WWE looking To Create New Annual TV Special

A recent WWE taping was a huge success.

On November 6th, NXT and AEW went head-to-head with WWE’s third brand coming out on top. This victory marked the third time in a row that NXT has beaten Dynamite in the ratings.

The very special episode of NXT came live from the famous 2300 Arena and featured a host of ECW legends such as Rob Van Dam, Bubba Ray Dudley, and Dawn Marie. Of course, the iconic venue is better known to wrestling fans as the ECW Arena.

Reporting in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer stated that due to the episode’s success, WWE is now considering making it an annual tradition.

Regarding who came up with the idea to run the ECW theme and 2300 Arena on 11/8, which ended up being a great promotional idea, for whatever reason, nobody has taken credit or been given credit that we can find. What we do know is that the plan for running an ECW themed show at the arena goes back a little ways and was not specifically earmarked for 11/8.

It was just an idea to do at some point. Then, when they realized that they would be going head-to-head with AEW, the decision was made to play that card on that night. There’s now talk about making it an annual thing, which makes sense as when it comes to TV, different locations that are unique are a good thing.

AEW Thwarts WWE Plans

In the same edition of the newsletter, it was reported that WWE’s plans to follow up on the success of the November 6th show were halted by AEW.

According to the report, WWE had been hoping to book the Hammerstein Ballroom — another venue with a history linked to ECW, but things didn’t work out as planned. Tony Khan is set to take Ring of Honor Final Battle to the famous venue on December 20th, with an AEW Collision taping to follow 24 hours later.

The date WWE wanted to use was deemed too close to those booked by ROH and AEW.

It had previously been reported that AEW had been unable to announce the host venue for Forbidden Door 2025, due to WWE booking the O2 Arena in London as part of their huge pre-WrestleMania European tour.