For that matter, make it an annual tournament for the IC or US Title.
Round 1. 8 Wrestlers, 4 matches.
Round 2. 4 Wrestlers, 2 matches.
Round 3 final for championship.
Losers Round 2. 4 Wrestlers, 2 matches. Win, you’re safe. Lose… Strike 2.
Loser’s Round 3. 2 WWE Wrestlers, 2 NXT Wrestlers. Winner gets the WWE Spot. WWE Loser? Strike 3, you’re fired. NXT Wrestler loses? Stay in NXT another year.
You said what I was thinking better than I could. And it’s not like he’s had truly breakout black stars. Look how long it took for Mark Henry, including what seems like dozens of bad gimmicks. And despite learning that they had a real monster heel who could finally get the monster heat (something he didn’t generate to as large a degree in his earlier runs), after his title run booking knocked the legs out from under him again. He’s better off on the IR than letting the McMahon booking team write for him.
TIL that twitter really loves Alexa Bliss, and to a lesser extent, Sasha. Finn Balor likes himself.
Some pics from NXT Columbus below–the review is written, but I’m waiting for some input from my friend who was there with me.
Alexa Bliss (47 faves and 13 RT as of this post.)
Sasha Banks (27 faves and 14 RT as of this post.)
Finn Balor #1 (Three faves, including Finn Balor.)
Finn Balor #2 (That, by the way, is how close we were to the steps from the stage to the ring area.)
Tyson Kidd – FACT.
Big Cass and Carmella. Enzo is blocked by a cameraman, grr.
Awesome pictures Law!
It looked like you some hella good seats to be that close to the entranceway. How was your view of the ring?
Can I also say how weird and unnerving it is that Tyler Breeze has the same name as me (well…first…) and hearing it all the time is one thing, but seeing the character he is is just…I dunno…so weird
Did they tape that show? They seem to have the same light show setup.
You happen to get a glimpse of Demott tweeting his resignation? 
Look everybody! It’s Tyler! /gasp
I was camped out on ticketmaster when the tickets went on sale. We were seven rows back from the ring, on the right side from the perspective of the hard camera. Great view, though at times we had trouble with people standing in front of us. Also, and I’m leaving this out of my official review, but a few of the Full Sailers who came up did not cover themselves in glory–they were constantly up and down, and they seemed to enjoy going back to the last row of empty seats behind us to shout really stupid, not particularly funny or clever things. This was just two folks, so I’m not going to write off the entire Full Sail crowd on their account–but they were really quite annoying.
As far as taping: They had a ton of cameras going. In addition to the hard camera, they had two cameramen ringside, plus at least one more on the stage where guys came in. Because you’re asking, I’m going to figure you didn’t click on my spoiler above. Under that spoiler is a suggestion that the second half of the show was a TV taping, based on my buddy’s scoping out the match card taped to the hard camera’s tripod. There were also a few moments that didn’t make any sense if this was a house show. I hope to heck it does go up as an episode of NXT TV–the main event in particular was a MOTY candidate.
Some sites are reporting the Columbus show was taped for a NXT DVD that will be released later this year.
No, that was just short-term memory loss. 
March 5, 2015: The night a couple thousand people in Columbus, Ohio, helped make history.
As soon as I saw Triple H retweet the announcement that NXT was doing its first ever show outside the state of Florida, I knew I was going. A text to a fellow wrestling fan, Antonio, confirmed I wouldn’t be going alone. A few more weeks and I was poised on Ticketmaster, waiting to snap up the tickets. We wound up seven rows back, right on the aisle–a position, as it turned out, that put us within feet of the entrance “ramp”.
We arrived at the LC Pavillion around 7pm to find a line curving 'round the block; the door was open, but it was just one door, so we spent a few minutes in the bitter cold before we made it inside. Past the merch table and we got our first look at the set up.
LC Pavillion isn’t typically a sporting venue; on most nights, live shows are held here. As such, the layout was a bit unusual. About ten to twelve rows of seats on either side of the ring; probably another ten to twelve on a low, railed “balcony” on the side with the hard camera (about which more later). Behind the ring, from the viewpoint of the hard camera, there was a small stage with seats on either wing, and the wrestlers’ entrance in the middle, with a Titantron above. There wasn’t room to accommodate an entrance ramp, so after entering on stage, wrestlers would get to the floor and ultimately the ring via a small set of steps to the right (hard camera perspective) of the the stage. Our seats were just behind these steps, so we were within ten feet of every single person who came up and down them.
Not long after we’d settled into our seats, Jo Jo appeared to announce former tag team champion and current NXT announcer, Corey Graves! He makes a few comments to get the crowd warmed up, and prepares to open the show–but pauses. NXT always has a few surprises, he tells us. Lights down, the Motörhead hits–its The Game himself, Triple H. Let’s face it–there was never a doubt that he’d be here to open the show; this is his baby, and it’s taking its first steps out into the big, wide world. Up on the stage, Trips welcomes us, and tells us we’re all a part of history; this is the first step on NXT’s global journey. The crowd worshipped him; this is NXT HHH, after all. A few half-hearted “Better than RAW” chants broke out. As you would expect, Trips no sold them. After getting us to chant N-X-T a few times, The Game turned the stage back over to Jo Jo, who announced that the opening match of the night would be a tag team match.
Asian strings–our first competitor is Hideo Itami! HI-DE-O chants break out before the man himself appears in his Scorpion ring attire, setting the crowd alight. Cheers follow him all the way to the ring. When he’s in the ring, the lights go down. A heartbeat, distorted guitars. The house lights pulse red. FINN BALOR! Did I say Hideo set the crowd alight? Actually, he just set them smoldering; Finn came and poured gasoline on us. With Finn chants accompanying him to the ring, he performed a somewhat modified version of his entrance, posing atop the lighting rig near the stage steps and slinking, crawling, and slithering his way into the ring.
Their opponents entered to old-timey music and a black and white titantron: The Vaudevillains! I regret to report that they elected not to exercise their abilities to turn the entire world black and white for their entrance. Reactions were mild-to-medium boos. They’ve obviously lost a lot of the momentum they had when they were introduced, I’m not sure how much of it was because people genuinely dislike them, vs. heel heat, vs. they were against the two hottest babyfaces in the promotion and anyone short of Daniel Bryan would probably get heel heat for that. I still love them, particularly Gotch, and so I’ll put it down to a mix of two and three. Regardless, after the pops Itami and Balor got, this was quite the cool reception. To be expected, following some confusing and contradictory booking and losses.
Needless to say, these four gentlemen put on a good match to open the show: back and forth, with both sides getting in their signature spots. Gotch and English were on our side of the ring; Gotch in particular had some excellent reactions to negative chants directed at English. Eventually, the Vaudevillains wound up in opposing corners to set up the double running knee that I’d actually forgotten was Itami/Balor’s tag team move, and Balor got the pin from the Coup de Grace–which looks even more effective in person than it does on the HD screen.
After Finn and Itami celebrate their victory and the Vaudevillains slink off, licking their wounds, Jo Jo announces the next match on the card: A Divas match, scheduled for one fall! First to the ring, from Columbus, Ohio, the hometown girl, Alexa Bliss! She gets a good reaction; maybe a few O-H-I-O chants. In person, she really is that tiny. I lean over and comment to Antonio that she’ll be picking up the win, in a bit of classic booking; he isn’t sure, and waits to see who she’ll be facing.
…from Boston, Massachusetts, it’s THE BOSS! Well, maybe Alexa’s not picking up that win after all. This was a legit mark-out moment; like a lot of you, I’ve become a big fan of The Boss, and to see her in person–not more than thirty feet away, and as near as five or six–was electric. Dueling chants broke out; my friend and I were solidly on the “NO SHE’S NOT!” side of the fence. While Alexa got a warm hometown welcome, Alexa got a pop that put hers to shame–as befits the current NXT Women’s BOSS.
The match got underway. Alexa got some good offense in early; she continues to work on developing the “mean streak” that Steve Austin and others so often like to talk about, and moves that look like they belong in a combat-sports ring, rather than a gymnastics mat. But Sasha turns the tables and hits her double-knee in the corner early. Both women wind up outside the ring, and Alexa makes it back in to earn the countout victory. This was perhaps the most disappointing match of the night–I would’ve loved to see Sasha work a 15-20 minute match with any of the veterans, and the finish was abrupt and very un-NXT. Ultimately, it looks like they wanted the hometown girl to get the win, but weren’t willing to have the Women’s Champ eat a pin clean.
I’m going to pause here for a few words about the crowd. Early on, Antonio wondered aloud how many people might’ve come up from Florida to be a part of the show. Not long after that, the ref came over and exchanged some friendly words with some folks a few rows ahead of us, and we’d found our first Full Sailers. There were probably a dozen or so of them a few rows ahead of us–impressive dedication to come up to the snowy north on a Thursday, but this was a historic occasion. More interesting, however, was the seating area to the left side of the wrestler’s entrance. This was a solid block of fans who seemed to know each other, and who often tried to start chants (with varying success). This is pure speculation, but I think HHH brought in some ringers. He knows that part of the appeal of NXT is the (usually) fantastic Full Sail crowd, and he did his best to seed a little bit of that energy in Columbus. Results were mixed–this was no Full Sail crowd–but I appreciate the effort, if effort it was.
Creepy Greg* comes out to say a few words. Turns out he’s an Ohio native! Past that, I honestly don’t remember anything he said.
The next match gives us our first real surprises of the night. First, Tyson Kidd’s music hits–the FACT man himself is here, complete with one-half of the WWE Tag Team belts. The crowd response is overwhelmingly positive from as soon as his music hits; Kidd is NXT royalty at this point, in the first rank of performers like Adrian Neville, Tyler Breeze, and Bo Dallas. Wearing his trademark Beats headphones and FACT / CATS boots, he makes his way to the ring and the lights dim for his opponent’s entrance.
A path of spotlights marks the way from the entrance to the steps, and the boos hit. Baron Corbin is very much NOT welcome here. It wasn’t universal, but I’d say it was 75/25, and far and away the most vocal that I could see were the Full Sailers just ahead of us. This wasn’t heel heat; this was pure go-away heat. A couple of the Full Sailers saw their opportunity to visit the facilities and perhaps get another beer. I don’t know if this is going to be something we see developing over the next couple taped episodes of NXT, but it’s clear that Baron is losing the crowd quickly.
The match itself isn’t bad, in all honesty; Tyson is pretty clearly carrying Baron, but that’s why he’s there. In general, the whole thing is an excellent opportunity for Baron to get meaningful ring time away from the TV cameras; I wonder whether they’d anticipated it would be in front of such a hostile crowd. And honestly, Baron is developing; while he’s still mostly shoulder blocks and clotheslines, there were a few new moves sprinkled in. But Kidd’s every bit of offense was cheered; Baron’s every punch was booed. When he got the pin via the End of Days, the reaction was overwhelmingly hostile–a little taste of what it must’ve been like in Philadelphia at the Rumble. On Baron’s way out, the Full Sailers ahead of us slung vitriol at him–and he stood and stared them down. Honestly, it gave me chills. If the crowd is going to turn on Baron, he’d make an excellent monster heel, and whichever way it goes, he has an undeniable physical presence and charisma.
Seizure-inducing lighting effects and dubstep announce the NXT Tag Team Champions, Blake and Murphy. Blake’s here to compete in singles action against one half of the Realest Guys in da Room, Big Cass! Enzo and Big Cass enter, accompanied by Carmella, and deliver the opening lines we all know and love; the Columbus crowd is there with every word. The crowd adores Enzo and Big Cass; Carmella… not so much. This is the first place I really fall down on my duties as your NXT Columbus recapper–I was too busy marking out to take notes on the promo they delivered to Blake and… uh, that Australian guy. Big Cass was mostly in charge of promo duties, leaving Enzo to pace and gesture and bounce around his half of the stage. Enzo doesn’t GO full raccoon, guys; he STAYS full raccoon.
I don’t remember much of this match; ultimately, Blake got the win over Big Cass off a distraction that was part Carmella, part… uh, that Australian guy. There’s a few minutes downtime here while Enzo and Big Cass tend to Carmella, who apparently took a knee injury in the distraction finish.
After a Connor’s Cure commercial, we move on to our next match. WEeeeeell, it’s the Big Show? No one was expecting Show to turn up, and no one was particularly happy about it. This wasn’t anything like Baron Corbin’s heat, but there were plenty of confused boos. Well, surely he’s here to put over some fresh NXT talent? His opponent’s music hits–
FEED ME MORE! It’s… the Ryback? The reaction wasn’t bad, and as all good wrestling fans love a chant, the Feed Me More was certainly over. But it was pretty clear this wasn’t what anyone was here for.
I missed the first few minutes of this match, faffing about with my phone and doing things on Twitter. Antonio took advantage of the opportunity to visit the merch table and indirectly help make a better life for Kevin Owens’s wife and kids. So it’s a surprise that this turned into one of the more entertaining, memorable matches, thanks to the crowd and Big Show’s skill at working them. The crowd was going into business for itself early on here, with “FEED ME ROIDS” and “WE WANT BLUE PANTS” chants breaking out, but things only got interesting when the crowd chanted for show to “PLEASE RETIRE clap clap clapclapclap” Show noticed the chants and got a mic from ringside. “Please retire?” he asked, before pausing to deal with some offense from Ryback. “Please retire?” he repeated. “I’ve still got ten years left on my ironclad contract!” With one veteran move, Show turned the crowd–the next chant was “TEN MORE YEARS! TEN MORE YEARS!” When the crowd started to turn again, Show mimed “ten” with his hands, and no doubt whispered “ten more years”–this was in the opposite corner, so all I could see were his hands. Ryback ultimately got the win, pinning Show after pressing him overhead–a move that’s always impressive, no matter who does it. When Show got up, it was to chants of “TEN MORE YEARS!”. He got a mic, and gave us three last words: “Ten more years.”
I’m as tired of Show as anyone, but I’ve got nothing but respect for him after this. It was a little bit of house show magic–freed from the shackles of Raw’s scripts, Show could react naturally to the crowd–with a lot of veteran wisdom. Hats off to you, Show (but I hope you’re not serious about that ten more years, really).
Intermission, and another surprise–or maybe just a rumor for the mill. While Antonio was visiting the merch table, he spotted the match card taped to the leg of the hard table, and strained to get a good look at it. He spotted a few surprising details that’ll come out over the rest of this review, but he also spotted two words just above the second half of the card: “TV TAPING” Now, as it happened this was never confirmed by any announcement; you can consider it a rumor for now. That said, there were some things that seemed very TV during this half of the show, so if you are passionate about avoiding spoilers, consider whether you want to continue reading.
Greg comes out, asks a few fans how they’ve enjoyed the show, and then announces the countdown to the second half of the show. During intermission, a few hands come by carrying a trampoline; no surprise, then, when our first match (scheduled for one fall–thanks Jo Jo!) is announced to include Kallisto. Plenty of lucha chants–wrestling fans, again!–and Kallisto enters the ring via trampoline assisted flip over the top rope. His opponent is announced…
LOOK, IT’S TYLER! Prince Pretty enters, selfie-stick in hand. LIGHTED selfie stick! The crowd loves Tyler, and who couldn’t love a man that gorgeous? I’m going to admit that while I started taking more notes around this time, my memory gets a bit hazy on the matches themselves, other than the highlights. Among the many pro-Tyler chants, the highlight must’ve been when the crowd belted out “GORGEOUS HEADLOCK! clap clap clapclapclap” for… well, you know, a gorgeous headlock. When they break, Tyler turns to the crowd and responds, “I KNOW!” After a good back and forth match, Tyler picks up the win off the Beauty Shot.
To introduce our next competitor, we have a special guest–the Greatest of All Time, Nature Boy Ric Flair! Need I say the building pretty much marked out as one? Woos, we’re not worthys, and a lot of bowing down before the greatness of the Greatest. He styles and profiles his way down to the ring, says a few words about the event, and introduces his daughter, Charlotte, who’s just as much of a presence in person as you’d expect. Time for her competitor…
Bayley! I commented that it was a shame they didn’t bring the wacky waving inflatable arm guys, and then up came the wacky waving inflatable arm guys! (To be fair, they didn’t do a heck of a lot of waving, but it’s the thought that counts.) She gives her hairband to a young fan on the right side of stage and makes her way to the ring. Highlights of the match–plenty of “Let’s go Bayley/Cena sucks” chants, a trip 'round the ringposts, with Bayley slamming Charlotte’s head into the top turnbuckle on each in turn to set up a perfect Flair Flop that had even daddy cracking a grin while he tried to be livid about the beating Charlotte was taking. Early in the match, Bayley got a high five from Ric and slapped a Bayley bracelet on his wrist–by the time Bayley was giving Charlotte a bit of a beating in his corner, that was gone and he was perfectly in character, red-faced and livid. In the end, Charlotte picked up the win and left with her dad.
Next up, Alex Riley gets his shot at Kevin Owens. Alex Riley was soundly booed; Kevin Owens got a pure babyface reaction. I’m a bit short on detail for this match; Owens hit multiple cannonballs into the corner, there was a fair bit of brawling outside the ring. Crowd was hot for Owens, with plenty of “KILL OWENS KILL” chants, along with a good-natured “REST OWENS REST” when he had Riley in a rest hold. Owens got the win off a powerbomb, to the approval of all present. Owens started to head out–but on second thought, he went back to get Riley and powerbomb him onto the ring apron. Before he can execute his signature move, though, Finn’s music hits and the Irishman comes out to make the save. A staredown ensued, with a fingerwaggle from Balor, who then dived off the stage onto Owens, who was quickly sent packing (to chants of “RUN OWENS RUN”). This little encounter tends to confirm that this was a TV taping; in the context of a normal house show, it didn’t serve any purpose and was never paid off.
Almost time for the main event, but before that–Sami Zayn is out for an in-ring promo. He’s got a lump in his throat from us all chanting olé, but he’s not medically cleared to wrestle tonight. Of course, for over a decade he’d wrestle like this all the time, he tells us, but now he’s made it. He puts the crowd over; he puts NXT over–which sets off a very vocal “BETTER THAN RAW” chant, to which he responds, “Hey guys, don’t get me in trouble now, ok?”–and heads off to clear the stage for the main event.
The main event. Antonio had told me he saw the main event when he saw the match card earlier. He said it was Adrian Neville and “a current WWE Superstar,” and that he thought I might just mark out. Some folks had started a Y2J chant earlier in the night, which got no comment from Antonio. (I’m not sure I’d have marked out for Jericho, honestly.) Adrian Neville entered first, with some malfunctioning and very loud CO2 cannons. Who was this “current WWE Superstar” going to be?
CESARO! I have never been so excited to hear that European siren. Coming down the ramp and entering the ring, it becomes obvious: this man is ripped like nothing I’ve ever seen. His muscles have muscles, and I think those muscles have muscles too. This doesn’t really come through on TV, but in person, it’s all you can see. The man is nothing short of amazing. When the siren hit, the crowd blew the roof off the joint, and the match that followed was pretty much an instant classic. The spot that stands out in my memory was outside the ring–Neville went over the railing and into the crowd. When he picked himself up, he mounted the railing and jumped right into Cesaro’s waiting arms, getting himself a sidebody onto the barrier on our side of the crowd for his trouble. Cesaro also did a brief swing–four or five rotations by crowd count–and got the win off the Neutralizer.
Jo Jo thanked us all for coming and that was the night. It was a fantastic evening–the kind of wrestling show every wrestling show should be. It was a chance to be a part of the development of one of the best wrestling shows being produced currently–one that’s taking its first steps outside its nursery. When it comes to your town–and it will–put your money down and get in that building. Triple H’s baby will not let you down.
Wow. Thanks LawMonkey, great report!
Thanks for the awesome writeup, LawMonkey. The bit about Big Show & Ryback was kind of unexpected. I thought you accidentally pasted that part in the prepost. 
I saw BS live when he was a face, and he knew how to work the crowd then too.
Sounds like everybody’s tired of Corbin already, but he hasn’t exactly sought audience approval anyway. Does RoH have a lot of shows in that area LM? That might explain why KO got cheered, but it could have been because he’s pretty damn good.
Yeah, I was kind of pissed when Show’s music hit. That he turned that around speaks volumes to his skill and experience.
I’m not sure how often RoH comes through Cbus–I live down in Cincy. That said, he was fighting Alex Riley. Satan himself would be cheered if he were fighting Alex Riley.
Wow thanks for the pictures (if I haven’t said that already) and the awesome review!
I’m glad you had fun and I’m jealous you got to see two out of my three favorite current superstars (Cesaro and Ryback) in person.
Pure curiosity did you take all the copious notes for us and write this all for us? or for some other job/your own personal notes? It certaintly puts my shitty NXT and RAW recap to shame!
(and you saw Bayley in person? I mean the hotness is there on TV but when she’s in front of you and wresting and…)
I take notes on who’s in the matches and who wins, and a few other notes on interesting chants, etc. Other than that it’s just memory.
It has been reported that Paul Heyman’s client, BRAAAAAAAAAAWK LEZZZZZZNURRRR, is indeed backstage for tonight’s Raw as scheduled, so it would seem that whatever heated discussions he had with Vince a few weeks back aren’t so severe that they’d stand in the way of a paycheck.
I won’t be watching, as usual, because I’ll be asleep all day and working tonight. I do, however, have a busy few days ahead of me - I’ll be attending the house show in Seattle this Saturday night, as well as the afternoon show in Portland the next day. I suspect they’ll be more or less the same, but I’m nonetheless looking forward to seeing them both. So far, they’re only advertising Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan, Dean Ambrose, Kane, Bad News Barrett, Big Show, and Luke Harper, but doubtless there’ll be several more appearing alongside that group.
The weekend after that, I’ll be seeing Mick Foley do his standup show in Bellevue. It’ll be my second time seeing him live, and from what I’ve heard much of what he has to say in any given show is very off-the-cuff, so I’m sure most of it will be new to me.
Paul F’n Heyman. When the best promo guy on the roster is Paul Heyman you know you’ve got an issue. Don’t get me wrong, I love Paul Heyman, I drank the kool-aid 15 years ago and I drink it today because it’s SO DAMN GOOD. If it weren’t for Paul Heyman I probably wouldn’t watch Raw anymore. But watching Paul Heyman bury the roster with his promo skills week after week only shows that there will never be another wrestler who will match the promo abilities of Ric Flair, Jake Roberts, or hell, CM Punk. Maybe, MAYBE Bray Wyatt, but as long as he’s stuck in midcard hell he may as well be reading lines from “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.”
Anyway, that was a hell of a promo by Paul Heyman.
So I decided to watch Raw tonight because I wanted to see Brock, and maybe Taker. I got my Brock–after Paul introduced a Roman fellatio-video. But pretty much everything else… Jesus Christ. If the E were actively trying to push me away, they couldn’t do much better than this. I’ve got my fingers crossed that AAA either hires Jim Ross (or brings Matt and Vampiro over) to do English language commentary or else I’m going to have to start learning Spanish. It’s easier than Japanese, and I’m already familiar with a lot of the big names thanks to Lucha Underground. FFS.
Wow, they’ve been throwing everything but the kitchen sink at us trying to sell Wrestlemania.
Wiz Khalifa does a couple of songs.
Heyman’s usual obscenely great promo. Brock paid to stand there again.
Rollins and The Authority made to look like low grade morons mostly by the writing.
Cena just brought down Rusev, so why do I need to see a match here? The SuperAthlete has been beaten.
Bray carries a long non-appearance appearance by Taker. Five whole recorded words, no video.
And then they give away the Orton-Rollins payoff for free.
Scorched Earth, eh?