10 Images That Proved 2017 Was Wrestling’s Craziest Year Ever
9. Top Of The Tower
Perhaps the most audience validation some of 2015's illustrious Performance Center class ever received, the December UK Tour leading into the spectacular TakeOver: London show was a festival of passion and pride in the wrestlers that had made NXT the hottest wrestling product in the world.
Sami Zayn's return from injury straight into a blockbuster main event against Finn Bálor in Newcastle, duelling Jordan/Gable chants in the Blackpool's beautiful Tower Ballroom, and fans in every city united in song for Bayley were individual viral sensations. From the smallest acorn, a forest of oak trees had grown.
It's why 'The Hugger' still receives such enormous responses on every UK tour. Unlike numerous crowds in the United States, UK fans formed a bond with the former Women's Champion that bad booking can't break. But the American Alpha Blackpool love story was suitably enhanced by the gorgeous surround.
It proved a worthy location for WWE's UK Championship tournament. A concept rolled out in January that has since tragically become Vince McMahon's latest discarded toy, the brief sojourn into the vibrant British independent scene was another once-unthinkable stride for a company infamous for inward-looking. Aesthetically vintage, it couldn't have been more 2017.