WWE had announced a change to the ordering events for WrestleMania weekend this spring in the New York City metropolitan area, reversing the typical schedule that they have used for the last two years.
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Instead of featuring the Hall of Fame event on Friday evening and NXT TakeOver on Saturday evening, the company has decided to rearrange the schedule by holding TakeOver on Friday night and the Hall of Fame ceremony on Saturday evening.
The following statement was issued to PWInsider:
“WWE will be going back to its previous WrestleMania Week schedule with NXT TakeOver on Friday, April 5 and the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Saturday, April 6. We believe this better serves our fans.”
The last time that WWE held TakeOver on the Friday prior to WrestleMania was in 2016 for NXT TakeOver: Dallas. That event featured the in-ring debut of Shinsuke Nakamura for NXT in a match of the year contending bout versus Sami Zayn.
Interestingly, this change means that NXT TakeOver will not be going head to head with the NJPW/ROH G1 SuperCard event that is booked for Madison Square Garden on Saturday, April 6th. That event, which is already sold out, will be the first time that a non-McMahon promoted wrestling company has run MSG since the 1950s.
The statement from WWE that the scheduled “better serves our fans” is up for interpretation. Is that an acknowledgment that WWE knows many of their fans will want to attend the ROH/NJPW show as well as TakeOver? Last year in New Orleans, ROH ran a PPV event (Supercard of Honor XII) head to head with NXT TakeOver on Saturday evening which forced several fans into a predicament over choosing which one of the two major shows they wanted to attend.
Both of the shows in New Orleans ended up being spectacular, including the first Cody vs. Kenny Omega match at ROH and the phenomenal Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa bout at NXT TakeOver. It would have been nice to have had the option to attend both and it appears that WWE is acknowledging that fact moving forward.
