WWE recently announced they will be moving their broadcast of their NXT TV show from Wednesday nights to Tuesday nights starting on April 13, which is the Tuesday after WWE WrestleMania, as part of their multi-year extension deal with the USA Network.
This move has reportedly been rumored for a number of months now and once this move happens, it officially ends the Wednesday Night Ratings War between NXT and AEW Dynamite.
Ever since the Wednesday Night Ratings War began, AEW Dynamite has won majority of the battle against NXT as they have gotten higher numbers in total viewership and most of the demographics including the all-important 18-49 demo ratings.
Dave Meltzer noted on a recent edition of the Wrestling Observer Radio Program that WWE held a talent meeting prior to this past Wednesday night’s episode of NXT TV, where a few things were talked about, including NXT’s move to Tuesday nights and how AEW decided to go up against them on Wednesday nights.
The meeting reportedly began with WWE Officials reflecting and talking about how far WWE NXT has come over the past six years. It was noted that they came from being a small brand that sold out a show at WrestleMania 31 to one of the top brands in the entire WWE.
It was also discussed in the meeting that they were on Wednesday nights first and then AEW came to their night and tried to bully them, but WWE told their talents the exact opposite 18 months ago.
Finally, it was noted that RAW is their lead-in, even though the show is on a different night, and now that they have a night for themselves, everything is going to change.
An update was recently provided by Meltzer, where he corrected his earlier report and noted, that WWE Official Triple H never used the term “bully” when referring to or talking about AEW as this was also confirmed by Fightful Select. It was indicated in their report that multiple sources have denied that Triple H said anything resembling that NXT was “bullied” off Wednesday nights.
It was also noted that Triple H focused heavily on the reasons for NXT’s move to Tuesdays, telling the NXT roster that going on a night after RAW is a good thing for the brand.
Triple H reportedly also revealed in the meeting the move to Tuesdays has been in the works for about a year now and he sees a lot of opportunities with the replays of NXT being aired on Peacock. He also said he hopes people focus more on the show rather than the viewership and the television ratings now that the change is happening.
You can check out Dave Meltzer’s tweet below:
