Backstage News On WWE NXT Possibly Moving To A New Night

As noted yesterday by @Wrestlevotes, there have been ongoing discussions within WWE about NXT possibly moving to different night instead of Wednesday. However, no decision is expected to be made on the matter any time soon.

In an update, Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio reports that Vince McMahon and the USA Network have the same mentality when it comes to AEW. They ultimately don't want another wrestling company to succeed in attracting a fanbase like AEW has, especially considering that USA's partnership with WWE is worth $265 million, while AEW and TNT are set at a $40 million deal.

Apparently Vince and the network were aware that if NXT had been on a different night other than Wednesday when it premiered on the USA Network, it would have drawn significantly more people. According to Meltzer, the only reason NXT was put head-to-head against AEW was to attempt to run AEW out of business. Once AEW and TNT came to a three-year television deal earlier this year, Vince and his partners realized that their plan to rule out AEW didn't succeed, which came as a surprise to many people in the industry including people at TNT.

At that point, the idea of moving to another night was shut down. It has apparently been brought up during meetings that NXT is regularly losing the Wednesday night ratings war against AEW, however, nothing has been changed. It was noted that they may be making a decision in the future regarding the night they're on, especially if viewers continue to decline for NXT.

NXT drew 849,000 viewers on the USA Network this past Tuesday night, according to Showbuzz Daily. This was up 3% from last week's 824,000 viewers. Over the past few months, the show's viewers have ranged anywhere from 633,000 – 901,000 viewers per episode.