The issue with the Dusty Classic this year is that they have not put stakes on it like they did last time. It is a good vehicle to build up a tag team for a title shot. But right now it seems more to build for Worlds Colide. As for the Battle Royal I thought it was good. A number of people got some shine, and Bianca makes sense as the next challenger especially as Io is falling into the tweeter role. Unless crowds turn on Rhea I don’t see Io as the Mania opponent either I think they work the program with Bianca for Portland which should be a good match, which they can build well, then I think Kai might be the Mania opponent, as she has the most built in story right now.
Worlds collide is the problem it is survivor series if survivor series had one side full largely of unknown performers. I think we will get great matches (Imperium v UE, DIY vs Mustache Mountain) but they won’t mean much. I think it is also worse because Survivor Series was so recent it is inhibiting stories from developing on NXT
Io has to go main roster soon to prevent her from going stardom. So I think she either wins at mania or goes up. I think we all know Shayna is going up and it’s likely Becky vs Shayna with Ronda thrown in somehow
Io isn’t going up, at least not anytime soon what would she even do if she did join the Kabuki warriors? If she is planning to go back to Japan I’m pretty sure nothing WWE can offer would get her to stay in America given she is marrying someone from NJPW. If they figure she might leave anyway, then maybe they put her in for one good title match, but if they are worried she is more over than their face champ it might not happen. Or if she is moving up, you don’t risk the crowd turning on Ripley. Unless she is staying in NXT a while I don’t see why you put the title on her.
The Battle Royal was clearly putting Shayna over as a big Rumble threat so I expect her there, likely winning and moving up.
Broserweights vs Morgan and Webster
Time Splitters vs Grizzled Young Vets
Rush vs Swerve vs Breeze
All three matches that we’ve never seen before. All the tag teams were debuts on NXT TV too I think. Might be wrong. How is this stale? Stale is seeing the same wrestlers face each other every week.
The Dusty Classic is in it’s 4th year I think. It’s an annual thing. Yeah the tag division is not what it used to be in NXT. But it’s still produced 3 really good matches, 1 of which was an easy 4.5 Star match. And it’ll likely produce 3 more.
I think Davie described World’s Collide like Survivor Series. It’s always seems meh. But produces on the night. And if not for nothing, we are getting DIY vs Moustache Mountain and Imperium vs Undisputed Era. I mean if you can’t get yourself up for that.
Pro Wrestling has done filler challengers for years and years. How is this news to you?
Again this is not an attack on you. I respect your opinion. I’m just giving mine.
“NXT moved to a day they’ve been on since its launch?”
I wonder how many times we have to go through this:
NXT was not on a cable network on Wednesday night (in the United States.)
WWE did have an established Tuesday night audience on one of the major cable networks (USA).
WWE chose to abandon its established audience to put one of its shows on Wednesday night, knowing doing so would get a SMALLER audience than putting said show on Tuesday night.
WWE intentionally aimed NXT on the USA network to keep AEW from from getting bigger numbers.
WWE can do this since NXT is not a profit for WWE, NXT is an expense they deem necessary for their products which are the profit makers (Smackdown, Raw.)
What’s a fallacy? I don’t think anybody here is denying that NXT moved to USA Network to go head-to-head with Dynamite. But @Deezy literally said that NXT has always been on Wednesdays and you responded by reinventing the calendar.
NXT always aired Wednesday. I think the only clear argument was that they obviously rushed it to market to hurt AEW. The show people were watching Tuesday moved to a different network on a different night. There is no guarantee that NXT picks up any large portion of that audience by moving to Tuesday. They would have higher ratings running unopposed, but they did not move nights to compete.
What they did do was move earlier than they likely would have anyway. This is obvious seeing those first split USA/Network nights while waiting for the show in their slot to end. I think this also holds True for Taking Tuesday. Smackdown did not move until the same week as the AEW premier. So if they waited to have Tuesday the would either premier that week as the #3 show as far as hype, or would need to let AEW beat them to market. They wanted to hit the Market first. Given that their only choices were Wednesday and Thursday. Thursday goes up against the NFL and they were already on Wednesdays. Which was also their current taping night a Full sail so easier to move forward with that arrangement, and keep the schedule for their live fans.
Did they want to compete with AEW sure, but there are plenty of other reasons why Wednesday makes sense. Just like it did for AEW.
So now the competition show is canon to what we have now? Please…reach into the semantic bag a little harder thank you.
And I love how people will put the blame solely on WWE for going to USA…like this company that is paying them boatloads of cash will do whatever Vince McMahon wants because…reasons.
Hey…let’s ask billionaire Khan why he didn’t order TNT to go on Thursdays instead? If we think that Vince McMahon runs everything…how come the guy with the bajillionaire daddy doesn’t run more than him?
Aaron Spelling at his zenith of power…can just call up whatever station did his shows and be like “hey, put this show on in a few weeks, clear the schedule you people had in advance…I need this on this time, and at this date”.
