10 Ups & 2 Downs From Last Night's WWE NXT (Nov 20)
With the doors to Full Sail wide open, the NXT roster sees red (and blue) in WILD go-home show.
On Monday Night Raw, Triple H glared coldly into the camera lens and offered the entire WWE roster out for a fight. Or in, more specifically. Promising that the doors to Full Sail would be open for any invaders, this was a kayfabe call-to-arms and a real-life ratings grab. Of all the weeks, this was the time for both.
NXT took a heavy loss last week as AEW took all the buzz and generated their first ever ratings increase since the Wednesday Night War began. Their 957,000 count posted against NXT's 750,000 looked rough on the black-and-gold brand after another strong showing from the former developmental brand, but they were significantly hampered by a main roster lead-in as poor as any this year. The taped SmackDown and Raw episodes from Manchester were amongst the worst all year - 'The Game' wasn't willing to have that mistake made again.
With a blinding Tag Team match promised between The Undisputed Era and The Revival as well as the Adam Cole/Dominik Dijakovic ladder match also announced, it was set to be another huge week on WWE's hottest show. With two pay-per-views upcoming for the bulk of the roster, what droplets of blood and sweat were still to be spilled from the last of the brand warfare?