Why WWE Stopped Pushing NXT As A Third Brand

WWE promoted NXT as almost a third brand for the company when they debuted on Wednesday nights. That slowed down a bit in the months to come and now they are not really promoted as such anymore. There is a reason for that.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter pointed out some key reasons why WWE changed how they view NXT. This was not only became they kept losing to AEW Dynamite, but the COVID-19 situation also caused them to be separated in a lot of ways which kept the brands from meshing.

At first there was the attempt to make it seem to be the third brand, but two things happened. The first is, they kept losing, even when sending top stars from the main roster they lost. While winning in viewers, a key note was when Becky Lynch, the biggest star in wrestling at that moment, went to NXT to face Rhea Ripley, and lost head-to-head in 18-49 to Nick Jackson vs. Rey Fenix. The second was COVID, and for a while, Vince McMahon wanted to keep the main roster talent away from NXT with the idea that NXT was getting COVID breakouts and he didn’t want that spreading to the main roster to a significant degree (which also killed the Raw Underground concept).

NXT will debut on Tuesdays starting after WrestleMania. This will give them a chance to have a night to themselves without AEW Dynamite competition. We’ll have to see what’s in NXT’s future, but the team meeting they held before this week’s show was very motivational.