Nolie Goes To NXT
Took my boy Nolie to a WWE NXT live event last night in Indianapolis. As you can see in this picture taken a half hour before the show began, he was in heaven all night.
Nolie’s eyes didn’t leave the big screen once he noticed that they were playing videos on it.
He went nuts for the ring, but it seemed to click for him when Oney Lorcan walked by us on his way to the ring and nodded right at him as Nolie waved his arms like crazy. Then, Ember Moon shook his hand after her match and called him a “cutie”, and he figured out that the wrestlers he saw on TV were RIGHT THERE and he could talk to them. It was ON.
And then this happened. Tommaso Ciampa made a beeline for ol’ Nolie Boy after DIY beat the Authors of Pain. There was a really sweet moment where Ciampa hugged Nolie, so Nolie kissed him on the cheek and this picture happened. I assure you by his reaction after my phone, the floor camera, and hundreds of people weren’t pointed at him, that Nolie was FREAKING OUT. He said his favorites were “the champion boys” (DIY).
...and then this happened. All week, every morning Nolie would ask me if it was the day he would go to see Shinsuke Nakamura. He LOVES Nakamura. He does the “YEAAAAAAAAOH!” bridge-back thing all the time, he’s done the weird cross-armed twitchy thing at preschool before, he has an irrational dislike of Samoa Joe because he saw Joe push down Nakamura once - the kid is obsessed. Nakamura walks by Nolie during his entrance, turns to him, and reaches out just far enough to where they touch fingertips. The aftermath is the picture above - Nolie literally was so happy that he cried a little. It was like Toddler Beatlemania. After the match, Nakamura walked by again and reached out the NXT Championship belt to where Nolie could touch it quickly. 12 hours later, that’s all Nolie can talk about. When I dropped him off at school this morning, he was bragging to the school nurse about his friend Nakamura.
I have a CD in my car of wrestler entrance songs that I play when Nolie is with me because they calm his anxiety when he goes to preschool. On the way home from the show, he had me play Nakamura's song on repeat for the entire hour. The boy literally sang himself half-to-sleep in the backseat, and kept asking if I knew that Nakamura would beat "Bobby Roooooo".
I'm so thankful that my boys get to reach out and realize that their heroes are real. Getting to take Eric (my older son) to see his buddy Ace at the baseball diamond over the summer, and now Nolie having this star experience with Nakamura. My parents tried their hardest and I hold no ill will, but I never got this as a kid. I'm so happy that I can watch them experience moments like that and see that excitement grow in their hearts before my very eyes. I have some great friends who facilitated this, and there were some fine women and men who made Nolie's night one he might not forget (he's 3 - this might literally be the earliest memory he can muster when he gets older).
This all being said, Nolie did ask me if we could see Bayley sometime. So I guess I have a new Daddy mission, should I choose to accept it (and I do)...
