NXT vs. AEW -- at least that's the plan.
Rumors, speculation and suggestion have been rampant since WWE announced Smackdown Live was headed to Fox this fall, but now, WWE has confirmed to a number of employees that NXT will also be televised on Fox Sports or USA. Fightful had been told the plan was to counter program All Elite Wrestling weekly, whatever night and time they land on, and several backstage have been informed of the plans.
WWE haven't officially announced the move, a time slot, a run time, debut or anything of the sort, and our requests for comment went unreturned. However, AEW announced today that they'll be airing on TNT Wednesday nights at 8 PM EST. NXT already airs in that time slot on the WWE Network.
One WWE wrestler told us that WWE is going to do whatever they can to suppress competition, while an AEW name said that they knew this was coming, but weren't sure when the official announcement was coming. Either way, it's not a surprise on the All Elite Wrestling end.
AEW is currently slated to run on TNT later this year in a two hour format, but as of the time we'd inquired about the story, no venue, dates, or a night that the show would air had been announced. Since, that has changed.
