NXT TAKEOVER BROOKLYN III HOLT REPORT 8/19: What happened at the arena that wasn’t on the show last night

NXT TAKEOVER REPORT HOLT REPORTS
AUGUST 19, 2017
BROOKLYN, N.Y. AT BARCLAYS CENTER
AIRED LIVE ON WWE NETWORK

The following are PWTorch correspondents with notes on the live experience last night at Barclays Center for NXT Takeover Brooklyn III…

PWTorch reader M.L. reports…

Hey guys, I attended Barclays for Takeover and they taped three segments for NXT:

(1) No Way Jose vs. Lars Sullivan never happened when Sullivan attacked Jose during his entrance and threw him all around the outside of the ring before rolling him in and hitting a few more moves, then left as officials tended to Jose.

(2) Peyton Royce (w/ Billie Kay) pinned Sarah Logan in about 5 minutes with her fisherman’s suplex finish. Finish saw Kay try to keep Royce from being rolled up by holding onto her hands, but fell off. Royce kicked out at 2, got a two-count of her own, then hit a knee to the face and then the suplex for the win.

(3) WWE UK Champ Pete Dunne & Wolfgang defeated Tyler Bate & Trent Seven when Wolfie pinned Bate with a top rope senton bomb. Finish came when Wolfgang tagged in without Bate seeing as Bate was setting up Dunne for the Tyler Driver and then hit the move as soon as Bate let go of the pinning predicament he had on Dunne.

Pretty good crowd, mostly full building.

PWTorch reader David Kempster reports…

I was sitting in the upper section on one of the ends – section 217. The live show started with a taping of the next NXT show. Most notible there was the huge reaction for the Brits. Favorite chant during this tag team match was “This is Progress.”

Takeover proper started with Gargano vs Almas. Very hot crows for this match. On top of the “Johnny Wrestling” chants were “This is Wrestling” chants.

When Corey Graves was announced as a special commentator, he got good reaction. Some “Overrated ” chants, though.

The spot with Nikki on the tag title match got a “Holy Sh–” chant that was very loud. I just hope they don’t start going down the Luncha Underground route. Good reaction to the title change – and even stronger reaction to Red Dragon coming in for the beat down. Lots of “Red Dragon” chants.

Jim Ross being announced as special commentator got a much bigger reaction than Corey Graves.

The Aleister Black entrance was great and people seem very into him.

One thing I noticed throughout is the video packages absolutely kill the crowd. The entrances seem to bring people back in – but then they seem dead at the beginning of a bunch of matches.

Asuka got a much bigger cheer at the begining and Ember Moon got a smattering of boos. But in my section people were heavily rooting for Moon and seemed very annoyed when she lost. That followed by a long video package – which the sound sucked for, at least where I was – really had the crowd dead. Of course they did the “Glorious” entrance and everyone was busy filming it.

I noticed a lot through this show that it looked like the firefly entrance every time since people get out their phones to take pictures, so small lights all over is normal now.

People seemed only mildly interested in the Bobby Roode vs Drew McIntyre match for the first half of it – and the near falls didn’t seem that near for a while. But it got hot by the end and the title change of course got a big reaction and people were sticking around for Drew standing up with the belt, etc. When Red Dragon came back in, some in my section said “Again ?” Then someone came in that people from as far back as us were having trouble seeing – when it ended up being Adam Cole – big reaction and on the way out of the building I kept hearing people saying “Adam Cole BayBay.” Both times Red Dragon came out there were “ROH” chants. Some in my section had heard of Adam Cole, but hadn’t seen him before and one person in my row got on the phone and said “Was that Kenny Omega.” It shocks me that an NXT crowd could have so many people that were WWE-only watchers, but I would say most people knew who they were – and I saw more Bullet Club t-shirts than anything else.

PWTorch reader Phil Sheehan reports…

Outside NXT there was a group of guys handing out flyers for an event tomorrow (Sunday) before Summerslam to protest Donald Trump being in the WWE Hall of Fame. The guy I talked to said there were special guests planned who Vince McMahon will be pissed about. He implied that it was a big name that currently works for the company. They were trailed by a couple guys with WWE official lanyards who told us not to talk to them. It was a little weird because they weren’t in the arena or anything. Anyway, I took a pic of the flyer.