In what seems like an inevitable move if you’ve flipped between Dynamite and NXT the past two weeks, WWE wants to bring NXT on the road to better compete with AEW’s presentation. In a report in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer talks about WWE starting the switch as early as January.
There is a lot of talk regarding taking NXT on the road every Wednesday and looking at 5,000-seat buildings, similar to AEW. The target seems to be January, because WWE has inquired about buildings of that size to shoot television on Wednesday nights. Even before the first week ratings came out, there was talk that Full Sail was only running weekly because they had no time to set things up and that a move to different arenas would take place in early 2020.
For all the talk about how Full Sail is a part of the NXT experience, it would make sense to bring the show on the road simply for perception. Right now, AEW looks like the show with more resources even though they’re the scrappy underdog going up against the all-powerful corporation. These 2019 Full Sail dates may have simply been an obligation, or evidence of a rushed launch to compete with the new product. Either way, the Orlando faithful may fall victim to the Wednesday Night Wars, saying goodbye to a weekly TV broadcast for the second time this decade.
