Triple H has scoffed at suggestions of a wrestling war between WWE/NXT and AEW, dismissing Tony Khan’s promotion for only beating WWE’s developmental brand.
In August 2019 it was announced that NXT would be moving to the USA Network and broadcast on Wednesday nights. This put the now two-hour show in direct competition with AEW Dynamite, sparking talk among fans of a ‘Wednesday Night War’ between the two promotions.
However, after being regularly beaten in the ratings by Dynamite, NXT moved to Tuesday nights from April 2021. By September the entire brand was relaunched as NXT 2.0 and the focus shifted to once again be a developmental brand rather than a genuine third brand alongside Raw and SmackDown.
At the time there were numerous conspiracy theories, including the idea that NXT’s relaunch was a punishment for failing to defeat Dynamite in the ratings.
During a new interview with Ariel Helwani, Triple H laughed off suggestions of a wrestling war, while taking a swipe at AEW along the way. The Game revealed that many of the changes that came to NXT had been discussed for a long time, dismissing suggestions that there was ever pressure to beat Dynamite.
“People put so much pressure on this competitive war, it never was that. Look, first of all, they beat our developmental system? Good for them, right? [laughs]
No it was never that. [competitive war] There was never even a pressure of ‘You have to beat that.’ It was never that. It was put on the best product that we could. Like I said, it [NXT] shifted over time, in the pandemic all of that shifted over time.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Triple H revealed that the current overhaul of NXT UK and the creation of NXT Europe was originally planned to take place before the COVID-19 pandemic.
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