Posted in: AEW, Sports, TV | Tagged: aew, NXT, tony khan, wrestling

Tony Khan on NXT Moving to Tuesdays: "That Would Be Awesome"

Since the first night AEW Dynamite embarrassed WWE NXT in the ratings, which was the first night AEW Dynamite aired on TNT, fans have wondered when WWE will give up and move NXT to a different night when both shows can have a larger audience. There was a lot of talk about it last year when various sports playoffs caused one or the other show to get bumped to different time slots for a few weeks in a row, with NXT airing on Tuesday for two weeks in a row, viewed by many as a potential pilot of a more permanent move. But those in the know have argued that beating AEW was never the primary goal of putting NXT on USA Network for two hours on Wednesdays. The goal was always just to take some ratings away from Dynamite and prevent AEW from doing as well as WWE's flagship shows, Raw and Smackdown.

But it's looking increasingly more likely that that butthurt reasoning won't hold up now that NBCU is shuttering the NBC Sports Network, which will probably result in NHL hockey taking NXT's time slot. The latest round of rumors originated with a report this week from the Mat Men Pro Wrestling Podcast, later corroborated by Dave Meltzer and then double-corroborated by Bryan Alvarez of F4WOnline, claims that NXT will air on Tuesday nights following WrestleMania. Tony Khan was asked his thoughts about it in an interview with Forbes, and he definitely liked the idea.

"I don't know if that's a real thing or not, but it would be great to be unopposed and I'd love to have an unopposed audience," Khan said in the interview when asked about the NXT move. "When we have, we've done some really good numbers and I think that would be awesome."

AEW EVP Cody Rhodes was a little more measured in his response when asked earlier this week at a media call for AEW Revolution about the rumor of NXT moving to Tuesdays.

"I think them moving, perhaps something else will end up on Wednesdays, and not only that, AEW dark is on Tuesdays, so AEW Dark would potentially be opposed," said Rhodes of NXT moving to Tuesdays. "That's why we can't get into a matter of being reactionary. We just have to put out the best show. We really do. And if they want to beat us, they have to put out a better show. It's honest competition. Yeah, there's digs, and they're fun, and they're lighthearted. Believe me, all the locker rooms tend to love each other. It's more the management that is pointed at one another. And even that, there's a friendly relationship. Tony is a different type of management person, a different type of executive. I would love us to be alone on Wednesday nights, but I'm prepared for there to be something else in that slot, so we'll see."

Nothing has been announced yet, but we'll find out if the Wednesday Night Wars are over within the month, and we intend to milk as many clickbait articles out of it until then as humanly possible.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!