NXT Announces Two Matches for Its USA Network Premiere

NXT will make its jump from the WWE Network to the USA Network starting on Sept. 18. And based on the latest match announcements, the company is looking to load up its premiere episode with some high quality matches.

During this week’s pretaped episode, NXT general manager William Regal announced that NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler’s next challenger would be determined via a triple threat match between Mia Yim, Io Shirai and Bianca Belair. Yim and Belair have both tried and failed to take the title away from Bazsler at NXT TakeOver events, while Shirai is riding a wave of momentum after reinventing her look following a recent heel turn.

WWE.com then announced after the show that NXT North American Champion Velveteen Dream would be defending his title on the premiere episode against Roderick Strong. The feud between the pair has been apart of an overarching storyline on the brand known as the “Undisputed Prophecy,” where all four members of the Undisputed Era intend on holding ever championship within the company. Adam Cole won the NXT Champion at NXT TakeOver: XXV and Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish claim the NXT Tag Team Championships on a recent pretaped episode, so if Strong were to win it would complete the group’s mission.

With the network move, NXT will also expand to two hours and air live each week from Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida. Cole recently spoke with ComicBook.com and assured fans that even though the show is moving, the creative direction won’t be changing.

“I think an important recipe for NXT success, and I can tell you that our team feels this exact same way, is we need to keep and stay true to what made NXT NXT,” Cole said. “Because this move to the USA Network is not a mistake.”

“It’s not by accident,” he continued. “It’s because of what NXT brings to the table already. So I think we very much recognize that keeping that formula and doing more of what this brand does better than anybody is how we’re going to succeed on the USA Network. Of course, there’s going to be some exciting new things happening in NXT, but at the same time, we know what brought us to the dance, and we’re going to stay true to that.”