Chris Jericho Slams WWE for Moving NXT to USA Network

With WWE's decision to move NXT to the USA Network on Wednesdays now official, the countdown [...]

By Connor Casey

With WWE's decision to move NXT to the USA Network on Wednesdays now official, the countdown towards the "Wednesday Night War" between WWE and AEW beginning on Oct. 2 has started. However there's one current AEW star who is not impressed with WWE's move — Chris Jericho.

The former WWE Undisputed Champion popped up on Busted Open Radio on Monday after reports of NXT's move had already made their way online. Jericho said he felt between Raw, SmackDown, 205 Live, NXT and NXT UK, the WWE's product was too watered down.

"By adding another two hours, that really dilutes the product, it dilutes their mindset, it dilutes the focus," Jericho said. It's a reactionary move that's done by a guy who wants to start a war. We don't care if you want to start a war, that was never our intention. There's no war for us, we're just doing what we're doing. People there don't like that and they're reacting to it, and it just dilutes their own product.

"You remember in the 90s, Nitro would start at 7:57 and RAW started at 8:00, and the reason that we started early is because we wanted our pyro to be before theirs," he added. "Who gives a crap? What's the show like? Don't worry about what the other guys are doing, worry about your own stuff."

Jericho also pointed out he doesn't feel there's much crossover between WWE and AEW's fanbases.

"We still don't know who our fan base is," Jericho said. "I don't think that there's a lot of crossover between WWE fans and AEW fans. I think a lot of people that are into AEW are people that maybe haven't watched wrestling in a while, or maybe are looking for something different. Maybe they don't like WWE, I don't know."

The 48-year-old veteran will face "Hangman" Adam Page at the All Out event on Aug. 31 to crown the first-ever AEW World Champion. Whether or not Jericho wins, he'll be wrestling on AEW's TNT premiere on Oct. 2 in a six-man tag match, involving Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks and two mystery partners.

Thus far AEW has announced the location for its first five television tapings. The first three — Washington D.C., Boston and Philadelphia — have already sold out.

H/T Wrestling Inc. for transcription

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