It has been previously reported that NXT is expected to move to Tuesday nights immediately after next month’s WWE WrestleMania 37 Event. The move is expected to begin on April 13th and if plans do happen as they hope it will, then the Wednesday Night Wars officially comes to an end.
Bryan Alvarez said on a recent edition of Wrestling Observer Live that the decision to move NXT to Tuesday is a “done deal” within the USA Network.
Alvarez also said that advertisers were told that if they wanted to buy advertising within the 2-hour block of NXT, then they would have to buy ads for Tuesday nights as of April 13th, which is of course the Tuesday after WrestleMania.
NXT’s move to Tuesdays is reportedly due to NBCUniversal preparing to shut down NBC Sports Network and NHL programming moving to the USA Network later this year due to the NBC Sports Network closing down, not due to AEW Dynamite running NXT TV off of Wednesday night due to ratings.
NHL’s programming reportedly has a higher priority than professional wrestling since they will likely bring in more revenue and even if the ratings were equal to what NXT is able to draw, NHL programming is able to bring in more lucrative sponsors.
Since Wednesday nights are usually the biggest nights for hockey, the decision was made to move NHL’s programming to Wednesday nights on the USA Network, thus the reason for NXT’s move to Tuesday nights. However, Alvarez did mention that if NXT’s numbers were reaching the target, they would not be moving to Tuesday nights from Wednesday nights.
WWE and USA Network have not yet officially announced that the NXT brand will move to Tuesday nights, but updates will be provided as it becomes available.
