According to the online rumor mill, there’s going to be an announcement on tonight’s Raw. Some of those rumors are saying they’ll announce that NXT is coming to the USA network on Wednesday nights to match up with AEW’s upcoming show.
Whether or not this will be announced on Raw, the move is pretty wildly known, and it reportedly has made FOX executives unhappy with Vince McMahon as they allegedly expected NXT to be on their FS1 network. However truthful this may be, Smackdown Live is still expected to move to Fox October 4 and things will continue as normal. Or as normal as the world of Sports Entertainment gets.
What brought this about?
One of the driving forces behind this is apparently AEW’s rise in popularity as they’ve already sold out their first few television tapings for TNT. Another is that NXT is considered by many to be the better product of the WWE shows, including Smackdown and Raw.
It’s Triple H’s baby now and shows he’s capable of running a show, but it will also give fans a glimpse into the future superstars of the WWE without having to subscribe to WWE TV. This more also shows that McMahon learned from the Monday Night Wars and is intent putting his best against the fledgling company.
Fan reaction
Fans will undoubtedly be mixed on this as many will see McMahon as the villain once again, and while that may be true to some degree, this is a business and after nearly being put under by WCW, it makes sense for them to do this.
Of course, others believe this will bring out the best in both shows and give a new generation the thrill of switching between the shows to catch the action. As those of us that enjoyed the Monday Night Wars can attest, it was an awesome time that’s sorely missed.
In a way, Vince McMahon is giving us what we’ve been asking for: a potentially great show and open competition between the companies. With any luck, this is going to be an awesome ride in what could become the Wednesday Night Wars.
