August NXT Tapings At Full Sail – Is Kevin Owens Champion?!?

The Cheap Seats attended the monthly NXT tapings at Full Sail University last night and enjoyed the initial hour long show which will air next Wednesday (8/19), leading up to NXT Takeover: Brooklyn. The show culminated with Kevin Owens admonishing the Full Sail crowd for continually booing the fact that the next Takeover event would be held out of state (in Brooklyn, NYC….in front of 13,000 fans). While some of Kevin’s comments seemed genuinely from the heart (he can’t stand that the local fans say that they want the company to succeed, but also don’t want the company to perform elsewhere as they grow), he redirected his promo time towards Finn Balor (opponent at Takeover: Brooklyn). The taping ended with Owens and Balor going toe to toe in an effort to bring eyes to the WWE Network “ppv” event.

 

Fast forward to the 3rd (?) week of tapings that took place, with the ending of that episode including a match between Kevin Owens and Adrian Neville. Only, this match had one glaring oddity – Kevin Owens walked out holding the NXT title belt. To be perfectly clear, he was not announced as the champion, but then again, I don’t think he was announced at all (most likely to be added in post production). The match itself is a quality bout, no doubt reminding folks of how great Owens was when he made his debut and tore through the NXT roster. Eventually, Balor makes his way to the ring sans belt (obviously) and no mention of him being the champion any longer as well. When Owens retreats to the back, there was no chase while he left holding the title high above his head. Finn remained in the ring, posing with Neville, giving the indication that he was no longer champion.

Could this be true that the WWE would let such a spoiler out prior to their largest event ever being held only a week away on their biggest stage yet? We’ll have to wait and see.

Highlights (photos) of the tapings are below: