WWE Rumors: Vince McMahon Wants To ‘Disown’ NXT Due To Subpar Ratings, Dave Meltzer Alleges
Considering it wasn’t mentioned on this week’s Monday Night Raw as WWE started its build toward next month’s Survivor Series pay-per-view, there was some talk that, for the first time in years, NXT wouldn’t be featured in the company’s annual inter-brand battles. The latest rumors suggest there might be a reason behind that — chairman Vince McMahon’s apparent unhappiness with how the black-and-gold brand has performed in the so-called “Wednesday Night Wars.”
Quoting comments made by Dave Meltzer on Tuesday morning’s edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Ringside News wrote McMahon “wants to disown” NXT because of how its eponymous weekly show gets beaten regularly by AEW’s competing program, Dynamite, in terms of viewership. The outlet pointed out this has consistently been the case since last year, though there’s a possibility NXT’s upcoming Halloween Havoc special might perform better against this week’s pre-taped episode of Dynamite.
As the publication further suggested, McMahon’s best option might be to reschedule NXT instead of keeping it on Wednesday nights and failing to outdo AEW’s weekly show far more often than not.
“Vince McMahon might not be too ready to put a ton of confidence in them for that reason, but he should also know that NXT would perform much better if they would move the black and gold brand to a different night of the week.”
The aforementioned idea had been rumored last month, as Meltzer reported there was supposedly a push to move NXT permanently to Tuesday nights so that it could draw more fans.
As cited by WrestlingNews.co, the plan was considered earlier in the year, only for McMahon to shoot it down because he didn’t want it to look like WWE was “backing away” in the ratings war against AEW. In addition, the chairman reportedly considered if Dynamite would air unopposed Wednesdays, its viewership numbers might turn out similar to the ones regularly registered by his promotion’s two main roster shows.
The new report also came four months after WrestlingNews.co wrote McMahon was “frustrated” with NXT‘s television ratings, but had no plans at that time to make any changes to its creative team, similar to how Paul Heyman was replaced by Bruce Prichard as Raw‘s executive director. The publication added there was some talk of having some Raw and SmackDown talents compete on the black-and-gold brand’s show, similar to how Finn Balor returned to NXT last year after an injury-riddled stint on the main roster.
