The first episode of WWE’s revamped version of NXT, dubbed NXT 2.0, premieres tonight on the USA Network. Beyond a new logo, color scheme and arena inside the Capitol Wrestling Center, very little is concretely known about what this new version of the Black & Gold brand will entail. Various reports about Vince McMahon and Bruce Prichard’s involvement have popped up over the last few weeks, while Fightful Select reported last week that the show will focus on “more characters,” but added that higher-ups have refrained from giving wrestlers many details about the changes.
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Not even the show’s card has managed to stay consistent. The Raquel Gonzalez vs. Franky Monet NXT Women’s Championship match was pulled without explanation, while the four-way between Kyle O’Reilly, Pete Dunne, LA Knight and Tommaso Ciampa is now for the NXT Championship after Samoa Joe relinquished the title on Sunday night.
PWInsider‘s Mike Johnson released a new report a few hours before the show, shedding some light from backstage sources. He noted that the show will be referred to as NXT 2.0 for the foreseeable future as a way to emphasize the show’s reboot, that Kevin Dunn will be present to oversee the broadcast and that neither Triple H nor Joe are present. He went on to add that the show’s script has been changed a “ton” of times and that the backstage atmosphere has been described as “weird.”
In a separate post, Johnson mentioned that the venue will no longer be referred to as the Capitol Wrestling Center, but rather the “home of NXT.” The brand was moved out of the Full Sail Live venue and into the Performance Center beginning in October 2020, and the PC was renamed the CWC as a tribute to Capitol Wrestling Corporation operated by Vince McMahon Sr.
During a recent interview with Ariel Helwani, WWE president Nick Khan shed some light on NXT’s changes — “We are doing a complete revamp on NXT, led by Triple H, who is really one of the architects of the original NXT. What we found — it’s part of why we did the tryout yesterday — what we want to make sure is easy for folks who want to be WWE Superstars, is figuring out how to become WWE Superstars. In terms of an NXT re-brand, look for it in the next couple of weeks. It’s going to have a whole new look, it’s going to have a whole new feel — and we believe — because of a lot of the indie wrestlers, if you will, have come through our system and are in our system with SmackDown and Raw now. We don’t want to just keep doing that same thing, we want to look elsewhere for great, young talent.”
Here’s the updated lineup for tonight’s episode:
- NXT Championship: Kyle O’Reilly vs. Tommaso Ciampa vs. Pete Dunne vs. LA Knight
- Kacy Catanzaro & Kayden Carter vs. Gigi Dolan & Jacy Jayne
- B-Fab’s in-ring debut
- Dext Lumis & Indi Hartwell’s wedding
