In 2019 NXT moved to Wednesday nights on USA Network, and AEW Dynamite premiered on TNT. The two shows went head to head on Wednesday nights for some time, but earlier this year NXT moved to Tuesday nights, and recently the brand was rebooted as NXT 2.0.
Chris Jericho discussed the topic of WWE rebranding NXT on an episode of Talk Is Jericho, and he noted that he thinks Vince McMahon holds a grudge against NXT for not beating AEW in the ratings when the shows were going head to head.
“What I think it is, and once again, I can say this just from observing, is that NXT was put on Wednesday nights, obviously that’s to combat AEW, and we’ll wipe out this ‘pissant’ little company right away. Problem is they had no idea what they were dealing with. It really backfired on them. NXT was so cool.
“You guys would go do your weekend shows and get three times the reaction in a sold out arena than the pay-per-view would get. So then when they put NXT up against AEW, it really hurt the brand to where you lost the cool factor, and AEW was the cool one. NXT just got steamrolled, and I think, as a result, Vince kind of holds a grudge against NXT. You had the chance to beat AEW, and you didn’t. Now I’m going to take over, and I’m going to do it my way.”
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H/T Wrestling Inc.
