4 Ups & 3 Downs From Last Night's WWE NXT (Jan 24)
1. Leaving Center Stage
This week's show was NXT's last from Atlanta's Center Stage Theater. WWE will tape the next episode prior to this Saturday's TakeOver special, then return to Full Sail University for afterwards. Normal service will soon resume, and while it's hard to be annoyed by this, it's a shame NXT has to leave such a wonderful venue.
These tapings have been a complete success for NXT, and the change in presentation is a huge part of that. The Full Sail setup is stale. NXT has looked the same for a long, long time now, and the crowd aren't as engaged or excited as they used to be. Nothing demonstrates this better than the hushed silence that greeted Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate's excellent United Kingdom Title match in December, but such tepid atmospheres are nothing new for the burned out Orlando crowd.
To contrast, the Center Stage fans have been fantastic. They cooled off a little this week, but for the most part, they've created the kind of red-hot studio atmosphere NXT used to be known for. Heels are booed, faces are cheered, and everything goes over well. This is largely down to freshness, of course, but it'd be great to see WWE put the building on a regular taping rotation, trading months with Full Sail in order to stall the venue's creeping stagnation.