Isaac is WWE mad, so much so it is rubbing off on Eliza and she kept asking to go and see it live too.
WWE tends to only go to larger venues and we didn’t want to travel too far with her in case she found it too overwhelming, so when we saw NXT was coming to Bournemouth in June we decided it was the ideal time to take her.
WWE NXT is a division of the American professional wrestling promotion WWE, and is based in Winter Park, Florida and features the next generation of Superstars battling to make an impact with Isaac’s favourite being Finn Balour.
Before the show started we were lucky enough to be invited to a meet and greet with Shinsuke Nakamura much to Isaac and Eliza’s delight.

Meet and greet over, it was then time to head into the main auditorium. The one thing about WWE and NXT is that they love their music and there is a DJ playing a loud music set before and throughout the show.

I have been to see WWE with Isaac a few times, so had an idea what was coming next although the only WWE star I knew of was Finn Balour. The fights are all play acting and with WWE it does get quite serious at times. The difference between WWE and NXT is that NXT is much more fun with a lot of silliness in and out of the ring.
The first match introduced us to a new favourite – No Way Jose who has a really catchy entrance tune that we are all still singing. He defeated Angelo Dawkins with a Cobra Clutch Slam.

Next up was Eliza’s favourite Bayley and the crowd were chanting “Bayley’s gonna hug ya”. Her and Carmella defeated Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax. Bayley hit Jax with a Bayley-to-Belly Suplex for the win.

Next up was a real cloud pleaser with the audience all raising placards for The Perfect 10 which was a real sight to behold. Tye Dillinger defeated Hugo Knox with The Perfect 10.

The biggest villain of the night was definitely Austin Aries who had a playful rant at the crowd which was met with boos and jeers. Thankfully that changed to cheering when Andrade “Cien” Almas defeated him with the running double knee smash but our biggest cheer of the night went to Shinsuke Nakamura who we had met earlier as he defeated Bobby Roode with Kinshasa.

I have to admit that my favourite matches are the tag team ones as you can always guarantee someone is going to cheat. The Revival defeated American Alpha to retain the NXT Tag Team Titles by using the ropes for leverage while getting the pin.

Throughout the evening we saw lots of ladies in colourful masks and it all became clear why when Asuka arrived in the ring with her colourful costume and face paint.

Auka defeated Peyton Royce to retain the NXT Women’s Championship by submission with the Asuka Lock.
The final match of the night saw Finn Bálor arrive on stage, much to Isaac’s excitement and he defeated Samoa Joe by disqualification in an NXT Championship match as Joe attacked Finn with a steel chair.

After the match Finn remained in the audience and gave a really resounding speech, thanking everyone for supporting both him and all the stars of the show. He then stopped to pose for lots of photographs with the delighted fans.
All in all I prefer NXT to WWE as it is more light-hearted and has a lot more laughs. It was a late night for Eliza and she did struggle towards the end but she really enjoyed herself and I would happily take her to see another show locally, especially as we now know some more of the characters.
WWE returns to the UK in November, but no news for NXT just yet.

• 2016
• BH LIVE
• BIC
• NXT Bournemouth
• review
• WWE