NXT Rival

Yeah, I thought the show was, as usual, a hit. The tag match was great. I'd not seen much of Blake and Murphy and I admit I judged them as the standard jobber tag team they look like but the match delivered - even with a few botches along the way.

Neville/Balor was great. Owens/Zayn too. It's amazing how much pure talent is down there in NXT.

Loved the ending of the NXT Title match with Owens winning by ref stoppage. Makes this feud much more personal.

And why can't RAW and SmackDown give us Divas matches like in NXT? Seriously, given time, they can pull off some great stuff.

If this is the future of WWE then we're all in for a treat.

The show was amazeballs!

Every one cringed while the tag match was going on. We were sure someone was going to die. Not sure how many of the botches came across TV but damn!

Noelle and her brothers are awesome (the guys were 3 rows higher) they actually got tickets from someone in attendance who had extras. if it weren't for that they wouldn't have been there. We actually played "how many selfies can Senecca sneak into" every time someone would ask for one. She'd check them to see if I got in too lol

Balor and Neville stole the show, I was on the edge of my seat the entire match.

Owens and Zayn was INSANE! I think I was the only one in my section cheering for Owens. If you watch the replay when Owens is holding the belt up I'm going nuts while everyone is booing.

Some fun stuff from before the show.

I think Albert hates me... It started at R Evolution when the crew pointed out that I could be his stunt double. I've been trying to get a picture since then. Last night he came by and my buddy shouted to get his attention and people in line started pointing out his stunt double again and he replied "aw man come on!" and went back inside. He came by again and I asked for a picture and he said he'd be by in a while. He never came back. I'm going to start a YouTube show starting tomorrow on my search for Albert. Not sure whether to go the Jericho Conspiracy Victim or kind of a hunt for Bigfoot... Stay tuned!

We got a "we want Byron" chant started when he left to interview fans and Charolette took his place.

There was a guy with a "Free Riley" sign. We tried to get him to turn heel and rip the sign in half on camera before the preshow ended.

These shows are amazing in person and I think the best experience anyone will have with WWE. I had another taping tonight, I'll be at a house show tomorrow, RAW on Monday, and then back for NXT tapings on the 18th. It's addictive!

I'll leave you with a spoiler for next week from tonight's taping...

Rhyno and Brian Kendrick on NXT! I'll be watching 😄

I really hope he'll be THE Brian Kendrick again. I loved that gimmick and that theme song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M5ntsIbJ9I

I don't know that you were the only one cheering Owens, Sen. When he first held the belt up with the announcement, there was a big pop. Zayn is an excellent babyface and I don't get the feeling anyone had turned on him Cena/Reigns-style, but Owens has always been a guy who does the wrong thing for the right reason. He claims Zayn is his best friend, but he needs the title to support his family. He took it too far and quickly became an awesome ass-kicker, it's no wonder he's going to get some support.

That said, some of those reactions when he was powerbombing Zayn were amazing. I find it hard to believe anyone still has those legitimate reactions to wrestling in 2015, but there they were! That last kick out from Zayn where he just rolled over was so great.

What was the reaction to Balor's entrance? It came across perfect on TV, but sometimes things can feel a bit more staged live. And yeah, we saw all the botches in the tag match. It wasn't pretty.

Yeah this was a fantastic show... pretty much everyone puts a ton of effort into their work... the females are amazing... i've been so use to the wwe style of women matches that i even forget that many of these girls can go when given the green light....never seen a womans 4 way that wasn't a clusterfuck before.

also Finn is something else... wow.

Zayne at the end when he hit his head on the ramp doing that dive... i thought he was knocked out legit and Steen is just crazy brutal.. that had him looking as good as Brock imo.

Balor is always INSANE at any of the shows. The reaction is 10 times louder in the arena than on tv. I'm not sure if it's where I was sitting but watching the Owens match you did not hear that reaction inside. There were an incredible amount of boos when he won.

The reactions are hilarious but a lot of them are staged by fans who just want to be on tv. The blonde guy they show with his hands at his head is always there and goes out of his way to overact at moves during big matches, same thing when you see the black guy with the Mohawk, they all belong to some Facebook group who like wrestling and want to be on TV. The only reactions that I can say that were shown on tv and genuine were the girls they showed. Last night they showed the closing moments and when she came on the screen all you heard was "oh my god" as she tries to curl into a ball and hide in embarrassment.

Finn's entrance is epic.. i loved the music and the crowd participation  to some of the sections of his music... that was just so neat... i always loved the idea of a war paint wrestler too... where we see him out of the ring or cutting a promo looking normal... and when he wrestles he becomes that thing.

i'm sure it's been done elsewhere but i've never really seen it done like that before.

It's even better than that though, he doesn't do it for his TV matches. He saves it for the NXT specials, and presumably PPVs. He'll do that a maximum of 12 times per year. Such amazing music for it too.

Seems like these NXT events are causing some issues with the main roster, and you can see why. NXT get more time to wrestle and put on a good show, whereas the main roster are relegated to 3 minute matches and short PPV matches (unless you're lucky enough to main event, or someone has a good storyline). Some have talked out, the Bella's have mentioned how no women from NXT should want to move up as they get more time down in NXT, time that they wish they were given.

That's bull though. Couple of weeks ago, 3 matches went over two segs one went over three.

Raw matches in general have actually gotten longer since the third hour was added. So I dont know why they are complaining. Probably because NXT guys are gonna be taking their place on the card soon.

Last edited by rhys (Wed-18-Feb-2015 20:43:23)

can see why the women are mad though. The matches they get are less than 5 minutes long and booked shit. I prob wouldnt be able to tell you the difference between a sasha banks and say alica fox on raw, but the way the women are booked in nxt sasha banks blows my mind.

Considering Raw is a 3 hour show, there are still plenty of matches that lady 3 minutes. There was one a few weeks ago where the only match more than a few minutes was the main event.

And women's matches are by far the worse for it, with matches being won by roll up after 2 minutes.

The women, fair enough. Im just saying the guys have more than enough match time. The NXT womens division is the best its ever been and the last time WWE main women roster was that good they werent even PG.