NXT Airing On USA Network

[Jack-Hammer]

It was shown via commercials that an episode of NXT will air on the USA Network during the annual week where WWE takes over USA during the holidays. NXT airs next Wednesday at 7 pm EST, which is odd considering Raw, SmackDown Live and Tribute to the Troops all air at 8. I don't know if this will be some sort of special episode of NXT, maybe one that'll be taped either before or after Raw or SD Live next week or if the plan is for USA to air the episode that was taped last week and would usually air on the WWE Network.

Could be worth checking out just for the sake of seeing what they do and whether or not this is a one time thing. I personally prefer if it's just a one time thing because the moment NXT moves from the WWE Network to a TV deal, you just know that Vince is going to step in and his fingerprints will be all over it. A huge reason why NXT works is because Vince has very little to do with the goings on.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

The thing is, for these kinda of deal, Vince as little to no power over it. If this episode of NXT works and USA wants to bring the show full time, then Vince will say o.k. and it will go with whatever THE USA network wants him to do.

But I feel, this will be some sort of special show as a lead in for the episode on the network. That's why they are airing it at 7 pm instead of 8 pm. So that fans can tune in to the network at 8 if they like what they saw on USA.

NXT is a niche product, and it was evident by the turnout at the last nxt takeover which was really bad, so if they want to move forward and introduce this the a whole new audience, they need to do something like that. That doesn't mean that they will get more fans watching the show, but at less they are trying to get casual fans to tune in to NXT and if that mean changing the product a little bit, so be it because right now, none of the performers on the NXT roster are getting train to be ready for the main roster, they just train them to be able to perform on the nxt brand which is a complete different style then the main roster.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

The thing is, for these kinda of deal, Vince as little to no power over it. If this episode of NXT works and USA wants to bring the show full time, then Vince will say o.k. and it will go with whatever THE USA network wants him to do.

But I feel, this will be some sort of special show as a lead in for the episode on the network. That's why they are airing it at 7 pm instead of 8 pm. So that fans can tune in to the network at 8 if they like what they saw on USA.

NXT is a niche product, and it was evident by the turnout at the last nxt takeover which was really bad, so if they want to move forward and introduce this the a whole new audience, they need to do something like that. That doesn't mean that they will get more fans watching the show, but at less they are trying to get casual fans to tune in to NXT and if that mean changing the product a little bit, so be it because right now, none of the performers on the NXT roster are getting train to be ready for the main roster, they just train them to be able to perform on the nxt brand which is a complete different style then the main roster.

This entire post is horse shit.

I will concede that there were a few photos and live shots on the hard camera side of arena that were sparse, but photos exist of the opposite side of the hard camera being packed. Even if it was poorly attended, that isn't an automatic qualifier that it is a niche product. Being so close to a major US holiday didn't help ticket sales I'm sure, but the turnout wasn't as bad as people are trying to make it seem, and one bad turnout doesn't mean niche. NXT is constantly in the most watched shows on the Network, it draws more viewers weekly than any other show on the Network. Better than the specials, better than 205 Live, and the TakeOvers are second only to main roster PPVs.

And what is this BS about NXT training guys in a different style? Give me one example of a guy who was featured prominently in NXT who came to the main roster and changed his style? NXT may allow for more freedom for high spots and have larger move sets, but the whole point of NXT is to be a developmental brand for guys to learn the distinct WWE style. It's why every indy darling they sign spends time there, because wrestling and holding the attention of an audience of 10k people is much more difficult than doing the same in front of 1k people. They may screw up characters in a huge way, but the in ring product is largely the same.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

This entire post is horse shit.

I will concede that there were a few photos and live shots on the hard camera side of arena that were sparse, but photos exist of the opposite side of the hard camera being packed. Even if it was poorly attended, that isn't an automatic qualifier that it is a niche product. Being so close to a major US holiday didn't help ticket sales I'm sure, but the turnout wasn't as bad as people are trying to make it seem, and one bad turnout doesn't mean niche. NXT is constantly in the most watched shows on the Network, it draws more viewers weekly than any other show on the Network. Better than the specials, better than 205 Live, and the TakeOvers are second only to main roster PPVs.

And what is this BS about NXT training guys in a different style? Give me one example of a guy who was featured prominently in NXT who came to the main roster and changed his style? NXT may allow for more freedom for high spots and have larger move sets, but the whole point of NXT is to be a developmental brand for guys to learn the distinct WWE style. It's why every indy darling they sign spends time there, because wrestling and holding the attention of an audience of 10k people is much more difficult than doing the same in front of 1k people. They may screw up characters in a huge way, but the in ring product is largely the same.

When, I'm talking different style, I mean more in the presentation then the actual in ring stuff. The wwe style is more about presentation and character development and promos then in ring work and in nxt, it's more about the in ring and less about the presentation. That's why so many acts have fail to attract casual fans.

As far as your other comments, yeah your right, NXT is always in the top ten viewed show on the network and the takeover specials are always just behind the main ppv as far as viewership. But again, look at the crowd for takeover war games. From some of the shots they took plus some of the pictures that fans in attendance posted, their was one side of the arena that seems to be almost empty. For live events, they always do them in smaller venues because they know they can't fill a big arena with just the local market crowd. That's for me means that it's a niche product because if this was such a mainstream product like every fans of nxt thinks it is, they would have any problem going into bigger buildings for live events or the takeover specials wouldn't have been the lowest selling show of the survivor series weekend. Even the smackdown tapings sold more tickets then takeover. So it's still a niche product in my eyes.

Again, if you think that it's not a niche product, That's your right. Will see how what kind of product it is when the ratings comes out after the airing of the specials. If they are on par with Raw and smackdown, then I will conceide that it's a more mainstream product, if it does around what the c-shows we're doing as far as ratings goes, then I guess I'm not that far away from the truth and they still need to create more buzz to get more casual fans to watch the show on the network.

 

[GOOZEKING]

This show is pivotal to more than we know. If this show does not bring in the ratings then ALOT of marks are gonna say see the casuals don't give a damn about wrestling or these talents. If this show does bring in ratings then smarks can say casuals like wrestling.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Triple H said that it was an important night for NXT. I liked the show, but there were too many commercials for the format of the show. There were a couple of short, but entertaining, squash matches and the commercials lasted longer than said matches, then they'd do some sort of video package on the champions, which is a good idea, but they'd go to commercial after airing one of those, then the women's match between Ember Moon and Peyton Royce didn't air. Just way too many commercials for a 1 hour wrestling program as it just disrupted the energy of the show for me.

I'm not sure how it'll do in the ratings and I have no idea why they had the show on at 7 pm instead of 8 or 9, which is smack in the middle of primetime. Also, I don't know that I'd be all that thrilled with NXT being on standard TV because you just know that Vince will start playing a bigger role in what goes on and that may well just fuck up everything. A huge reason why NXT has succeeded and grown into its own brand, and not just the developmental territory, is that it's so patently different from the main roster: the wrestlers have more freedom, the storylines are far less convoluted, the wrestlers are actually allowed to speak using their own words, the commentary is more oriented on the "sports" rather than the "entertainment" aspect of wrestling, NXT is far superior at time management than the main roster & uses every second of time for the product instead of filler. There's a decidedly different feel to NXT and I'd hate to see that watered down if Vince feels it needs to be tweaked due to it not having the slick, overly produced feel of the main roster as NXT has been consistently, in my opinion, the best hour of pro wrestling around for years.

 

[Vintage Punk]

I for one am hoping it stays on the network because if it starts to air on USA network then it will be watered down like RAW and SD are. I'm hoping that airing it last night on USA was only to gain new subscribers for the WWE network and nothing else. Because NXT is our escape from the kiddie friendly RAW and SD programming. Some of the reason NXT feels old school is because the crowds. You don't get that from casuals and kids in the crowd.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

It's been reported that last night's airing of NXT on the USA Network drew 841,000 viewers, which put it at #22 of the top 150 shows on cable for yesterday.

It seems unimpressive but you have to consider that NXT aired during a screwy time of 7 pm EST, there were no big main roster names like Cena, Orton, Reigns, Lesnar, etc. remotely involved because the show isn't about them and fans could watch the entire show with vastly less commercial interruptions just an hour later on the WWE Network. Also, WWE didn't hype the ever lovin' crap out of it the way they always do for Raw, SmackDown Live or tonight's Tribute to the Troops special. As a comparison, last week's episode of Impact Wrestling drew 255,000 viewers and last night's episode of Total Divas drew 517,000 viewers. Taking everything into consideration, it strikes me as a pretty solid number.

 

[JoeMallard]

I didn't even watch it on tv, because I could just watch it on the network without matches being cut. Could they have been testing a start time for moving Raw to 7?

 

[Dagger Dias]

I had mixed feelings on this. On one hand it was cool to see the yellow brand on normal television instead of on the WWE Network. On the other hand, there were way too many commercials and we had content on the WWE Network version of this week's show that didn't make it onto the television version. I hope the intention was to help generate Network subscriptions so that people can see more NXT on there, as opposed to looking at moving it permanently to television. As many others are fearing, Vince and his team would quite possibly proceed to destroy all the things we love about NXT if that were to happen. NXT is just fine the way it is. I'd prefer if they keep it on the WWE Network and not do this again.