8 Things WWE Want You To Ignore About NXT

The 7th and 8th of April 2018 are two dates WWE wants you to keep in mind. On Saturday, NXT Takeover: New Orleans will take place, which will introduce the North American Championship. And of course, WrestleMania 34 will take place on Sunday.

WWE prefers its fans to think nothing else in the world of professional wrestling is happening that weekend, but in fact, the UNO Lakefront Arena will host Ring of Honor Wrestling’s Supercard of Honor XII in the same city. To compete with NXT and ‘The Grandest Stage of Them All,’ ROH announced Cody [Last Name Redacted] and Kenny Omega will go head-to-head for the first time.

The rivalry between ROH and NXT is well-documented. The competitive scheduling of both companies’ events has stretched out for years, and it hasn’t always been ROH causing the mischief. WWE fired an early shot in 2015 when it started booking the Turner Hall Ballroom, a venue closely associated to ROH.

In addition to shows popping up in the same cities during the same weekends, WWE has also sought out many ROH talents. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn were both in ROH and both captured the NXT Championship. Seth Rollins and Cesaro also made waves during their time in ROH. But outside of outliers such as CM Punk’s pipe bomb promo, WWE rarely acknowledges their superstars were already successful in other organizationsm. Furthermore, NXT operates as though there is no competition at all.