Here's a bit of a live report from my experience at NXT Cleveland.
- There was some sort of Juggalo gathering at the Agora Theater, which led to a lot of strange looking people being around.
- Independent female wrestler Sassy Stephie was there. She tweeted that a juggalo came in and said "I'm here for the concert, not the wrestling like a normal person." I tweeted her about it and had a bit of a conversation with her. That was cool.
- Our seats were excellent. Second row beats fourth by a ton.
- Corey Graves brings out his surprise tonight. Instead of Triple H, who I assume stayed in Columbus, it was William Regal. He got a HUGE ovation. "We're not worthy", "Thank you Regal" and "You still got it chants." He responded by saying he never lost it.
- We opened with Tyler Breeze vs. Baron Corbin. Breeze was super over and Corbin got a smattering of "You can't wrestle" chants that didn't catch on. He seems to enjoy playing to the boos. He took Tyler's camera and took pics with it. Surprisingly, Breeze won with the Beauty Shot.
- My girlfriend hates Tyler but he won her over because this was fun. It's like, because it was non-televised there was a lot of fan interaction. At one point, Tyler told the referee "Don't touch me!" which led to "Don't touch him" chants. Tyler looked at the fans and was like "RIGHT?"
- Second, The Vaudevillains came out to their awesome old theme as they worked as faces. Simon Gotch took on Murphy or Blake. I forget which. Gotch and English were very over. Blake or Murphy won with a roll up. This led to a post match attack until Enzo and Carmella appeared in a balcony. That allowed Big Cass to appear behind Blake and Murphy and take them out. Even Carmella didn't really get booed. Their claimed they would be the next Tag Team Champions and got a big pop. Not as big as they did in Columbus though.
- Kalisto was out next and then Rhyno's theme hit for our second surprise. He got another HUGE pop. This was solid and Rhyno nearly cut Kalisto in half with the Gore.
- Tyson Kidd got a pop and then when we found out who his opponent was, we went nuts. Hideo Itami and Kidd stole the show up to this point. One dude shouted "Nattie's a whore" leading to him getting booed by the rest of the crowd. Great match, and Itami teased the GTS again. He won with the dropkick.
- At intermission, we caught a glimpse of the concert with the juggalos. It looked like the most depressing thing ever. It was quiet and people were just slowly rocking side to side while the guy was rapping. This was also the first place I've ever been where there was a huge line for the men's room but nothing for the ladies.
- Back from intermission, we got an NXT Women's Title Fatal Four Way. Sasha, Charlotte, Bayley and Bliss. Unfortunately, Bliss botched three or four moves and looked terrible. I cut her slack since she's only been wrestling less than two years I believe, but she struggled early on. Once we got past that, this thing picked up. Sasha and Charlotte took a spill in front of us on the outside, which sounded awful. Like they died. They did a sick tower of doom spot and Bayley nearly won with the Hugplex. Sasha stole the pin after that, defeating Charlotte again to retain. Besides Bliss being sloppy, this was excellent.
- Also, Bayley might have been the most over person. As she came out, it was clear that she was nearly in tears and she even tweeted about it. There was a guy who said he wanted a hug from Bayley before the show, so when she came out we all chanted" hug that guy." He got his hug.
- Finn Balor took on Cesaro next. The crowd lost their minds at the thought of this match. They delivered. Everything Cesaro does sounds incredibly hard. Balor asked for a chair from a fan near us. He sat Cesaro in it and hit an awesome dropkick on the outside. Surprisingly, Cesaro won this. He kicked out of the sick double stomp and won with a small package after a thumb to the eye. Great match.
- Sami Zayn cut a similar promo to the night before. Passionate, emotional and real.
- Main event time as Adrian Neville faced Kevin Owens. Again, hard hitting and awesome. Owens played to the crowd and they countered each other a ton. Neville hit a German and his reverse rana for a close two. He looked to get a concussion or something as he took a nasty spill from the top. Owens followed that with the powerbomb to win. Neville could barely walk as he was helped out.
- Another excellent show. My girlfriend is all about coming again if they return. The show in Columbus may have been a bit better but I enjoyed this one more probably because of how close we were and how interactive this was.
