It appears to be a done deal that WWE’s developmental program, NXT will be moving to Fox Sports 1. This comes off the heels of AEW signing a deal to do a weekly show on TNT. This is big news because it’s the first sign of competition that the WWE will be having against AEW in the fall. NXT isn’t a main brand show like Raw or Smackdown. But it’s a show catered more to the hardcore wrestling fan.
Other than the competition of the two companies, this is big news for another reason. NXT is normally ran on the WWE Network on Wednesday nights. This isn’t a change to their day scheduling, but it will be an extra hour longer now. NXT will now go to being a live-program. The normal schedule for NXT was to film a month’s worth of shows at Full-Sail University where they broadcast from. That has to change with this move to Fox Sports 1.
Issues With This Move
For most wrestling fans, watching three hours of Raw, two hours of Smackdown, and an hour of NXT, is a lot. Adding in AEW on TNT, it’ll be a huge amount of content to take in.
For content creators like us, it’ll be great. That’s more to talk about and write about. For the casual fan, it’ll most likely be too much to handle. NXT is not watched as much as the main roster shows. But a move to FOX Sports 1 can bump up those viewership numbers for the WWE.
A war in wrestling is coming between AEW and WWE. This is a major shot in the battle brewing between the two companies. Whether they want to acknowledge it or not. AEW wants to say that they’re not directly competing. WWE doesn’t like to mention their competitors.
These changes are going to in effect when Smackdown goes to Fox, October 4th. NXT will broadcast from 8PM to 10PM eastern.
Sound off, what do you think this means for the upcoming “Monday Night Wars” Part 2? Will AEW be able to carve out a viewership opposite NXT?
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