Blog #37: The Decline of the WWE Empire

 Part Three: The Wednesday Night Wars

In February 2010, WWE debuted a reality competition show called NXT. The premise of this new show was that a stable of male and female wrestlers from the independent circuit with dreams of WWE Superstardom would compete for an official WWE contract. After much drama and soap opera todo, the competition was won by Wade Barrett.

Shortly after the competition ended Wade Barret brought a new faction to the WWE. He called it "Nexus." Nexus was composed of pretty much everyone who didn't win the NXT competiton, notably Ryback (who went by a different name at the time). So, to recap: after three months of competition for a WWE contract, most of the competitors who lost got one anyway. WWE could have saved us all three months of that melodramatic crap and just skipped right to Nexus. But that's a different rant.

After its first season, NXT moved to the WWE Network, where I lost track of it. When next I heard of it, it had become the launch platform for the C-List newbies who were trying to make their bones. Successful newbies got promoted to the WWE flagship show Monday Night Raw, or to Smackdown!. Those Superstars who began to falter were downgraded to the then off-air NXT for more training.

Fast forward a couple more years to 2019. WWE debuts NXT on television, only this time not as a reality show but as a companion to its other two wrestling shows.

NXT began as a one-hour televised event that appeared to be the final hour of their program. From the outset, it was clear that the talent on NXT were nowhere near the caliber of their flagship show counterparts. Not only were they unpolished, they didn't have their choreography as down pat as they would in the future. But that was to be expected. This was the amateur division, after all.

NXT wasn't that exciting, and it did not have great ratings, but this is WWE -- if nothing else we knew they'd soldier on. Vince had the money to sink into it until it caught on.

In October 2019, TNT debuted a new wrestling show: All Elite Wrestling. Spearheaded by millionaire Tony Khan (owner of the NFL Jacksonville Jaguars) and former WWE alumni Cody Rhodes (son of the legendary Dusty Rhodes), this new company was promoted as "A wrestling show for wrestling fans, by wrestling fans" and it promised to be all the things that wrestling fans have been wanting since WWE became "Sports Entertainment".

Cough-Cough! Linda's political agenda! Cough-Cough!

It didn't hurt that big names like Chris Jericho, Dustin Rhodes, Jake Haeger, Jon Moxley, Kenny Omega, and even the greatest wrestling commentator in the world, Jim Ross threw their support behind this new company. Also prominent were several Ring of Honor standouts such as The Young Bucks, Hangman Adam Page, and SoCal Uncensored. The ROH guys dodged a serious bullet, in my opinion: the last time I flipped over to _Ring of Honor_ in hopes of catching the Exotic Goddess Mandy Leone, I was subjected to their new "Pure Rules" format. If you're not familiar with it, you're lucky -- it's little more than theatrical high school wrestling mixed with third rate drama and second rate talent. Minion 33 1/3 happens to like it, but I think it's crap.

(Minion's Note: Hey, Dem Boys! *AEW* is waiting for you!)

AEW delivered on their promise. In just a few weeks, their show, Wednesday Night Dynamite literally exploded. Their roster was packed with talent that had been starving for a chance to show the world what they could do, and show us they did. I've been utterly blown away by the level of talent that these wrestlers have displayed. Rey Phenax of the Lucha Brothers and The Bastard Pac (formerly Neville, The Man Gravity Forgot in WWE, another snubbed talent) are two of the highest flying athletes you will ever see. The women's division is absolutely top-notch! Kris Statlander, Penelope Ford, The Bunny, and Hikaru Shida, every single one of these women are phenomenal! If you haven't seen the match between Dr. Brit Baker, D.M.D. and Thunder Rosa, you need to look it up. You won't see this kind of action in any other company.

Since AEW is funded by millionaire Tony Khan, who will never bow down to Vince McMahon, Vince could not handle this upstart company in the way he has responded to other rivals in the past such as WCW and ECW; namely, buying them out and assimilating the company's talent into his own stable before dissolving the company. Faced with its first real competition in years, WWE was forced to mount a response.

Thus began the Wednesday Night Wars.

First, WWE extended NXT to two hours to match the two-hour time slot filled by Wednesday Night Dynamite. Then, they proceeded to disrespect the ever-loving frak out of their main roster by downgrading some of their top talent to what has always been considered the amateur platform. Wrestlers like Charlotte Flair and Finn Balor, who were big name main-eventers, got sent to NXT. The then tag team champions, Sasha Banks and Bailey, made frequent appearances on NXT to compete, even though it was abundantly clear that there was no way in the Nine Hells WWE was going to let any of the NXT female tag teams win the belts.

But perhaps worst of all, WWE orchestrated the invasion of Monday Night Raw and Smackdown! by NXT talent in preparation for the 2019 Survivor Series pay-per-view. This culminated in the Black & Gold Brand's first participation in and subsequent victory at a Survivor Series event. While this was intended to show the world that the NXT talent were equal to their RAW and Smackdown! counterparts, what it really did was make the flagship show talents out to be a bunch of bitches who'd been posing this whole time. I mean, the so-called amateur talent just ran up into your house and beat everyone down on _both_ shows! And _then_ they dominated you at their first ever Survivor Series!

 This didn't make NXT look good, it just made both RAW and Smackdown! look bad.

Since then, it's only gotten worse. WWE has pumped as much promotion into NXT as it possibly can in their effort to compete with Wednesday Night Dynamite, up to and including upstaging their flagship talent with talent from NXT. After this past Wresltemania, all three of the title holders in the women's division -- Bianca Belaire, Rhea Ripley, and Raquel Gonzales -- celebrated their championship gold in the NXT ring. With the exception of Gonzales (who is the current NXT Women's Champion) all three women are recent NXT graduates. And while Raw and Smackdown! storylines continue to plunge in quality, it's clear that a LOT more effort is going into the Black & Gold Brand's story writing.

Meanwhile, AEW has only risen in quality and presentation. Not only have they had better storylines, but they've elevated talents that have been ignored by the WWE. What's even better, much of the talent that WWE has snubbed in their own roster have jumped ship to AEW. Rusev (DAAAAAY!) has emerged as Miro and already earned championship gold. Andrade El Idolo has just premiered in great shape. Matt Hardy, Christian, Tay Conti, all have come from WWE to the AEW roster. It's only a matter of time before we see Bray Wyatt and Rowan make their debut.

But possibly the most damaging acquisition that AEW has made is Aleister Black, who WWE has absolutely mishandled ever since he came from NXT to RAW. He recently arrived on Wednesday Night Dynamite as Malachi Black, and I am frothing at the mouth to see the damage he's going to do to his competition in this company now that he's going to have a chance to compete like he's meant to.

If anyone contests the absolute _ass whipping_ that AEW has been putting on WWE since its debut, you need only look to this date: April 13th, 2021. That is the date that WWE announced that they were moving NXT to Tuesday Nights.

Ring the bell, ref -- this one's over. Your winner of the Wednesday Night Wars, by an absolutely dominating knockout, is All Elite Wrestling.

To make matters worse, AEW has just announced that they are soon to debut a new show, Friday Night Rampage. I'm very interested to see how Smackdown! fares once AEW is chomping on their ratings.

One final note: WWE, I have Loved you for years, and though I hate some of the directions you are taking, I Love you still. But when you promote the Black & Gold Brand, you really lose credibility when the only reviews you display during the commercials are from your own roster. #Didn't think we'd notice?

The preceding has been a message from the IFW; who would like to remind you that being an Empire is no excuse for being lazy, disrespecting your talent, or suing your former talent for the rights to his name just because he's kicking your ass in the ratings. This message is sponsored by the memory of Brody Lee and brought to you by the number -1. Rest in peace, Brody -- there'll never be another like you.