WWE Rumors: NXT Is Reportedly Being Left Out Of ‘Survivor Series’ For Two Reasons

NXT superstars will not compete at this year’s WWE Survivor Series pay-per-view, according to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

As documented by WrestlingNews.co, the reason to leave the black and gold brand out of the event is two-fold. The first is due to the recent COVID-19 outbreak at the Performance Center. Officials want to prevent more employees from being exposed to the virus.

As The Inquisitr recently documented, WWE’s handling of the COVID-19 situation in the Performance Center has received some criticism. Some employees reportedly weren’t informed of the outbreak and showed up to work unaware of the positive cases.

This led to some creative changes being made for this week’s program, including using a stand-in for the superstar who was supposed to be revealed as the masked mystery performer who interfered in two title matches.

The second reason for the absence of NXT at the pay-per-view pertains to Vince McMahon’s perception of the show. He reportedly doesn’t want the black and gold brand to be viewed as equally as important as Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.

McMahon has supposedly soured on NXT in recent times. Earlier this week, Meltzer, by way of The Inquisitr, noted that the boss has disowned the show due to its subpar ratings compared to AEW Dynamite on Wednesday nights.

“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.”

As the journalist noted, the program saw an upswing in viewership when it aired on Tuesday nights recently. There have reportedly been calls behind the scenes for the program to switch days. However, the chairman appears to be adamant about keeping it on Wednesdays to compete against the rival promotion.

The WrestlingNews.co article pointed out that NXT was originally set to be part of the upcoming pay-per-view. The logo was featured as part of the promotion campaign for the event. However, plans are prone to changes on a week-to-week basis in WWE.

At last year’s Survivor Series, NXT was heavily featured and even came out on top against the main roster in some matches. The company was arguably trying to bring more eyes to the product due to its move to the USA Network at the time.