(AUGUST 8TH, 2017)
I got to the US Bank Arena, which is where an NXT house show was happening, an hour early so I could practice some of my moves to prepare for next week's takeover here in Cincinnati. I only knew two matches on the Takeover match card, and that was the match between Drew McIntyre and Shinsuke Nakamura for the NXT Championship, And the match between myself and Bobby Roode and The Revival for the NXT Tag Team Championships. And someone might think, "Oh, so I guess the NXT Championship match is the main event, right?" If someone did think that, they'd be wrong.
The main event just happened to be the same match that I'm in. I mean, come on, how cool is that : It's gonna be only my third week in NXT and I'm already main eventing Takeover alongside Bobby Roode. The hour passed, and NXT had just started.
I sat in the back watching the dark match (A dark match is a match that happens before the show goes on air) with Nia Jax and Asuka. About an hour after that, it was time for me to step out there and cut a promo. At the time, I wasn't the best at cutting promos unless it was against somebody, but I'm just going out there and cutting one in front of 150 people.
So I get out there, and I start talking about how me and Bobby are gonna win the Tag titles... blah blah blah... We're the best performers on the roster... blah blah blah.. Stuff like that. And then I let out a sigh of relief. In my head I was thinking "Well at least I don't have to keep this running". This was around the time that Samoa Joe's music hit. This is gonna hurt...
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