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NXT Live Event
San Antonio, Texas at the Azteck Theater
Report by Dot Net reader Aziz Showery
I’ve been a wrestling fan for 25 plus years. I stopped attending WWE main roster shows because I felt that every time I went, the wrestlers were just going through the motions and were starting to feel super predictable. I was not having a good time at all for the main roster shows. This was my very first NXT event and my first time in the Azteck Theater in downtown San Antonio. I drove four hours north from the Rio Grande Valley to attend this event. It was either this show or the Ring of Honor show in the same city. I chose this event because I wanted to see the GOAT Shawn Michaels once again.
The show started at 7:30 and I got to the theater at around 7:00. I loved the home comfortable feel that this venue provided. My seats were in the mezzanine section and I got a good birds eye view of the ring. There were a few empty seats throughout the venue. I’m not too sure how many people this venue could hold, but I’d say there were 1,500 in attendance. I was able to get a double Hennessey and club soda for $19 before the show began.
Triple H’s music hit the sound system, and the whole place went crazy. He did his schtick and told everyone about WarGames the next night and how ‘WE ARE NXT’ and that was it. Nice surprise.
1. Aleister Black beat The Velveteen Dream. Both men will be major stars on the main roster, but I really dig TVD’s gimmick. Their match was pretty much similar to the WarGames match the next night. A good opener and it set the show off to a very hot start.
2. Kairi Sane defeated Peyton Royce.
3. Andrade “Cien” Almas (w/Zalina Vega) defeated Johnny Gargano. What a match. Vega performed a huracanrana on Johnny Wrestling and he went straight into the ring steps. Johnny Wrestling didn’t need to win here as he was super over.
4. Tyler Bate and Trent Seven defeated Mark Andrews and WWE UK Champion Pete Dunne. Seven llooks like a Sammy Zayn Jr. in his entrance outfit. Another stellar match. There was a cool top rope huracanrana into a Pearl River Plunge powerbomb that blew the crowd away.
5. The Authors of Pain and Roderick Strong dfeeated “Sanity” Eric Young, Alexander Wolfe, and Killian Dain in a six man tag. I’m not too crazy about any of these guys except for Strong.
7. Ember Moon defeated another female wrestler. I went to the restroom during the match. I made it just in time to see Ember Moon deliver her finisher off the top rope. This finisher is sick and I’m worried it could break someone’s neck.
8. Drew McIntyre defeated Adam Cole (w/Bobby Fish, Kyle O’Reilly) to retain the NXT Championship with Shawn Michaels as special referee. Michaels came out and the place went nuts. It was nice to hear his theme music live once again. McIntyre is HUGE in person. He made Cole look like a tiny cruiserweight. Overall, a fun, entertaining match with HBK throwing out the other members of The Undisputed Era from ringside. Shawn was laid out by a superkick from Cole as Drew ducked and it looked sick live. The UE came back out and attacked McIntyre. I thought there would be a DQ but nope, Shawn let the match continue. Shawn delivered Sweet Chin Music to one of the UE members, and McIntyre hit his finisher and pinned Cole. I would have loved to have seen a title change but that’s okay.
Overall, NXT delivered. There is so much more passion in the wrestlers from NXT. To be honest, I probably won’t go to another main roster show again. I want to see hard hitting wrestling. I want to see passion. I don’t want to see the wrestlers go through the motions and that’s what the main roster does. I want to get my money’s worth and I got that with NXT. This was the best live wrestling I’ve seen in a long time. The venue made it even more magical.
Gee, what an inspiring show review. Couldn’t be bothered to watch the women’s match or even know who Ember Moon faced and said nothing about AOP/Strong vs Sanity because he’s not much of a fan of anyone in the match except Strong.