The big news this week is the confirmation that NXT will indeed be moving to network TV on Wednesday nights from 8-10pm to go head to head with AEW on TNT. It was always a question of when, not if, but WWE have been very smart to get a two week jump on their competition by debuting on September 18th.
Many will consider the move a petty one by Vince McMahon and while I myself do wish he had it in him to just leave things alone there is no denying that it’s a savvy business move. Vince has never been willing to give wrestling companies he perceives as a threat any breathing room and given WWE’s plummet in popularity this year, he is wise not to start now.
The question now is, does NXT beat out AEW in the ratings? I honestly think it will. AEW has done incredibly well selling out tickets in record time, but I don’t know that they have the audience required at this moment to beat out an established brand like NXT with the WWE machine behind them.
Where AEW has a chance to win though is in the fact that NXT will still be aired on the WWE Network the night after. I know why they decided on this; dropping it completely would mean a loss of coverage outside of the US which would anger fans. But the problem WWE have now is that only a small amount of people currently watch NXT live on Wednesday nights. It’s seen as on-demand programming that people watch at their leisure. WWE now needs to train these fans that they have to watch live.
If AEW were to blast out of the gates and establish a ratings gap you can be sure this will lead to bad things for NXT. Rumour has it Vince is willing to be hands off with the show at the beginning (I’m very skeptical of this report), but you can bet the first week they lose McMahon will step in. Given Vince’s recent track record, any involvement he and Kevin Dunn have will likely be a massive negative.
For now though all we can do is wait and hope that competition for both companies breeds a healthy rivalry and allows talent to continue growing. Keep your ‘main roster’ stars off the show and let the likes of Adam Cole, Matt Riddle, Velveteen Dream and Shayna Baszler continue with the hard work that got NXT to this point.
There is of course the chance that NXT moving head to head can actually help AEW. I’m unsure if I subscribe to this theory but fans tuning in to NXT may decide to channel surf between both show and if AEW is putting on a more compelling product it could convert some fans who otherwise wouldn’t have sought out any wrestling on a Wednesday night. Another interesting angle to look at.
The worst part about NXT heading to network TV is that now in no way is this a developmental show anymore. The whole point of NXT was to get young, inexperienced wrestlers ready for the big time. But now with head to head competition that will not happen. For a while now the show has clearly been aiming to be the best ‘indie’ promotion out there and that is about to hit new heights. WWE now needs to find a new place to cultivate future stars.
Anyway that’s enough for this week on the upcoming Wednesday night wars. Whatever happens, let’s hope it’s a longer and better battle than TNA’s failed Monday experiment. I don’t want this article to run on forever, so I will hit just a few of my top thoughts from both RAW and SmackDown.
RAW was a real step in the right direction this week. There isn’t one particular thing that they have changed, it’s more a lot of small changes that add up to a better product. The show flows a lot better now. You can see this in the ratings pattern as well. Gone are the massive third hour drops and instead while the rating is still worryingly low, it’s fairly consistent throughout.
I like the Sasha/Becky angle. It feels legit. This is something that isn’t captured enough in wrestling these days, especially WWE. But I really feel myself suspending my disbelief with this storyline and that is when wrestling is at it’s best. What isn’t good though, is the Sasha/Nattie part of the angle. The comments about the Anvil are just totally low rent.
Another weak aspect of the show was Rollins/Strowman beating the OC for the Tag Titles. It’s a Vince McMahon staple to have champion and challenger smash the tag champs to become “unlikely partners” leading to tension. What always inevitably happens is that the tag team who lost the belts end up looking like jobbers. This is particularly an issue when the team in question were jobbers for years up until a month ago when an attempt was made to salvage them.
It’s the same crap we dealt with last year during the Dean Ambrose heel turn when he started ripping on Roman Reigns. In this era fans don’t buy for one second that Sasha feels this way. They know she is scripted and so instead of it getting the desired heat it simply generates silence. People in the audience feel awkward and don’t know how to react. They need to drop it immediately.
The Fiend continues to be the best thing on WWE TV.
Rey’s son Dominic has been reintroduced for what I believe is the third time. I’m not a huge fan of this angle and it really doesn’t appear like Dominic is ready for the role. Plus there’s absolutely no need to do a storyline telling fans Mysterio is broken down. He moves great and wears a mask. This is straight out of the Vince wheelhouse when a wrestler reaches a certain age.
On commentary Vic Joseph and Jerry Lawler did a much better job than Corey Graves. Hopefully his vacation can be extended indefinitely. Maybe Carmella could stay away with him and it would help break up these shitty Truth 24/7 title segments every week. Although given how largely produced the announcers are, I’m sure given a few months Joseph will be worn down as well. Remember, Corey wasn’t always this bad.
SmackDown unfortunately was not on the level of RAW this week. It’s always easy to say SD was a good watch because two hours is a lot more palatable than three, but with the complete burial of Kevin Owens, the push and immediate de-push of Buddy Murphy, Bayley being the most unlikable face and writers poking fun at Chad Gable’s height this was NOT a good show.
The Orton/Kofi storyline continues to be good, but unfortunately they need to have a match at the end of it and the first one was garbage. I like the the alignment of Orton and the Revival, so hopefully that is something that can continue beyond the feuds all performers are in, but if if the rumours of a hard brand split being reintroduced a month from now are true that seems unlikely.
I touched on it two paragraphs above but the Kevin Owens storytelling really was botched to the highest degree. They couldn’t have made him look any worse. Whimpering to Shane trying to get the fine reduced and then screwed out of the King of the Ring in the first round… to ELIAS. Given Owens half arsed face turn I never believed he was likely to get over as a major face, but the pretty much sealed his fate.
That will do it for this weeks article. Wrestling news is coming in thick and fast at the moment so no doubt by next week we will have a lot more to discuss. Until then feel free to hit me up on Twitter @VizualDze with any and all wrestling talking points.
