WWE has extended its working partnership with USA Network. And beginning on April 13, NXT will move from Wednesday to Tuesday nights.
In a statement, Paul Levesque, better known as Triple H, said they were thrilled to continue the partnership and excited for the extension of NXT, a brand he personally helped grow. “The move to Tuesdays provides a new opportunity for us to grow the NXT brand and enables our partner, USA Network, to continue to build its strong portfolio of sports and entertainment programming.”
Since debuting on USA back in September 2019–having been a WWE Network exclusive for years–it aired the same time as AEW’s new weekly show Dynamite. This shift could actually be beneficial to both shows going forward.
“By transitioning NXT to a Tuesday timeslot where WWE has performed well in the past,” said Frances Berwick, chairman of NBC Universal, “We are giving our passionate fanbase more of what they love with back-to-back nights of exhilarating, live programming.”
In 2016, WWE’s blue brand show, Smackdown, had moved all over from initially Thursday to Wednesday, to Tuesday when it would go live weekly for the first time in its history and officially changing its name to Smackdown Live. When the television deal with Fox started in October of 2019, it became a Friday night show.
What’s interesting is that WWE programming used to randomly be on Tuesdays when dog shows would air during the summer and fall back in the late 90s. It’s been several years since WWE programming has taken that slot so it’s only a brief matter of time to see how it helps or harms NXT.