5 Ups & 3 Downs From Last Night's NXT (Aug 5)

3. Gritting Your Keith

Lee Grimes
WWE.com

If last week's Lee/Kross exchange felt like it was trying to do two segments at the same time, then this was equally as guilty of spending far too long on a singular focus. It feels incredibly counter-intuitive to criticise something for being a solid, well-wrestled match, but that's precisely the problem with this segment.

After setting up Keith Lee as being Mad As Hell And I'm Not Gonna Take It Anymore, having him go 10 minutes in an even bout with a man half his size felt like a huge step back. Last week's promo showed the Kross was in the champion's head and his raw power and aggression were breaking through his normally cool exterior, and you need to follow that up by having him bulldoze someone.

Grimes, while nobody wants to see him buried, is cocky, arrogant, and talented enough to take the hiding here and laugh it off next week. We know he's good, so we're not learning anything by having him repeatedly look like he might steal an enormous win here. There's a blood feud brewing, so we need to see some blood... figuratively.

Yet again Kross made his contribution from the screen and, yet again, it was very good. However, ask yourself, if it had been him vs Grimes, how long would that have lasted?

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WhatCulture's Managing Editor and Chief Reporter | Previously seen in Vice, Esquire, FourFourTwo, Sabotage Times, Loaded, The Set Pieces, and Mundial Magazine