4 Ups And 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE NXT (Sept 9)

By Adam Blampied /

2. Intercity NXT

It was a night of multi-venue action last night, as the Dusty Rhodes Classic took to the road. Fans bore witness to tag team highlights emanating from the Cocoa Armoury in Florida, where, at a NXT Live Show, Enzo & Cass knocked off Dawkins & Fulton. Also, Dawson & Wilder beat Elias Simpson & Tucker Knight in a match filmed at Fort Pierce. Finally, the main event of the night, Finn Balor & Samoan Joe vs The Lucha Dragons, was recorded as part of a Main Event taping from back in August in Providence, Rhode Island. While it's not exactly an achievement on par with Wrestlemania 2, it was still an interesting watch, not least because it depicted the vast range of crowds wrestlers have to entertain - from less than 100 people in an armoury to a few hundred at Full Sail to thousands in venues like the Dunkin' Donuts Center. The presence of a large crowd gave the main event a true Big Fight Feel, the crowd reaction spurring Samoa Joe onto probably his best performance in NXT to date. It would severely short-change the Full Sail crowd if a permanent format change was made (and the scheduling of NXT tapings would probably prohibit it) but farming the main event of NXT episodes out to tapings in bigger venues on a more regular basis would certainly generate a more palpable sense of excitement to finish off the night.