WWE President On If AEW Caused NXT To Move To Tuesdays
WWE President & Chief Revenue Officer Nick Khan says the company is not worried about any other competition, including AEW.
An investor on today's WWE Q1 2021 earnings call asked about WWE NXT moving to Tuesdays on the USA Network, and how WWE weighed the pluses and the minuses of the move. The investor also said it appears AEW Dynamite is reaching record viewership, probably because of the NXT move. He then asked if WWE thinks about AEW or cares about them.
"Obviously everything is competition for everything," Khan answered. "The movies are our competition, people sitting and deciding just to text all night is our competition. All we're focused on is attracting eyeballs to our content."
Khan also commented on speculation that NXT moved to Tuesdays because of the NHL potentially airing on the USA Network on Wednesdays after the NBC Sports Network was shut down.
"So part of the reason for the move to Tuesday night... the last time we all were here, we were specifically asked, 'Well, what about the NHL and the impact of Wednesdays with the NHL on your content, NXT on Wednesday nights in particular?' It's our belief that NBC and the NHL are not going to continue to be in business together. That was our belief months ago, so that has absolutely nothing to do with our decision making process."
Khan then talked about how it helps WWE to have three consecutive nights of programming with pay-per-views on Sunday, RAW on Monday, and NXT on Tuesday, or just the two consecutive nights with RAW and NXT. He ended his answer by saying WWE is happy with the increase in NXT ratings, and not focused on anyone else but their own content.
"If you look at the efficiency of Sunday night pay-per-views, Monday night RAW, and Tuesday night NXT, it made sense for us for a myriad of reasons to do consecutive nights," Khan said. "Obviously Sunday night is a 15-20 time premium event type of things, but those efficiencies to us is what really drove it.
"We are pleased with the increase in NXT ratings and not focused on anyone other than ourselves."
Stay tuned for more.