Gearing Up For The Wednesday Night War
Who will win between AEW vs. NXT?
This fall just got a lot more interesting thanks to the USA Network and Vince McMahon bringing NXT to live television. The whispers we have all heard – how this could turn into a war between AEW and WWE – have become a yell now that AEW and NXT will go head to head in the same timeslot on Wednesdays. The war is on and although The Young Bucks and Cody like to poke fun at WWE, McMahon just threw the first punch.
We often give the WWE chairman the hardest of times, whether it’s because storyline after storyline seems to go nowhere, beloved superstars fall off the face of the earth or his dealings with Saudi Arabia. Despite the conjecture, McMahon is still an evil genius. Moving NXT to live television shows that he holds all the cards. NXT, for the better part of the last four years, has been the best thing about WWE. Takeover after Takeover knocks it out of the park, as wrestlers that are there for “development” do not treat the show like a development brand. The NXT roster prides itself in delivering show-stealing moments and each match feels like it has meaning and weight with storylines ending in a big payoff. Triple H and his staff have done a masterful job in creating a powerhouse instead of a playground.
Now his father-in-law is looking to capitalize.
A lot of fans are already in fear that McMahon being in control is going to ruin the product we have all come to love. While I can’t calm any fears because I have some of the same, what I can say is I see him playing chess while all his other competitors are merely playing checkers. AEW is the hottest thing going for the majority of 2019, even with wrestlers that are fairly unknown, and matches that across the board have been decent at best. It remains to be seen how AEW will handle weekly television on TNT. After all, it’s an entirely different game from one-off events. And now the game just got a little harder.
….GET READY.#WeAreNXT @WWENXT @USA_Network @slipknot pic.twitter.com/xK90akihcL
— Triple H (@TripleH) August 20, 2019
McMahon taking a risk with NXT makes so much business sense; he has product everyone already loves and is making it more accessible to the casual fan. This could in turn also get rid of the “NXT call-up mini-push, then left for dead” formula we have seen with many former NXT stars. It also makes it harder for fans that have never seen AEW to even tune in to the program at all now. I have no doubt that AEW is going to be swinging with everything it has, but when causal fans have a choice to see Adam Cole vs. Velveteen Dream or The Librarian vs Sonny Kiss, most will stay on with NXT. These are the kind of small moves McMahon loves to make – he endures the storm and rough waters better than honestly any business man of any kind.
Let’s say that Vinnie Mac getting his finger prints on NXT does cause the product to suffer; it still serves a purpose for him. He is stealing eyes away from AEW; therefore, his madness does have a method. Raw and SmackDown have been decent in recent years and that’s being nice, and even with low ratings we still tune in if nothing else just to complain about the product. If he sours you on NXT and then you tune in to AEW only to witness a match full of botches or being rushed due to time constraints, you might sour on wrestling on Wednesdays all together. He would rather no one get any versus being overtaken and losing any kind of money.
However, I don’t see both of these products failing.
The biggest battle may be the fact that now there is now about 10 hours of wrestling within a three-day span. Even extreme wrestling fans are going to get a little burnout with that much content to process. This is going to challenge everyone’s creativity to pump out weekly content that fans can buy into. The Bucks have already accepted the challenge thrown down by Vince and the winner of the Wednesday Night War is going to be us the fans.
But make no mistake about it – McMahon plans to win another war.
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