It is news that has been known the last month or so and now it’s official. World Wrestling Entertainment announced today that their NXT TV show is moving to Tuesday nights instead of Wednesday. In addition to that, USA Network has announced a contract extension for the NXT brand.

This means will air Raw on Mondays on USA Network, NXT on Tuesdays on USA Network and Smackdown on Fridays on Fox. It also means that AEW Dynamite will be unopposed on TNT on Tuesday nights. We also know that Impact Wrestling is moving to Thursday nights as well. The WWE NXT UK brand also airs on Thursdays on WWE Network. In other words, there are a lot of choices out there!

If you live in another country that watches NXT without USA Network then it will likely lead to a Tuesday night airing as well, but that’s up to your country and whatever channel carries the show. I know here in Canada, Sportsnet 360 usually doesn’t have anything regularly scheduled live on Tuesday nights, so we’ll likely get NXT live every week although there might be conflict during NHL playoff season.

Here’s the full announcement from a WWE press release sent to myself and many others this morning. It’s also on WWE.com as well.

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USA Network and WWE’s NXT Extend Partnership

03/30/2021

STAMFORD, Conn. — WWE and USA Network today announced a multi-year extension for NXT, which will move to Tuesday nights live on USA Network at 8/7 C beginning April 13. The new agreement for the live, weekly two-hour show furthers WWE and USA’s nearly three decade-long relationship.

“We are incredibly proud of our three-decade partnership with WWE and in extending USA’s NXT deal, we are further establishing our portfolio as an unrivaled home for quality WWE content,” said Frances Berwick, Chairman, Entertainment Networks, NBCU. “By transitioning NXT to a Tuesday timeslot where WWE has performed well in the past, we are giving our passionate fanbase more of what they love with back-to-back nights of exhilarating, live programming.”

“We are thrilled to continue WWE and NBCUniversal’s longstanding partnership with the extension of NXT on USA Network,” said Paul “Triple H” Levesque, WWE Executive Vice President, Global Talent Strategy & Development. “The move to Tuesdays provides a new opportunity for us to grow the NXT brand and enables our partner, USA Network, to continue to build its strong portfolio of sports and entertainment programming.”

Since launching on the network in September 2019, NXT has lifted USA to rank among the top cable entertainment networks in its regular Wednesday timeslot. In 2020, the weekly block averaged 847,000 total viewers and its special Tuesday episodes were even stronger, delivering gains of nearly +30% among the key 18-49 and 25-54 demos.

NXT is revolutionizing the world of sports entertainment with innovative styles from trend-setting and unapologetic Superstars including Finn Bálor, Adam Cole, Io Shirai, Karrion Kross, Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae. The brand’s diverse roster consists of elite athletes from the NFL, collegiate and amateur sports, MMA and international sports such as rugby, kushti and kabaddi. It is also the birthplace to more than 80 percent of the current Raw and SmackDown rosters including Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Charlotte Flair, Bayley, Sasha Banks, Alexa Bliss, Bray Wyatt, Bianca Belair, The Street Profits, Riddle and King Corbin.

All new episodes will be available on demand in the United States exclusively on Peacock, the day after its airing on USA Network.

NXT will continue to emanate from the state-of-the-art Capitol Wrestling Center in Orlando, Florida.

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TJR Thoughts: I’m happy about the move. Yes, you could say AEW Dynamite “won” the Wednesday Night Wars as people like to call it because they had more fans watching their show most weeks, but I’d rather have the shows on separate nights. I think it’s going to help the audience for NXT and Dynamite to be on separate nights. For me as a guy that reviews all the shows, having them spread out like this is wonderful. I’ll likely continue to make NXT and Dynamite next morning reviews so they will be Wednesday and Thursday mornings while I try to review Raw live (when it’s not NFL season) and Smackdown live most weeks.