Predicting EVERYTHING That Will Happen On This Crazy Week Of Wrestling
AEW vs. NXT, CM Punk's return, Chris Jericho's mystery partners, and more!
This is the week everything changes for professional wrestling in North America. Everything.
The blockbuster billion-dollar television contracts WWE signed back in June 2018 finally come into play, with Raw continuing on USA Network while SmackDown jumps from Tuesdays on the old station to Fridays on FOX, making it WWE's new flagship after two decades as the B-show. Elsewhere, the so-called "Wednesday Night Wars" kick off with NXT's first two-hour broadcast on USA and AEW Dynamite's long-awaited debut, then, to top it all off, there's the Hell In A Cell pay-per-view on Sunday. Our thoughts and prayers go out to your sleep cycles at this difficult time.
As the next seven days are at least comparable (if not greater than) WrestleMania weekend in terms of hype, hope, and expectation, we can expect both promotions to go all-out in the battle to win your attention. WWE have dubbed it "Premiere Week," and for AEW, it's sink or swim, and while victory here (subjective or otherwise) isn't everything, first shots matter. Battle lines will be drawn - and it all starts with tonight's Raw.
Let's take a look at the biggest bombs that could drop on Raw, NXT, SmackDown, Dynamite, and HIAC...
14. New Season, New Look
This summer's rumours that WWE would re-design their set designs in time for SmackDown's move to FOX will hopefully come true on tonight's Raw, with the former flagship show's season premiere debuting a fresh new look.
It is much needed. While there isn't necessarily anything wrong with the current sets (and they've only been around since 2016), that WWE use them for every single main roster show has made them boring to look at. Everything is identikit. As of last week, the only thing separating Raw from SmackDown visually was the colour palette, so with WWE promoting this week's television as a new dawn for every brand, now is the time to switch things up.
An ideal scenario would see Raw and SmackDown debut unique sets this week, with another change-up for Sunday's Hell In A Cell pay-per-view. Going back to the way things used to be would give these shows some much-needed distinction. With that being the goal of WWE's recent announce team changes, this isn't fanciful at all. Let's hope they haven't spent all that FOX money on bringing pyro back...