NXT will be airing tonight on USA and for the first time since the pandemic, there will be an audience around the ring. WWE finally took AEWs lead and added wrestlers in the crowd during matches. The change made for a much more exciting atmosphere and made the event easier to watch.
Tommaso Ciampa recently spoke with Pro Wrestling Sheet about the upcoming NXT Takeover: “In Your House” event and provided his thoughts on NXT wrestlers being in the audience during NXT matches:
“NXT wrestlers, no. PC students would be great. I don’t know that there’s rights and wrongs to a lot of this stuff. It’s all opinions. It’s wrestling. It’s ice cream. Because of our situation, we have at least 50 or 60 people in the Performance Center living in Orlando who aren’t ready to be on television as a performer. They’re just not. They can’t really do a whole lot right now with what’s going on. I think it’s awesome to have those people come on. It’s almost like that Japanese young boy style.”
He goes on to say that he doesn’t want any wrestlers from RAW, Smackdown, or NXT in the crowd. Ciampa makes total sense here. While I like AEW putting their talent, albeit undercard talent, in the crowd during matches, it does seem weird to me having these stars in the crowd acting like fans and even doing silly fan chants, and then later watching them wrestle. With WWE they have so many students who are not doing anything and most of the TV audience have yet to be exposed to them, so its better to have them be the ones in the audience acting like fans.
Thanks to Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet for sending out these quotes.