NXT to air live on the USA Network

Zack T · August 20, 2019

NXT® MOVES TO USA NETWORK

NEW YORK and STAMFORD, Conn., August 20, 2019 –WWE® (NYSE: WWE) and USA Network today announced an agreement in principle to air WWE's weekly Wednesday night show, NXT, live on USA Network at 8/7c starting September 18.

Following NXT's growth in popularity, the new two-hour weekly show will expand its reach on USA Network, the leader in cable entertainment, while staying in its Wednesday night timeslot that it has held since 2015.

"The move to USA Network provides an opportunity to deepen our relationship with NBCUniversal and further build the NXTbrand," said Vince McMahon, WWE Chairman & CEO. "Over the long term our goal is to develop a following that can be monetized to the same level as our flagship programs, Raw®and SmackDown®."

"USA Network and WWE have one of the longest and most successful partnerships in television history," said Chris McCumber, President, Entertainment Networks – USA and SYFY. "As the #1 cable entertainment network, we're excited to add NXT to our weekly lineup alongside powerhouse flagship Raw, and to bring a new generation of Superstars to a wide audience."

NXT launched in 2010 and has risen to become WWE's third global brand alongside Raw and SmackDown, hosting nearly 200 live events around the world each year. Airing on Wednesday nights at 8 pm, NXT has been WWE Network's #1 weekly series.

NXT offers a unique blend of authentic in-ring action with exciting and entertaining storylines that feature WWE's hottest up-and-coming Superstars including Adam Cole™, Velveteen Dream™, Shayna Baszler™, Johnny Gargano®, Matt Riddle™, Bianca Belair™, Io Shirai™, Candice LeRae™, Tommaso Ciampa™, Kyle O'Reilly™ and Bobby Fish™. The brand's diverse roster consists of elite athletes from the NFL, collegiate and amateur sports, MMA and international sports such as rugby, kushti and kabaddi. It is also the birthplace to 80 percent of the current Raw and SmackDownrosters including Becky Lynch®, Seth Rollins®, Roman Reigns®, Charlotte Flair®, Bayley®, Sasha Banks®, Alexa Bliss®, Bray Wyatt® and Baron Corbin®.

The series will continue to emanate from Full Sail University in Orlando as part of WWE's production partnership with the preeminent entertainment, media, arts and technology institution.

WWE seems to be taking AEW pretty seriously. But at the same time, AEW benefits from the fact that NXT will still be available on the WWE Network the day after it airs live on USA (While Raw/Smackdown have to wait a month), thus removing a good chunk of the pressure to see it live. You can easily watch AEW Wednesday, then watch NXT at your leisure later and enjoy it all.

Thankfully it appears NXT will, FOR NOW, remain largely the same. They're still gonna do their weekly shows from Full Sail (Just live for 2 hours each week instead of taping 4 1 hour shows at a time) and it appears they still get their own Takeover specials. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

Kam · August 20, 2019

It's definitely going to make things more interesting come Wednesday nights - I just hope both do well. I really want AEW to succeed, it's been too long since WWE had a serious competitor. I also wonder how WWE is going to fair with even more live programming each week. I've already said in the past it's just too much each week, even though I'm sure the NXT brand will have a different feel to Raw/Smackdown, it's still WWE. For a PPV week they'll have over 10 hours of live programming :oops:

Zack T · August 22, 2019

Yea. At this point I only plan to watch AEW and NXT weekly. I always read Raw/Smackdown results, sometimes checking out really interesting sounding stuff. But it's just too much.

3 hours of Raw

2 (eventually maybe 3) hours of Smackdown

2 hours of NXT

2 hours of AEW

Then maybe you watch NXT UK, or NJPW, or RoH, or Impact, or EVOLVE...plus TakeOvers and PPV's, ohmygod.