WWE WrestleMania 33: A Live Report from the Weekend in Orlando

NXT TakeOver

(***SPOILER ALERT, as I’ll discuss the matches taped for NXT this week prior to TakeOver***)

As I mentioned earlier, I purchased a WrestleMania travel package. It was one price for basically everything all weekend except flight: hotel, two AXXESS sessions, TakeOver, Hall of Fame, and WrestleMania (including transportation to and from Mania). Depending on how deep your pocketbook is, and how much time you have for vacation, you could stay longer and hit up Raw and SmackDown afterwards. (My pocketbook is not that deep, so I flew home during Raw.)

Because of the travel package, I was guaranteed seats in a certain area of the arena upon purchase, but I had no options for choosing a seat. For TakeOver, it meant a seat in the lower part of the upper deck, because even when spending a lot of money I am very cheap/poor.

Pro tip number two: if you’re going to lots of events, make sure to check out the prohibited items list ahead of time. It took me like seven tries to get into the Amway Center for TakeOver, because just assuming what items should be left behind wasn’t good enough. (In my defense, some of the prohibited items were kind of ridiculous – like my backpack that was smaller than 75% of the purses I saw being brought in.)

By the time I made it in, I missed all of the first match of the TV tapings before the show. Super depressing, because Heavy Machinery defeated the Bollywood Boyz. Both of those teams are super exciting, and making all those trips back to the car in excessive Central Florida heat and humidity cost me.

Peyton Royce also defeated Aliyah as I was getting to my seat. Once I settled in, Oney Lorcan came out for a match, and he took on “El Vagabundo” in a supremely entertaining match. I’ll let you all see that for yourselves this week on NXT.

The main show, as you likely saw on the WWE Network, was great. For me, the tag title match was a five star affair and a clear best match of the night. The story throughout was terrific, and I think the crowd got it – or at least my section did. Aside from the lunatics a few sections over who thought they were the stars of the show and tried to ruin the night, it was a great time.