Report: WWE ‘Experimenting’ With Airing NXT TakeOver On Sundays

The next two NXT TakeOver events are scheduled to be held on Sundays rather than Saturday and it’s because WWE is reportedly testing it out as an experiment to see if it’s a good night to run regular live events on WWE Network.

According to this week’s issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE is hosting NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool and NXT TakeOver: Portland on Sunday nights instead of the ‘traditional’ Saturday spot because they want to see if Sunday could become each brand’s regular night for their big standalone broadcasts.

It was also noted that the new Worlds Collide special, featuring NXT versus NXT UK on Royal Rumble weekend, was planned months in advance and before plans for this year’s Survivor Series came to fruition. It’s worth noting that the Worlds Collide event theme was first announced when Royal Rumble weekend packages were announced, but no other details were immediately confirmed. When asked what Worlds Collide meant for the future of NXT TakeOver events, a WWE representative issued the following statement to Wrestlezone:

“That event will be Worlds Collide. The schedule of the 2020 NXT TakeOver events will be out in the near future.”

On a related note, Triple H was asked about the Sunday scheduling of the NXT TakeOver shows during the WarGames post-show media call. Jason Powell of ProWrestling.net asked if WWE was considering having the shows take on a more ‘traditional’ format being on Sundays and possibly being three-hour shows, or what it could mean as a potential revenue stream. Triple H said he doesn’t know as far as what it means for PPV revenue, but he feels that spacing events out and giving people more live content on WWE Network is something you can expect to see in the future.

“To be honest, I don’t know the answer to that question. I don’t really know the answer as far as pay-per-view or the [potential for a new revenue stream], I’m not 100% sure. I know that the majority of people watch on the [WWE] Network. The decision to go on Sunday, I think there’s a long tradition of Sundays and pay-per-views themselves. I think I had mentioned it early in the year,” Triple H said, “about some of the TakeOvers and running them independently and the idea to have individual TakeOvers where they could mean more.

“I think having more and more live content, not just in pockets of time but when you think about it in some ways, a week like tonight—three hours Monday, two hours Wednesday, two hours Friday, three hours tonight. I can’t even put a number on how many hours tomorrow, three hours again Monday—that’s a lot. It’s a lot, and to be able to spread that out is more meaningful to be able to move that around, is more meaningful,” Triple H said. “We just announced the UK TakeOver for Blackpool for the NXT UK brand. You’re going to see more of that, you’re going to see more of that standalone and having more and more of that live content in that manner on the WWE Network going forward.”

WWE Reportedly ‘Experimenting’ With Airing NXT TakeOver On Sundays, Worlds Collide Note