[AEW vs NXT] Wednesday Night War Week 1

[Vic Boss 612]

HERE WE GO

 

NXT Card (Copied From SI.com)

 

• NXT Championship match: Adam Cole (c) vs. Matt Riddle

• NXT Women’s Championship match: Shayna Baszler (c) vs. Candice LeRae

• NXT Tag Team Championship match: Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly) (c) vs. The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford)

• Johnny Gargano vs. Shane Thorne

Aside from the four matches already announced, WWE has said rapper Wale will be in attendance. Fresh off his North American Championship loss to Roderick Strong, Velveteen Dream is also advertised to make an appearance.

 

AEW Card (Also copied from SI.com)

 

• Nyla Rose vs. Riho (AEW Women’s Championship match)

• Cody Rhodes vs. Sammy Guevara

• MJF vs. Brandon Cutler

• Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks vs. Chris Jericho, Ortiz and Santana

• Adam “Hangman” Page vs. PAC

Those five matches are just the tip of the iceberg, though. Expect at least a couple of surprise appearances to generate buzz around the show, especially after the identity of Jericho’s two mystery partners was revealed ahead of time. Jon Moxley (aka Dean Ambrose) is also advertised to make his first AEW appearance since a staph infection forced him to pull out of his match against Kenny Omega at “All Out.” 

 

Jim Cornette is moving his podcast to Fridays (recording Thursdays) for the next month, pledging to watching both shows (though probably not NXT's network hour) and then commenting/ranting on them. He might continue doing more afterwards but it depends on if there's a real contest and if he likes anything.

[MT 917]

13 minutes ago, Death Rider Mox said:

(though probably not NXT's network hour) and then commenting/ranting on them. He might continue doing more afterwards but it depends on if there's a real contest and if he likes anything.

I think I saw Mauro on Twitter saying this week is the first where both hours of NXT are shown on TV.

[Vic Boss 612]

Oh shiiiiii

[MT 917]

 

[Vic Boss 612]

I made the mistake of watching AEW first. I couldn't get past the first match on NXT before I had to shut it off and try again tomorrow.

 

I don't know if AEW can keep that momentum up (and I assume future crowds are not going to be that jacked for the show, and the crowd definitely lifted the show), but AEW production values make NXT look small-time and it feels looser while NXT still feels WWE-corporate controlled. AEW feels fresh but also throwback, dat WCW ring-noise, NXT feels same-old formulaic (good formula, but still formulaic).

 

The kneejerk fan in me says NXT needs to go on the road ASAP and sign CM Punk.

[MT 917]

AEW still needs to pump the entrance music into the TV feed. It's really, really hard to hear.

 

Also, one of the downsides to watching the AEW replay is all the picture in picture stuff JR mentioned didn't happen, so I missed a lot of action.

[Vic Boss 612]

Didn't happen at all in Canada, so I missed that shit too

[Vic Boss 612]

Aight, watched NXT. I agree with the general consensus that it was kinda just PWG with higher production values, and the wrestling was better than AEW. AEW felt more like stars than these guys tho.

 

Shitflower thoughts about the returns ahead

 

Balor being in NXT is effing liberating for him, but at the same time, WWE is trying to protect their billion dollar Raw and SDL properties every way they can... and they let Finn Balor go. Makes him seem second-rate (probably just Vince doesn't want to use him as a top guy because of his size and because he got injured at the worst time possible). His NXT run didn't really excite me much but the last time he showed up UK was awesome.

 

Ciampa is a weird one. Ciampa and Gargano's NXT stories and journies are over, I've been keyed into them moving up the main roster eventually. Instead they seem like they're sticking around. Johnny feels like the Briscoes or Jay Lethal in RoH, he's there and he's worth something but he's also done everything there is to do so it's also spinning his tires. Ciampa's hah his stuff cut off twice so there's still a bit more that could be done with him and I guess there's a still a babyface redemption arc you can play with him, but it's also kind of Bayley-in-NXT, he's above this now and overdue for the main roster but maybe never getting there.

 

I think going on the road or a fresh coat of paint would fix all of this in a second too, and maybe ratings-wise it won't matter because WWE's marketing machine will probably get more eyeballs on them no matter what.

[Vic Boss 612]

AEW had 1.4 million viewers, which apparently beat last week's Smackdown. NXT had 891k.

 

Can't wait for the Meltzer breakdown. How many people flipped between shows, how many people are crossover fans and unique fans etc. Only demographic NXT beat them in was over 50.

[Vic Boss 612]

Cody just announced AEW Dark, a youtube show (I think?) hosted by Tony Schiavone that features Dark Matches (sorta like Main Event) for Tuesdays

[MT 917]

That sounds awesome.

 

*clap, clap, clap clap clap*

[MT 917]

 

[Vic Boss 612]

I thought Dark was a mess. Cima/Darby was good, 8 Man tag had a bad flow, women's match was meh, six-man tag had Marko Stunt being treated like a wrestler instead of a mascot in it

[MT 917]

I see what you mean about the 8 man tag. The ref had no control at all during that, which seems to be the case in a lot of multi-man tag stuff in AEW so far. Considering this was edited and released a few days later, there's really no excuse for the camera missing dives to the outside (I forget who did it, maybe Fenix, but there was no way to see what he did).