10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Triple H
3. NXT Lost The Wednesday Night War
Recent enough that very little needs re-litigating but far enough into the past that those viewing the current landscape of the industry might not believe it, Triple H's black-and-gold baby was absolutely trounced by All Elite Wrestling in a ratings war created by WWE to try and limit their new rivals' success straight out of the gate.
In one respect, the plan worked. Audiences were divided, so AEW undoubtedly lost some viewers to the action on the other side, but the weekly television ratings painted a damning picture of how few that accounted for. In truth, Hunter's creative flare on the show had reached its apex the prior April. The last thing it needed was energised competition making it look as dated and tired as it actually was, but 'The Game' was still very much at the whims of his Father-In-Law back then, and said whims were remarkably familiar to some former ones.
The pandemic scorched what buzz might have remained around NXT, not least because of AEW's incredible handling of the enforced circumstances just a year into their existence as a weekly episodic. A long drawn out head-to-head continued well 2021, but that suggests the war wasn't already over before the pandemic took hold. NXT's extended stay on Wednesdays concluded in April of that year, and by September, a post-cardiac event Paul Levesque had to look on from the sidelines as the entire brand was rebadged in an effort to revitalise it after the bruising perception and optics bludgeoning.