WWE apparently got a serious confidence boost the last time NXT went head-to-head with AEW, and now the company wants to turn things up a notch. After beating Dynamite in the ratings, WWE isn’t interested in playing it safe when NXT goes against Blood & Guts on November 4.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alvarez revealed that WWE actually wasn’t very confident going into its previous head-to-head battle with AEW Grand Slam France. That’s why fans got what was basically a normal NXT instead of WWE stacking the show with everything it had.
“Normal show, like they don’t even care. So then they announced that this will be head-to-head, and I was told they have been told to load it up.”
Apparently, WWE wasn’t convinced NXT was going to win that night. Rather than load up the card and potentially still lose, the company decided to just put on its usual show and see where the numbers landed.
“Then I was told they gained a lot of confidence from the last time they went head-to-head. So what happened is the reason they didn’t load up NXT — they thought maybe they might not win on Tuesday head-to-head, so they thought, ‘Well, we’ll just do a show.’”
AEW wasn’t taking that same approach. Dynamite had a much more loaded lineup, including an Ospreay title match, but WWE still ended up coming out ahead in the ratings.
“Dynamite had a loaded-up show, you know, the Ospreay title match. They didn’t have confidence. They thought they were going to lose. Most of us figured NXT was gonna win, but you have to remember, when NXT and AEW went head-to-head and they were both on normal nights for years, Dynamite almost always won.”
That win apparently changed the mood in a big way. Alvarez said WWE went from not being sure it could beat AEW to basically having a “we’re gonna crush them” attitude going into the next showdown.
“So they didn’t have confidence, and now that they won, it was sort of like, ‘We’re gonna crush them.’ So they will load up against Blood and Guts. They don’t wanna lose again Tuesday night after winning last time.”
That certainly makes November 4 a lot more interesting. Dave Meltzer previously reported that Nick Khan allegedly made the call to load up NXT, and now Alvarez is saying WWE’s newfound confidence after the last ratings win is a major reason they’re going harder this time.
The funny part is that this whole fight wasn’t even supposed to happen because WWE wanted another Wednesday night war. The CW moved NXT because election coverage on November 3 would have resulted in the show being preempted in too many markets, dropping WWE directly onto AEW’s night in the process.
AEW already has two Blood & Guts matches planned, so Dynamite wasn’t exactly going to be a quiet night anyway. Now WWE wants to bring some extra firepower of its own, and after winning the last round, it sounds like the company really doesn’t want to hand AEW the bragging rights back.
What do you think about WWE feeling a lot more confident heading into its next head-to-head battle with AEW? Let us know in the comments below.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
