she wants to show off on NXT and Sarray accepted. As they had a pretty basic back and forth, Mandy Rose strolled out for a closer look. Does anything in WWE make sense anymore? Stuff just happens. She looked on as Sarray did her thing and hit a dropkick before winning with a uranage in 3:31. An average match as Sarray really hasn’t clicked yet. [*½]

Backstage, Legado del Fantasma cut a promo dissing Hit Row Records and saying that Bronson Reed got lucky to avoid him. They say Hit Row didn’t even stay on beat last week.

A vignette aired for Duke Hudson, who will face Jiro tonight. He’s confident.

Dexter Lumis vs. Santos Escobar

Like most Lumis matches, I wasn’t really into this. I think some of his antics were fun in the early stages as him creeping out Legado del Fantasma made me chuckle a bit. Once they got into the actual match, it was kind of dull. Lumis looked on his submission but the heels got involved at ringside and that spelled his doom. The Phantom Driver put him down in 9:18. Yeah, I couldn’t get into that at all. [*¼]

Legado was confronted on the stage by Hit Row Records. I could totally see Hit Row turning face since NXT doesn’t really need more heel stables.

Kyle O’Reilly was interviewed earlier and said that he needs to get his groove back after losing to Adam Cole. He will finish Cole.

LA Knight made Cameron Grimes mow his giant lawn with a push mower, which Grimes hilariously enjoyed because he used one for years.

During the break, Indi Hartwell came to get Dexter and attempted to carry him out of the building. She fell and went to kiss him until Candice LeRae interrupted and forced her to the back.

NXT Breakout Tournament First Round: Duke Hudson vs. Ikemen Jiro

This will be an interesting tournament. The first Breakout Tournament had guys I was familiar with but this is all new. Wait. Duke Hudson is just Brendan Vink? That’s so random. Jiro was trained by Tajiri and he showed it off with a Tarantula. This was a straight battle of power against speed, with Jiro leaping right into a snap belly to belly suplex. Jiro would hit a moonsault and Hudson would do something power based. In the end, Hudson won with a Boss Man Slam in 5:28. A solid match that saw a styles clash work well enough. [**½]

Pete Dunne was interviewed backstage and said that one on one, he’d beat Gargano and Kross. Timothy Thatcher interrupted because he’s think he’s the better technician. That led to a brawl between Thatcher/Ciampa and Dunne/Lorcan.

Aliyah and Jessi Kamea vs. Kacy Catanzaro and Kayden Carter

You know how this goes. The Robert Stone Brand did some offense and isolated Kacy, who found a creative way to make the hot tag. Kayden came in hitting everything moving. Kacy hit a cross body on Kamea outside and then they did a neckbreaker/450 splash combo no Aliyah to win after 3:29. Another fine match and I still like this babyface duo. [**]

Robert Stone tried helping Aliyah up but got shoved for his actions. She shouted that she did more for him than anyone and she slapped him. The more she beat him up, the better the reaction was. I guess she’s getting called up too. She has been in NXT forever. Franky Monet came out after Aliyah was gone and Kamea left with her.

Samoa Joe went over the rules with Gargano and The Way. Joe got into another staredown with Pete Dunne when he exited.

Grimes was chilling and Knight got mad. Grimes said he delegated and used his wealth to pay a kid to mow the lawn instead. The kid kicked Knight in the shin when he tried to not let him get paid and as Grimes went to sweep, he knocked Knight into the pool.

Adam Cole was out for a promo, saying Kyle O’Reilly should rethink the rematch idea. He moved on to Samoa Joe, like everyone else in NXT seemingly, and said that he’s just a security guard in a suit. Bronson Reed interrupted because he was still ready to fight. They brawled for no real reason and Reed won out. Joe came out for the main event and stared down Cole.

NEXT WEEK ~ KUSHIDA & Fish/Diamond Mine and Raquel defends against Xia Li.

NXT Championship: Karrion Kross [c] vs. Johnny Gargano

Samoa Joe was the guest referee here. The idea of the match was that Johnny, for all of his success in the past, was outmatched in terms of size and strength. So, he used his speed and his cunning as a heel to get things done. That included jumping Kross before the bell. Basically, if Kross got his hands on him, Johnny would be in clear trouble and so went the contest. In terms of a story, it worked but this just didn’t fully click with me. Everything was good enough but it never went beyond that. It took Joe a while to play into things and his beef with Karrion allowed Johnny to get the upper hand again. Kross survived One Final Beat before reeling off powerbombs, the Doomsday Saito and a forearm to retain in 12:47. Like I said, this was fine enough. [***]

Post-match, we got more of Kross and Joe facing off before Kross jumped him and choked him out. I’m guessing we get Kross/Joe at TakeOver.

5.5

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

I really couldn’t fully get into this. The opener was solid, the main event was pretty good, and the other matches mostly just existed. I liked the Grimes segments but everything else was pretty skippable. The Kross era continues to underwhelm in terms of main events.