NXT/BK

Scott,


Hope all is well. I had third row seats for NXT on Saturday night and, beyond the awesome experience, thought you’d be interested (and would love your take) on a few in-person observations from the taping:

1. I cannot overstate the involvement of the refs in and to every single aspect of each match, from intro to departure. The referees are truly acting as on the spot producers and directors, to the point of calling spots for the more junior workers to step-by-step orchestrating the post-match celebrations for the winners/exits for the losers. Without any exaggeration, each motion ("raise your arms up – BOTH ARMS!"), to expressions (every face was encouraged to smile for their victory lap, with the refs actually pointing at their mouths and smiling and mouthing "SMILE!" to, for example, Apollo Crews when he was instead being a "bad ass"), to ensuring the "glory pose" isn’t wasted when the replays are being broadcast (instructing Becky Lynch, Bayley, Charlotte, and Sasha Banks to wait to do their variation on the curtain call until AFTER the replays were done), to clearing the losing side out in time for the celebrations (telling Baron Corbin when to "wake up" and how to glower at Joe). INCREDIBLE to watch in person and gives a lot of credence to using experienced workers as refs.

2. The sound is definitively sweetened for the home broadcast, but the Bayley pop was one of the biggest I’ve ever heard in person, no joke. She’s CRAZY over. People were crying in the audience. A LOT of people.

3. I’d swear the finish to the house-card match where Emma pinned Becky Lynch in the "fatal four way" was a totally blown spot. I’d assume Becky was supposed to kick out and didn’t; it looked like she got really tagged with a shot and was out of it.

4. Michael Hayes is kind of a dick. We caught him walking by on the way out post-card and cheered "BADSTREET", to which he flicked a cigarette in our direction and jumped into a waiting black car.

All in all, a great card; tons of fun, everyone worked their asses off.

​The refs do a fantastic job of directing the traffic in NXT and especially guys like Drake Younger don’t get enough credit for their contributions, I think. A lot of times they’re put in really impossible situations and they still manage to keep things going smoothly while being mostly invisible. ​