15 Ups & 1 Down From Last Night's WWE NXT (Oct 2)

NXT lights the fuse for the Wednesday Night War in an explosive USA Network offering.

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War. What is it good for?

Absolutely everything, as it turned out during the first true Wednesday Night head-to-head between All Elite Wrestling's maiden edition of Dynamite and inaugural two-hour edition of NXT on the USA Network.

A tension existed for days in the lead-up to the two shows dropping at the same time on a day that could prove to be one of the most significant in modern wrestling history. In a pre-Dynamite Q&A session, Cody compared it to the night MTV first exposed Vince McMahon's growing World Wrestling Federation product to an entire new generation and subsection of followers. He might not be far wrong on that, not based on the content of the shows anyway.

The black-and-gold brand's task this was to do everything they've done in Full Sail for years, but better. To dazzle and delight with the verve of a TakeOver triumph, but live on television in front of a quarter of the audience already overexposed to all the acts. Pressure, for sure, but the sort of pressures most top level wrestlers are drilled to thrive on. How did they manage here?

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett