12 Live Observations From NXT Download Festival

This past weekend saw the inaugural team-up of legendary British rock festival Download (formerly the far cooler named Monsters Of Rock) and WWE, with Triple H bringing NXT over the pond ahead of a UK tour for a three day exhibition of the company. To say it went down well would be a fairly major understatement.

In the muddy surroundings of Castle Donington, a fair slice of the development roster (some of whom might well not even be in NXT within a couple of months anymore) traded shots in front of a raucous and at times significantly "refreshed" audience. Even amongst the pillars of the rock community - Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, All Time Low... - the crowd was aware, smarky and game for LOTS of interaction.

So what could be taken away from the events? Over the three days I was able to get to two of the live shows (live tweeting one, and attempting the other before catastrophically dropping my phone in a quagmire, RIP). And even only seeing a couple, there was more than enough to paint a full picture of the event's success...