TL;DR is that this was a kickass show with no dead spots and only a few bad spots.
- They had the full set-up going, with the usual Full Sail entrance and monitor (though no LCD ring apron, I don't think). Packed house that sold out almost immediately after tickets went on sale, so a crowd of 2,200 or so. Of note: cameramen were all over the place (portables at least--don't know about hard cameras) so this show could well end up in part or in full on the Network. They were taping all throughout the show.
- Triple H dropped by to open things. Shouldn't have been a surprise in retrospect given that this is tied to the Arnold Classic but the crowd liked it.
- Itami/Balor vs. The Vaudevillains. No body paint for Balor--I was secretly hoping for a
Brutus Buckeye motif, but that'd probably be too much to ask for. Short but the most traditional and old-school-feeling match of the night. This was a smark crowd, as you'd expect, but they went along and booed the Vaudevillains--didn't seem malicious as compared to what was to come. Itami teased the GTS--again, and got cut off--again. He worked a short but effective FIP segment and Balor wiped out both guys after getting the hot tag.
- Alexa Bliss vs. Sasha Banks. Bliss is from Columbus so she got the hometown pop and had lots of family there, but Banks was even more over (lots of out-of-towners, too, so not everyone felt the hometown connection nor did they all go along with Corey Graves' "O-H!" chant). Another short match but Bliss busted out a ton of roll-up variations, which was fun. She hit Banks with a baseball slide to the floor and then something happened--unfortunately in the GA section seeing any action on the floor was a longshot, but Bliss won by countout. Crowd didn't like that ending at all, but it was refreshing to see someone *not* get jobbed out at home.
- Tyson Kidd vs. Baron Corbin. Hostile reaction to Corbin with a lot of Kidd fans. Kidd did lots of classic heel stalling for awhile, as the traditional count-the-seconds game petered out, then played hit-and-run. This was actually a good match, but it was a total Kidd broomstick job and the crowd shit on Corbin in a big way. Naturally he won it with the End of Days. For some reason this was the longest match of the first part of the show.
- Big Cass vs. Wesley Blake. Amore & co. were WAY over and the crowd recited their usual rap word-for-word, then Amore asked "the Australian guy" to "didgeridoo himself a favor" and skedaddle-- Amore definitely has a gift for getting over even the cheesiest lines. You can pencil in Blake/Murphy vs. Amore/Cass for the next Takeover show, I'm guessing. That said, while Cass does engage the crowd a bit better, I'm otherwise at a loss as to why he was so over while they shit on Corbin, because he definitely didn't look any better. Cass had Blake down for the Empire Elbow, but Murphy distracted him allowing Blake to roll him up and win. Pretty mild reaction for the tag champs.
- Ryback vs. The Big Show. Or, How to Almost Kill a Hot Show in One Match. Crowd was NOT appreciative of seeing either of these two, and they generally worked lighter and looser than some of the WWF guys I'd see in a half-empty Columbus Convention Center in the late '80s. A sampling of crowd chants: "CM Punk," "Captain Insano," "Feed Me S'mores," and so on. Show, to his credit, rolled with the punches--at one point he addressed calls to retire by bringing up his guaranteed contract, which got the crowd laughing and prompted a "Ten More Years" chant. After about 3 or 4 more near-falls than were necessary Ryback mercifully ended this. This match actually wasn't terrible at all and was well laid out in a vacuum, but it had no place here and the crowd never gave it a chance. Presumably this was booked because Ryback appeals to the juiceheads flocking to Columbus this time of year for the Arnold Expo and so BIg Show could be appreciated by said juiceheads seeing Just How Big He Was Live(tm).
- Intermission. Buy shit! Not at $25 for a t-shirt, though. *Two* Network ads, because a hardcore NXT audience is one that really needed to be sold on buying WWE Network.
- Kalisto vs. Tyler Breeze. This brought the crowd back--for whatever reason I was expecting a semi-hostile reaction to Kalisto but that didn't happen. Big pop for the entrance, lots of "LU-CHA" chants. Breeze was over too, and we had lots of "Not the Face!" and "That Was Gorgeous!" chants throughout the match. I didn't notice until now that Breeze's phone provides a live feed direct to the NXT video board, which is terrific. I couldn't help but notice by this point that the match layouts were starting to get very samey--shine, heel chinlock, comeback. With almost EVERY transition revolving around some sort of kick. It's replaced the ducked clothesline in the WWE Style. Breeze countered the Salida del Sol and hit him with the Beauty Shot to win.
- Ric Flair surprised everyone by coming out--he remarked that he used to constantly come here to rag on the Buckeyes but as national champions, he couldn't even do that anymore. That led to Charlotte vs. Bailey which was easily the best match of the night to this point. At one point Bailey rammed Charlotte into all four turnbuckles and Charlotte topped it with a Flair Flop. Followed by a neat transition where an overexcited Bailey ran over to high-five Ric, only for Charlotte to level her from behind. Bailey is proof that the "just wants to have fun" character CAN work, if the performer believes in it AND can back it up in the ring, which she can. Charlotte won with the Natural selection.
- Alex Riley vs. Kevin Owens. The reaction to Riley was mostly one of confusion, despite this match being set up on the last NXT show. Owens was over huge, the biggest or maybe the second-biggest pop of the show at this point behind Balor. Just an extended squash with Owens decisively putting him away with a pop-up power bomb. Afterward Balor came out and brawled with Owens, with Owens rolling away and bailing before Balor could hit the double stomp.
- Sami Zayn came out to address the crowd. He wasn't "medically cleared" to wrestle yet, but delivered a pretty fiery and passionate promo in support of NXT that the crowd ate up. He dropped the dreaded "wrestling" word, but asked the crowd not to get him in trouble when a "BETTER THAN RAW" chant started.
- Main event was Adrian Neville vs. Cesaro. I should note that no matches were announced before this, just a list of names appearing, all of which were the usual NXT gang, so Kidd and Cesaro were both surprises. This was the match of the night and is something I hope turns up on the Network so I can get reactions from others--sometimes it's hard to objectively rate a match live, especially one with as much crowd support as this. The usual dueling chants and "This is Awesome" stuff, but the smarky crowd never got overwhelming to the point of me wishing for a Great White-style inferno to consume them, either. Unfortunately I missed the spot that got the biggest reaction, which was Neville attempting a moonsault off the guardrail only for something to happen to him and Cesaro to throw him back in for a near-fall. It got a huge ovation, though, whatever it was. Cesaro did a freaking awesome job tying Neville up into knots and keeping him grounded while also tearing up his back. We got a tease of the Swing, an actual Swing, and a good comeback by Neville climaxing with him hitting a huracanrana off the entrance stage. We started getting a little spotty at this point, as the guys moved into a highspot/lie and sell/highspot pattern, but it worked and the spots hit. Neville tried for a Frankensteiner off the top, but Cesaro blocked it and was about to hit a top-rope Ricola Bomb, only for Neville to counter that and hit the Frankensteiner anyway. Neville popped up and went for the Red Arrow, but Cesaro got up and crotched him on the turnbuckle, then pulled him off and Neutralized him for the pin.
- After ovations for both guys and a thank-you from Jojo, end of show. From the quick ticket sales and positive fan reaction I have to think that if plans continue for NXT to tour outside Florida, that their promise to return to Columbus "sooner than later" will come true. As cynical as I am about modern WWE, I'm all for it. NXT isn't quite perfect but this blew away the two lousy PPVs we got at Nationwide Arena, to say nothing of your average '80s-'90s house show. This was a motivated locker room who were all setting out to perform well, in front of a much larger-than-usual crowd.