WWE NXT Heatwave is getting a second airing just hours after going live on The CW, and there may be a pretty simple reason for the unusual move — the network could be bracing for the live broadcast to get hammered by AEW.
NXT Heatwave is scheduled to air live Sunday afternoon at 3:00 PM ET, putting the show directly against AEW programming. The CW will then turn around and replay Heatwave from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM that same night, giving the event another shot in primetime without AEW sitting across from it.
While discussing the scheduling situation on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer suggested The CW may already know the live Heatwave airing is facing a rough afternoon. He pointed to NXT struggling the last time it went head-to-head with a smaller AEW show despite airing in primetime.
“I think that they deep down know that NXT Live is going to get killed. Look, they got killed the last time against a much weaker — I don’t want to say weaker, but a not-as-big AEW show — and that was in primetime. This is on a Sunday afternoon at noon Pacific, 3 Eastern. They’re not going to do any numbers there.”
That’s where the Heatwave replay becomes interesting. Meltzer believes the 7:00 PM airing could be The CW’s way of getting another crack at the audience after the live broadcast goes head-to-head with AEW.
“So what they’re going to do is CW is going to replay it from 7 to 10 on Sunday night as well. So that will be unopposed. And I think that’s where they’re hoping to get the audience because they’re paying a lot of money for this show to get screwed by WWE with the time slot.”
That is Meltzer’s interpretation of the move, not an official explanation from The CW. Still, the logic is pretty obvious. Instead of letting NXT Heatwave take whatever damage comes from a Sunday afternoon wrestling war and moving on, the network gets to throw the entire show back on television a few hours later when there is no direct AEW competition. Meltzer believes The CW is simply trying to squeeze as much value as possible out of a difficult time slot.
“I think that they’re doing the best that they can to at least get something out of this by putting it in primetime that night after the live show. Which actually, if you’re CW, makes a lot of sense because at least from 7 to 10 they’ll get some viewership. It’ll probably be under 400,000, I think probably well under, but at least it’ll be something.”
So the same-night Heatwave replay may be less about giving fans an encore and more about giving The CW a second swing after an ugly live time slot. The afternoon broadcast has AEW waiting for it, while the primetime replay gets three clean hours to chase viewers on its own.
Whether that second airing actually saves the numbers remains to be seen, but The CW is at least giving NXT Heatwave two chances instead of letting one rough head-to-head slot decide the entire story.
Do you think The CW is replaying WWE NXT Heatwave in primetime because it expects the live airing to struggle against AEW? Let us know what you think and leave your feedback in the comments.
