Why AEW And NXT Will BEAT WWE RAW In 2020
It was a cynical yet oddly predictable move from WWE to shift the beloved NXT onto USA Networks as counter-programming for AEW before it was even a programme to counter. The company weren't just looking to score bigger ratings or undercut those on the other side - they were looking to reduce the very status of AEW as competition.
Vince McMahon probably wasn't concerned about Cody Rhodes or Kenny Omega or The Young Bucks, in spite of the sweethart deals he'd allegedly offered them in 2018 to stop them going ahead with any of this in the first place. In his own words circa 2001, the business must have been "going down the toilet" if they were putting the belt on Chris Jericho anyway.
It mattered not that NXT had been critically acclaimed for the entirety of the Full Sail University era, nor that TakeOver is perhaps the most prestigious non-WrestleMania pay-per-view brand in wrestling history. The black-and-gold brand was still a niche interest (a niche within a niche, even), and forcing AEW to rival that rather than WWE at large was a shrewd bit of perception management from the industry leader.
That strategy lasted about a fortnight.
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