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The WWE Experience live from the Arnold Classic took place today. The hosts of the event were Greg Hamilton, Corey Graves and Jo Jo. Here is a breakdown of the event.
-Colin Cassidy w/ Enzo Amore defeated Tag Team Champion Buddy Murphy w/ Wesley Blake
-NXT Women’s Champion Sasha Banks defeated Alexa Bliss
-Baron Corbin defeated Tyler Breeze
-Dana Brooke defeated Bayley
-Adrian Neville defeated Kalisto
-William Regal and Hark Henry came out for a Q&A session with the live audience. I asked Regal where he thought NXT would be a year from now, and he said that it was remarkable to see where it is now, being that it’s only been a year since the network launched. He said that this week with the shows in Columbus and Cleveland was the start of NXT’s progression, stating that both shows sold out in under 2 hours and had absolutely zero marketing or advertising outside of social media. He also made a point to say “I can say this because I can get away with it,” if you are a WRESTLING fan, then NXT is the place to be.
-Sami Zayn came out and cut a promo similar to the one he did in Columbus. He spoke about NXT being the most relevant wrestling company in the world, and that we were all part of the revolution. Great, passionate stuff as always from Sami.
- Corey Graves introduced Michael Cole, who brought out Triple H and Arnold Schwarzenegger for a surprise appearance and they spoke briefly to the crowd about the importance of health and fitness.
-NXT Champion Kevin Owens defeated Finn Balor- Lot’s of comedy from Owen’s before and after the match. Before, Kevin said he could win any contest at the Arnold Classic, saying that he had the best body in the building. He said he would win the body building contest, the Strongman, and especially the Bikini Contest. After the match, Kevin said he was sickened by the women in the crowd cheering for Finn taking his shirt off, and asked if the crowd wanted him to take his shirt off. The crowd cheered, which led to Kevin asking if Corey Graves wanted him to take his shirt off. Corey said it’s about what the people want. Kevin says, “I want you to look me in the eye and tell me that you want me to take my shirt off.” Corey does, but looks away at the end, and Kevin says “No, I want constant eye contact!” So they get virtually nose to nose and Corey says, “Kevin will you please take your shirt off?” Kevin goes to the center of the ring, acts like he is going to do it, then grabs the mic and says, “You didn’t pay enough to see me take my shirt off.” Pretty entertaining stuff.
-Charlotte defeated Carmella
-Colin Cassidy w/Enzo Amore defeated Simon Gotch
-Baron Corbin defeated Tag Team Champion Wesley Blake w/ Buddy Murphy
-Hideo Itami defeated Tyler Breeze
-Hulk Hogan made a special appearance and started a Q&A session with the fans, but was then joined by Triple H. I was given a chance to ask another question, so I started by thanking Triple H for what he has given us with NXT. I then asked Hunter if he could see NXT developing into its’ own self-contained entity where the NXT superstars would stay in NXT instead of going to Raw, so that they could make NXT its own major main-stream brand. I believe Hunter wasn’t as direct about the answer because it was being filmed, but he basically said anything is possible with NXT, it just depends on the fans. He was excited about how well the Columbus and Cleveland shows sold out in under 2 hours, and said they easily could have doubled their ticket sales. He said if the fans want it than it could happen. He also made it a point to say not to thank him, but to thank Kevin and Finn and Sami, and Charlotte, etc. because they deserve the credit. Hulk Hogan then asked me if I was asking if NXT would go head-to-head with the WWE, to which the crowd cheered, and I answered, yes. Hunter then reiterated it was up to the fans. Most of the other questions were from children about storyline things or about getting in shape.
-NXT Women's Champion Sasha Banks defeated Charlotte
-NXT Champion Kevin Owens fought Adrian Neville in the Main Event.
Side notes:
-They held two different rounds of tryouts, both with the same group of men and women. It was basically 3 hours of watching them exercise in the ring.
-We went to all of the autograph signings and met everyone. Everyone was nice and very gracious. I spent some time with Sami Zayn and Bayley toward the end of the show. They both are genuinely great people. Bayley told me how much she loved the Columbus crowd, and I asked her about the “Let’s go Bayley, Cena Sucks” chant that broke out. She said that it’s happened to her before and she doesn’t know if it’s because people don’t like her, which I emphatically said, “NO, of course not!” I told her I think people just really love her and really dislike Cena, which gave us a both a laugh.
-The camera crew filmed a lot of the host’s interactions with the crowd.
-Alex Riley was in the crowd watching most of the show. Emma and Summer Rae were both there as well, but neither appeared in front of the audience.
-After each match, the winners were given a chance to get about 20 or 30 seconds of mic time, which was good for some (Enzo, Collin, Sasha, Owens) and rough for others (Corbin, Brooke).
Overall, it was great to be able to meet and interact with everyone. However, it was quite a strange environment, because the crowd watching the matches was pretty much silent outside of the occasional catch phrase or big spot. I attribute that to most of the audience being people that just stopped by on their way to other areas of the expo, versus being big wrestling fans. You could tell that the hosts were trying very hard to put over how much of a big deal this was to have WWE and NXT represented there. There were numerous mentions of NXT being "the future" and being a "revolution." I think that everyone in the back that is involved in NXT has bought in 100%. It's beginning to have an ECW feel to it.
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