On the newest episode of E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness, Edge and Christian both give their thoughts on NXT making the move to USA Network on Wednesday nights. “The Rocket Strappers” talk about what this means for the industry as a whole and they give some insight as to the challenges along with the potential ideas that could stem from a Wednesday Night Wars brewing from both an NXT and AEW perspective. Quotes are below from the two Canadian fellas:
EDGE: “Man, that to me is so exciting. I think it’s great. I really do. I think it ups everybody’s game. Right now if you’re a wrestling fan, if you’re a performer, what an exciting time to be involved in the industry. So you have RAW and SmackDown sure, but to me, man, Wednesday nights are going to be the night now. I just, I think it’s fun. I think back to the Nitro and RAW stuff and everything and I’m not saying that AEW is WCW. I don’t even know if AEW looks at this thing as a competition thing. I think they just want people to have a different option, or another option, but now it’s coming to this because hey, it’s Vince and WWE and ‘if you try and start up another promotion, we are going to try and run you out of town,’ but I think that does up everybody’s game. What do you think?”
CHRISTIAN: “For sure, competition is healthy. It is and like you said, it keeps everybody on their toes, it keeps everybody sharp. The people that are gonna win, I’ve said it before in the past, that are gonna win in all this is the fans cause they’re going to get some really, really great content as far as wrestling goes going forward. So yeah, that’s a huge jump also for NXT to come off the WWE Network and onto cable television. That’s huge. You think about where NXT started from, basically kind of a reality-type show, that was, I don’t remember what it was on to be honest with you, might have been on USA or SyFy or something like that, but like to see where it kind of move where FCW was in Tampa then down to the PC and then to be Full Sail University and then onto The Network and just the quality of performers that have come into there and what they’ve built it into now and you see it’s a legit third brand and that’s exciting.”
EDGE: “Yeah, and I think that finally makes it feel to everyone, like it is now a third brand. It’s not this, ‘Are you going up to the main roster?’ Cause we’ve talked about that, I’ve never liked that, you’ve never liked that. To me, it’s a lateral shift, but now it really solidifies that idea.
“What will be interesting is a lot of those talents are used to taped shows. Live is way different. They go from an hour to two hours and to me, one of the things that I loved about NXT is that it was an hour. Because you couldn’t – if you got ADD, you’ll be able to focus through that hour, probably, you know what I’m saying? And it’s just enough time to not over-expose anything, but to expose enough and that to me is kind of the biggest question mark. What I hope is that if there is talent that are spinning their wheels and they can do so much more, like an Apollo Crews, like a Cesaro. So many people. Let them go to NXT, man. And let them shine and let them do their thing. That to me is how you can fill up those two hours, that to me is how you can use those guys to teach the younger folks, ‘Okay, this is live TV. This is how this works,’ and I think that’s the key. And in terms of AEW, I mean what’s super exciting about that is we have no idea what it is even going to look like. Like what format? Like how are they going to do promos? There’s so many fun things to just as a fan, sit and watch and see. Exciting stuff, man.”
CHRISTIAN: “They can really build it and present anyway they want to because like you said, brand new. Nobody seen anything yet as far as their TV show goes, so like you said, exciting time to be a performer and to be a fan. It’s great for the industry.”
(Transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo at WrestleZone)
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You can listen to the entire episode below which features special guest Sheamus below:
