WWE’s NXT brand aired its first two-hour live episode on the USA Network on Oct. 2, 2019. What was once the gem of the WWE Network’s weekly programming was now on cable television, running head-to-head with All Elite Wrestling’s AEW Dynamite over on TNT. As confirmed last month, NXT will officially jump to Tuesday nights beginning with the April 13 episode.
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While the “Wednesday Night Wars” was overwhelming in AEW’s favor in terms of ratings and viewership, Triple H had nothing but positive things to say about the Black & Gold brand when asked to review the show’s tenure on Wednesday nights during a media conference call on Friday.
“[I see it as] very successful,” he began. “For me, we went from a very small platform of the Network with a lot of buzz outside of it to jumping to USA from one hour to two hours, from pre-tape to live to everything in between. Talent call-ups, and talent blooming, and injuries and pandemics, you name it, in the course of that period of time. I’m incredibly proud and happy with what we’ve done with the brand, and the the opportunity is right now.
“What we first did, it was about maintenance of a consistent time slot, day of the week and time, so that people could find what they were used to finding even in that smaller group. Now we’ve established a consistent viewership,” he continued. “The viewership over the the period of time, I think it’s in the 850,000 a week (range). Obviously, we just renewed a multi-year deal. The network is very happy. The ability to jump to Peacock and have more visibility for our larger tentpole events, our TakeOver’s, and be able to create more interest in the product in that manner, it’s all for the right reasons. The Tuesday lead in from Monday night at a promotion from Monday night to Tuesday is going to be great for us. It’s all good, and to be honest, if you would have asked me a year and a half or whatever it was, ‘Hey, how would you see this going?’ I would see it going about what it is now. The ability to establish a fan base and then decide the best place to put it but establishing that fan base in the consistent time slot was where it was at.”
This week’s edition of NXT will serve as the first night of NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver and will simulcast on USA and the Peacock streaming service.
