6 Ups & 2 Downs From Last Night's NXT (5 March)

Downs...

2. F**k It, Brawls For All

Feels like my fault this one.

Despite still firmly believing that NXT is the best way pro-wrestling fans can choose to spend two hours of their Wednesday night, the one constant criticism I have of the show is that it only has one gear. Everything is intense, smashmouth, 100mph, pro -wrestling action, and the repeated lack of variety in the product does occasionally hold it back. Basically, if everything's hard-hitting, nothing is.

Every story is advanced with some sort of mass brawl, or backstage punch up, or 4*+ match. There's rarely ever a compelling in-ring segment or subtle piece of narrative weaving to help us invest in the eventual payoff match, so seeing Cameron Grimes emerge to verbally spar with Kieth Lee this week (rather than just hitting him with the Cave In at the end of a match) was a welcome relief.

However, the segment was absolutely all over the place. Neither man seemed to really be aware of what the other wanted to do with the mic time, and kept either cutting off each other's flow, or trying to set them up for something they weren't going to say. In the end, Lee just shoving Grimes clean out of the ring was the highlight of the whole thing so, clearly, I know absolutely nothing.