WWE Declares War On AEW Officially, Puts NXT On USA Up Against Their Television Show

I’ll be honest – I’m not gonna sugarcoat this like the WWE is trying to get all of the media outlets in the world to do.

The WWE officially declared war on Cody Rhodes/The Young Bucks’ new promotion, All Elite Wrestling, today, when they announced that NXT would be running head-to-head against AEW’s weekly television show on TNT this Fall. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to hardcore wrestling fans, as this has been rumored in the dirtsheets for months, but it shouldn’t reeeeaaaally come as a surprise to anybody, if you know how petty Vincent Kennedy McMahon is.

I’ve always subscribed the the theory that more wrestling is good for the wrestling business. This deal – rumored to be around $50 million for the right to NXT broadcasting – will hopefully give NXT superstars some more bargaining power come time for contract negotiations, and undoubtedly give them more exposure, hopefully making the transition to the main roster a whole lot smoother should that day ever come. HOWEVER, I think overall, this sorta sucks.

NXT is going from a Triple H run homegrown show on the WWE Network to something much, much, bigger…which means Vince is gonna get his hands on it, which means all organic and redeeming qualities, all of the long-term storytelling, all of the creative freedom given to talent, and everything else we have enjoyed about the product thus far is about to disappear. This is the end of NXT as we know it for sure, and I know that sounds dramatic, but it reeeeaaally isn’t. Vince McMahon has been so out of touch for so long that he’s kinda murdering everything he puts his hands on. Ratings, live attendance, merch numbers…everything is in the toilet right now, and it’s all thanks to that man’s desire to die in his chair.

Plus, all of the optimism about AEW as an alternative wrestling product is now going to be turned against NXT, and they’ll be painted as the enemy by many, which is problematic being NXT was the one WWE property that seemingly had all of those “smart fans” on their side. Oh well!

Best of luck to all of the talent in NXT. I genuinely hope ya thrive.