Report by Jonathan Leung, thank you also to John Gugarty and Jim Caldwell.
I attended tonight’s NXT show in Albany. Crowd size, at least visually, seemed significantly bigger than their show last May. The wait to get into the Armory was wrapped around at least a few blocks.
Both the merchandise and food stands were immediately packed upon entry, which pushed the scheduled 7:30 PM belltime back a few minutes. Ring announcer Dasha Fuentes talked with a few fans and held a contest to see who knew the most NXT trivia.
Asuka beat Eva Marie with the Asuka Lock
Asuka got a good reaction while Eva Marie got her usual big time heat. Eva Marie looked a bit lost at times and her timing wasn’t the greatest, but it was a fine opener.
Apollo Crews beat Alex Riley with the Backdrop Powerbomb
Decent to good match. The crowd liked Crews and his impressive moves, but he seems to be missing that special something right now.
Carmella beat Peyton Royce with the Headscissors Choke
Carmella was over, but the match was pretty subpar to be honest. Royce’s offense was very basic.
Enzo & Big Cass beat the Vaudevillains with the Rocket Launcher on Aiden English
Really good tag match that got the “This is Awesome” chant towards the end. Enzo & Big Cass were over huge and the Vaudevillains played good heels. Both teams should get a shot on the main roster.
Intermission
Sami Zayn beat Elias Samson with the Helluva Kick
Samson is not good at all. Crowd didn’t like him, his offense was basic, and he blew an over-the-top-rope spot pretty badly. On the other hand, Zayn did everything he could to make it watchable and keep the crowd engaged. A one man show in every sense of the word. Probably the best performance of the night.
NXT Women’s Champion Bayley beat Alexa Bliss with the Bayley-to-Bayley to retain
Good match. Bayley was unsurprisingly super over and the crowd sang some of the usual support songs for her. Bliss had some nice moments in the match, including a backflip double knee drop and a sunset flip bomb out of the corner that got nice applause. Bayley though was the star and just connects with the crowd like almost nobody in NXT.
NXT Champion Finn Balor & Austin Aries beat Baron Corbin & Samoa Joe when Balor pinned Corbin with the Bloody Sunday.
Big reactions for all four. Corbin got good heel heat and not the “You can’t wrestle” heat he had last time in Albany. A methodical pace to start, but things picked up towards the end. Aries seemed on a mission to impress from the get go. Balor sold the ankle after a double stop, but overall seemed like he was close to 100%.
Fun post main event ending as Balor gave props to Aries, Zayn, Carmella, Enzo, and Big Cass. He then said he was looking for someone and went around ringside and the entrance way, then to the back. Over the mic, he asked Enzo, Big Cass, Carmella, and Zayn if they saw the person he was looking for and they all said no in their own unique ways…
…which led to a spotlight being shown on Bayley at the entrance way. Balor then came out in Bayley gear to her entrance music and inflatable tube men theatrics. They both got in the ring where Bayley took off her jacket to reveal a Balor Club shirt. Bayley jokingly told Balor how cute he was and asked him what Finn 3:16 was. Balor said that Finn 3:16 says that I just hugged your ass and he proceeded to hug tackle Bayley to the ground to a big pop. The two then greeted fans at ringside to end things.
Overall, a good show and a really cool way to end things. I’ve been a number of WWE live events around NY in the past few years and there hasn’t been any of the post-match antics that have occured in the past or in other cities. It was basically all business and drive home safely. You can’t help but notice that NXT is such a different and fun environment.