WWE may have badly misread the room when it decided to put NXT Heatwave after the AAA portion of its massive six-hour event. According to Dave Meltzer, a huge chunk of the crowd headed for the exits once the lucha libre action ended—and the building may have been half-empty by the NXT main event.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer said he heard the same troubling account from people inside the building and others within WWE. The company apparently believed NXT would be the bigger attraction in the United States, so AAA went first and NXT received the later spot. That decision came back to bite them.
“There was a lot I heard from people in the building, and even people in the company, about that Sunday show. It was an eye-opener, I would say, because I think that they put NXT second and they put AAA first, thinking that we’re in the United States and NXT is bigger than AAA.”
Instead of sticking around for NXT Heatwave, many people left as soon as the AAA show wrapped up. Meltzer compared the scene to an AEW Collision taping where the crowd starts clearing out before everything is finished.
“All the NXT people—it was pretty tough. A lot of the audience left after the AAA show. It was like Collision, with people just leaving after the thing. They said that maybe half the people were left for the main event.”
The reactions inside the building also told the story. Meltzer said the Mexican wrestlers were much more popular with the audience than nearly everyone representing NXT. Zilla Fatu was the one major exception. While Fatu received a massive response, Kendall Grey, Tony D’Angelo, Myles Borne and the rest of the NXT talent struggled to get the same love.
“The Mexicans were all way, way, way more over than the NXT wrestlers other than Zilla Fatu. They said Zilla Fatu was so over in that building, but nobody else—not Kendall Grey, not Tony D, not Myles Borne or anything like that.”
Even Natalya did not receive the reaction WWE may have expected. Meltzer said the audience was there for lucha libre first, and only some of those people decided to stay for NXT.
“Even Nattie, who they figured would be super, super over, really was not. It was a Mexican audience that came to see lucha libre, and some of them stayed.”
Meltzer believes WWE now has a pretty obvious lesson to take from the event. If the company holds another combined AAA and NXT show, NXT may need to go first before the lucha libre audience gets what it came to see.
“The learning thing is, if you do this, you should probably put NXT first rather than put them three hours into the show because, again, like I was told, the audience itself was very, very Mexican. I was basically told it was all Mexicans in the crowd, and they had a nice crowd.”
The brutal runtime likely did not help matters either. Six hours is a lot of wrestling for any audience, especially when the biggest attraction for much of the crowd finishes halfway through the event.
“That was kind of the deal for that six-hour show, and six hours is too long anyway.”
WWE wanted AAA to lead into NXT Heatwave, but the gamble appears to have blown up in its face. The lucha libre portion drew the audience, Zilla Fatu stood out as the lone NXT star who connected on that level, and everyone else had to perform in front of a building that was rapidly emptying.
Do you think WWE made a mistake by putting NXT Heatwave after AAA, or was the six-hour runtime the real problem? Let us know what you think in the comments.
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