Report: NXT Won't Change Its Product With Move to USA Network

WWE officially confirmed on Tuesday that NXT would be moving from the WWE Network to the USA Network starting on Sept. 18. The weekly show will still emanate from Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida, but will be air live instead of on pre-tape and will be two hours each week instead of one.

With the move to USA, many wrestling fans have assumed that Vince McMahon will take a more direct role in the Black and Yellow brand's creative decisions. However based on new reports from Pro Wrestling Sheet's Ryan Satin and Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp, they might not be the case.

Satin wrote on Tuesday that "despite speculation, the current plan is for NXT to remain as the same show it's been for years and that moving to USA Network was only done to get more eyes on the product."

Sapp followed up with the tweet:

Based on my interactions this morning, I've not heard of any real immediate adjustments that are planned for NXT as of yet

— Sean Ross Sapp Of Fightful.com And The Twltter (@SeanRossSapp) August 20, 2019

Triple H, the founder and senior producer of NXT, has been directly in charge of the brand's creative process since it debuted as a weekly show on the WWE Network back in 2014. The WWE Hall of Famer reacted to the news on Twitter shortly WWE.com put out a press release.

Can’t describe this announcement in any other word than PROUD.
Proud of everyone involved from day one.
Proud you’ve let your voice be heard and carried the banner of this brand.
Proud you’ve loudly & clearly said #WeAreNXT.

And I’m proud to say, we’re just getting started. https://t.co/GAF34LZGeT

— Triple H (@TripleH) August 20, 2019

The one elephant in the room the press release didn't address was that, starting on Oct. 2, NXT will air in direct competition with AEW's two-hour live TNT show. Triple H hinted at the idea of counterprogramming in his latest media conference call ahead of NXT TakeOver: Toronto.

"Contrary to what I've heard, because you hear people speculate and I've seen the conversations around FS1 or whatever it is with NXT and all that stuff, and then immediately, people come in with counterprogramming talk. We have content all over the place, and if people want to talk about counter-programming and bring that up in the conversation - like, Wednesday has been the home of NXT forever. Right?" Hunter asked. "That's where it's sat; it's been on our network on a Wednesday's time slot now forever.

"And when other people announce [their show] on Wednesday, you don't hear talk about counter-programming. You just hear, 'the announcement'. For us, everything is 'counterprogramming' and it's this and it's that - We plan things long in advance," Triple H continued. "We worry about doing our business and that's really what we worry about, so, [I've been giving] cryptic talk because there's a lot of thoughts and possibilities. And that's the great thing about it is that we can do just about anything, it is about what is best for WWE, and this business, and how does it affect the fans in the way that is the most meaningful to them."