After years of Monday and Tuesday nights dominating the wrestling fan's free time, Wednesday night has suddenly become the most important night in the industry. On the heels of WWE announcing its NXT brand will move from a weekly one-hour show on WWE Network to two hours weekly on USA Network on Wednesday nights starting Sept. 18 -- the same night in which upstart All Elite Wrestling will also enjoy an 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET slot on TNT beginning Oct. 2 -- that's what AEW executive vice president Cody Rhodes thinks.
"I think the most important night in all of wrestling is now Wednesday nights," Rhodes told Bleacher Report. "The best wrestling is going to be happening on Wednesday nights. It's destination TV, and when's the last time wrestling was destination TV? It's now must-watch, and I'm not going to complain about that. Wrestling fans now have a choice, and I hope they choose us."
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Both NXT and AEW similarly feature a higher focus on in-ring action opposite the soap-opera pageantry of WWE's flagship Raw and SmackDown Live programs, which should make this "Wednesday Night War" ahead of us all the more enjoyable.
"I'm oddly intrigued to see what Vince McMahon does with NXT," Rhodes also pondered, alluding to rumors surfacing that the WWE chairman may become more involved with the third brand going forward on the USA Network.
More WWE news, rumors
- Jon Moxley (formerly Dean Ambrose in WWE) was scheduled to face Kenny Omega at the AEW All Out pay-per-view in Chicago on Aug. 31, but that will no longer be happening. With rumors surfacing of an elbow injury, Moxley confirmed on Twitter on Friday that he will be forced to pull out of the event as he deals with a case of MRSA in the elbow ... again. As you may recall, Moxley dealt with a potentially life-threatening case of MRSA while rehabbing an injury prior to his August 2018 WWE return. It didn't take long for AEW to find a replacement, though, as the debuting PAC has been tabbed to now take on Omega.
- Another big move made by WWE this week was the recent announcement it will launch its own podcast network. "Storytelling is at WWE's core and we are eager to add the audio genre to our portfolio," said WWE Advanced Media executive vice president Jayar Donlan in a statement announcing the news.
- Also from the Observer, CM Punk's agent reportedly reached out to Fox in regards to his client potentially co-hosting a WWE studio show on Fox Sports 1 this fall. Given Punk's tumultuous history with WWE and Fox being the wrestling promotion's new TV partner, it would be hard to see anything develop there.
