How The Wednesday Night War Was Won On The Very First Night

Both shows entered head-to-head competition on October 2, 2019.

In a desperate, short-term bid to undermine the premiere on TNT, Triple H booked an NXT Championship match between Adam Cole and Matt Riddle. This was the biggest - or at least one of the biggest matches - NXT had in its locker. This wasn't informed by any great, well-crafted grudge story. Riddle defeated Killian Dain in their second Street Fight in as many weeks - wildly, total gimmick over-saturation happened before head-to-head competition did - and was confronted by Adam Cole in the post-match. To put over the idea that a title switch was imminent, Riddle trapped Cole in an armbar. The Champion tapped. Cole's Undisputed Era stablemates arrived on the scene to bail their man out. Riddle didn't take the beating, he ran, and wasn't assisted by any of his fellow babyfaces. NXT missed the trick that won the war.

The actual match was great, tainted though it is now - they worked a super-dramatic sprint around Riddle's striking legitimacy and Cole's defensive acumen - but then, it was always going to be. The incredible in-ring standard had long been normalised. The principle behind episodic television is to create intrigue and ramp up the anticipation.

In an infamous Wrestling Twitter moment, Dave Meltzer analysed early Nielsen data by proclaiming "Riddle huge for teenage boys". Translated from the sort of quirk you can never tell is oblivious or not, the venerable Wrestling Observer chief revealed that Riddle had drawn the demographic TV advertisers want shows to draw - the same demo that WWE has struggled to dent for several years now.

And they pinned him virtually clean in the middle within 15 minutes of night one.

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