WWE NXT Pushed Off USA Network Due to Summer Olympics

WWE's NXT program will see a bit of a shake-up in the near future due to the Summer Olympics. The [...]

By Connor Casey

WWE's NXT program will see a bit of a shake-up in the near future due to the Summer Olympics. The July 27 episode will see the Black and Gold Brand move over to the Syfy Network for one night while the USA Network handles live coverage of sporting events from Tokyo. There's no word yet on if the Aug. 3 episode will have to do the same, as the Olympics run from July 23 all the way up through Aug. 8.

As for next week's NXT, Raquel Gonzalez will defend her NXT Women's Championship against Xia Li while Bobby Fish and Kushida will team up to face Roderick Strong and Tyler Rust of Diamond Mine. The show will also likely see the fallout from Karrion Kross attacking Samoa Joe and Mandy Rose's trade from Raw.

Update: PWInsider is now reporting the Aug. 3 episode has been moved to SyFy as well.

During a press conference last month, Triple H discussed how numerous NXT call-ups have struggled once they reach WWE's main roster. He then discussed how NXT has changed its identity over the years.

"One way of looking at it is misuse, another way of looking at it is things don't always work out. There are players that play in college football and people cannot wait for them to get to the NFL," H said. "Then they get to the NFL and it doesn't work, it doesn't pan out. And you can say a team misused them or mismanaged them or the coach of the team they play for didn't put them in the right role. It can be a million reasons. It can also be sometimes talent doesn't fit in a particular place or talent got to a particular place and thought, 'Oh, I made it' and that was the end of their growth curve. There's a lot of factors."

"A year or two in, three years in, four years in, that was a heavy knock on NXT (its identity as developmental)," he said. "I don't know if you remember it that way but I do. For me doing the interviews at that time it was always said, 'how can I get into this brand? Whenever I get excited about a talent they move on.' It kills me for the brand and I don't like it and it was a heavy criticism. That morphed into a different place where people got accustomed to that and it switched, the brand changed again. It's changed into a place where yeah there are going to be some talent who are in a position for a long time. They might not fit in different places, they might not want to go different places. There are some talent that don't want to leave and expand beyond. Maybe the schedule doesn't work for them physically, whatever it is."

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