Real Reasons WWE Stopped Pushing NXT Revealed

The real reasons why WWE higher-ups stopped pushing NXT have been revealed, courtesy of Dave Meltzer in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

In the latest issue, Dave Meltzer reports that WWE stopped pushing NXT because of a combination of the black and gold brand losing to AEW each week in the ratings, and the COVID-19 pandemic:

NXT had major edges, being a WWE brand, being promoted on Raw, being on the wrestling channel and perhaps most importantly, almost always having the stronger lead-in. They also loaded up TV more as far as championship matches went. But they were the C brand for WWE. At first there was the attempt to make it seem to be the third brand, but two things happened. The first is, they kept losing, even when sending top stars from the main roster they lost. While winning in viewers, a key note was when Becky Lynch, the biggest star in wrestling at that moment, went to NXT to face Rhea Ripley, and lost head-to-head in 18-49 to Nick Jackson vs. Rey Fenix. The second was COVID, and for a while, Vince McMahon wanted to keep the main roster talent away from NXT with the idea that NXT was getting COVID breakouts and he didn’t want that spreading to the main roster to a significant degree (which also killed the Raw Underground concept).

This comes as NXT is set to move off Wednesdays onto Tuesday nights, spelling the end of the Wednesday Night Wars with AEW.

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