WWE Makes Changes To The NXT Creative Team

WWE brass make changes due to unhappiness over recent NXT ratings.

Aug 7, 2020 August 7th, 2020

While AEW Dynamite regularly beating NXT in the weekly ratings may be played down by many, it appears that WWE is starting to get a tad antsy at this semi-regular trend.

In a new report from the Wrestling Observer, while publicly playing it cool, WWE brass is said to be hugely unhappy with NXT taking a spanking from AEW when it comes to the Wednesday night ratings battle.

Going further, Uncle Dave claims that WWE has moved to shake up the NXT creative team in order to try and improve ratings for the brand.

Previously, NXT has had its own individual writing team, but certain main roster writers are now helping out with NXT in addition to the brand bringing in two or three new external faces to help with putting together NXT creative.

Upon starting to air on the USA Network in September, NXT was given five exclusive writers. Since then, three main roster writers have joined the team, and now comes an additional two.

To be fair to NXT, the creative side of things hasn’t been particularly awful over these past few months, but there’s no denying that the gold and black brand seems to be missing a little something in recent times.

Even before Keith Lee dethroned Adam Cole to become NXT Champion, NXT had become good not great. And while that pattern of being ‘good’ has continued, AEW Dynamite has more often than not excelled on most Wednesday nights.

For wrestling fans, seeing good-to-great shows from both NXT and AEW on a weekly basis is a great thing – but WWE brass is clearly worried about the fact that AEW has been decimating NXT in recent ratings.

Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.

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