This past Sunday I was fortunate enough to attend the NXT Blackpool event held within the Winter Gardens. I went to this event unsure of what to expect but in all honesty, I never expected that I would enjoy it so much. This event had absolutely everything. Lovely venue, emotion, humour, high octane action, technical wrestling, high spots and most of all, one of the best atmospheres I’ve ever experienced.
This event was near enough perfect. THIS WAS WRESTLING. The crowd made such a positive atmosphere, you could see it resonate clearly with the performers. I can understand why people would rather stay in this brand than move up to the main roster. Everyone was made out to be special, everyone was loved. Whether you were there to enhance others or whether you were in the main event, it didn’t matter, because you were… there.
There were so many special moments at this show. By now, you’ve probably heard or seen video of the crowd singing to Jordan and Gable which lasted well over 10 minutes and prevented them from starting their match. There was other special moments such as the crowd trying to get every performer to wave at them at one point during their match. Most obliged, even Baron Corbin. However, the one person who didn’t was the referee. He was then promptly greeted with chants of “The referees a w*nker!”.
There was also Bayley, who was greeted with “Hey Bayley, uh ah, I wanna know… Will you be my girl?” She responded by going on a stealth mission to give the referee a hug when he wasn’t looking (A picture of this will be forthcoming in another article with my photos from the event).
We also had emotion with wonderful moments such as William Regal returning home (with the fairground music no less) and both Finn Balor and Sami Zayn bringing out British NXT trainer Robbie Brookside to close the show and pay tribute to the work he does with all the young talent.
