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It has been nearly two decades since a rival wrestling company has competed for TV ratings with WWE on a weekly basis.
Beginning Wednesday October 2, the wrestling business will change forever as WWE’s NXT brand, which airs on the USA Network, will be competing with All Elite Wrestling(AEW) on TNT. These two pro wrestling products are designed for the hardcore wrestling fan, but I believe that the competition between the two companies could bring in new fans as well. Wednesday nights will be filled with action, and I can’t wait to see what happens next!
1. Better Matches
If you are a wrestling fan who has been living under a rock for the past five years, you would be happy to realize that NXT pulls out all the stops. NXT Takeover specials have been wildly regarded as the best shows in all of wrestling. NXT figures out a way to top themselves every single time. The Johnny Gargano-Adam Cole trilogy has taken things to another level.
Meanwhile, AEW has had fantastic Pay-Per-View’s(PPV’s,) and Cody Rhodes vs Dustin Rhodes at Double Or Nothing is still is a match of the year candidate in my opinion.
Weekly television will definitely be a full throttle 100 mph sprint. NXT has three title matches on their first show involving the ratings war, and AEW will crown a new Women’s Champion when Riho takes on Nyla Rose. AEW will also be having their weekly tournament to crown new Tag Team Champions, so really you can’t go wrong with watching either show. I’ll definitely have to watch both of them!
2. Factions
NXT began live programming on September 18, and there has been one thing that has stood out to me the most: Factions. The matches have been wonderful, but I see a theme in both episodes. During each hour of the show, two heel factions have been pushed to the moon.
The first hour is where NXT champion Adam Cole and the Undisputed Era (Kyle O’Reilly, Bobby Fish and Roderick Strong) shine. This popular group has the potential to be the next great ‘cool’ heel tandem in wrestling. I like that they have been fighting off top baby faces like Matt Riddle and Velveteen Dream in the first hour because it helps these shows get off to a great start.
On the other hand, the second hour has featured a bruising heel group from NXT UK called Imperium(WALTER, Marcel Barthel, Fabian Aichner and Alexander Wolfe). WALTER is the NXT UK champion, and he and his group of henchmen are nasty and physical. They are classic heels, and I can’t wait to see them go at it with all of NXT and bring more eyeballs to the WWE Network’s NXT UK show in the process.
Both of these factions take up two different blocks of the NXT show, and WWE has not ever done a show in that format. They always do shows where the top baby face or top heel is the lone central theme. AEW already has factions like The Elite, SCU and Jurassic Express, so it will be interesting to see what direction they will all go in. Factions are good for wrestling because as we’ve seen in the past with the NWO, Hart Foundation and DX. Strength in numbers is what’s best for business.
3. Better Takeovers/PPV’s
Ultimately wrestling fans tune in to weekly television in anticipation for blow offs for personal feuds on PPV’s. This week is one of the biggest weeks in the history of the genre, but what happens when this week concludes and we get to look forward to bigger shows? NXT Takeover: War Games III is scheduled to take place November 23 during Survivor Series weekend in Chicago, and AEW’s next PPV Full Gear is scheduled for November 9 in Baltimore. The two companies will be in a battle of ‘can you top this’, so I can’t wait to see what happens between all men and women who are involved. If we see anything like the Young Bucks/Lucha Brothers Escalera de la Muerte match at All Out, we are sure in for a wild ride!