Fans Outraged as WWE NXT’s CW Premiere Faces Access Issues Across Platforms

WWE NXT made their grand premiere on The CW on October 1, but it didn’t go that well for all fans. This is apparent after a tweet from The CW Sports received a fair amount of pushback simply by reminding fans that WWE’s developmental brand will be back on their channel next week.

The CW is a local station, so it was hard for some fans to watch. Depending on the region you live in the United States, the channel may or may not have been available on a variety of platforms. YouTube TV, Hulu, Fubo, and other platforms all offer the network in different places, none of them are the same and this made it hard for some fans to watch.

On top of that, The CW isn’t offering live streaming for NXT until a full day after the show airs. This doesn’t help much when you’re talking about a live pro wrestling show, because watching it a day late is tragically too late.

The CW tweeted out, “Let’s do it again next week @WWENXT,” and many fans responded to make it clear that they’re not happy about NXT’s new television home. They immediately let The CW know that they couldn’t watch NXT for one reason or another, all outside their control.

GeoIsUcey tweeted back to say, “maybe next week you make it available on your website.” Then, ProjectDuux fired off a reply saying, “Can we get it on the App? Apparently I have every channel except for the one NXT came on!”

Even Ringside News founder Steve Carrier had issues with this week’s show, because he was blindsided by The CW not being offered on his streaming platform, despite the fact that it offers a CW channel.

“A lot of fans in the comments pissed off because of the limited availability for CW Network. I actually had to switch service providers from @DIRECTV to @YouTubeTV after realizing 8 mins before the show started that @TheCW was not available.”

The CW also had issues with airing NXT at a different time than everyone else. Needless to say, this may not have been the seamless transition that many would have thought.

Many fans are certainly missing the USA Network as NXT’s home right now. This was not the kind of surprise that fans wanted if they tried to log on to watch NXT as they thought they would be able to, but they were met with a region block, or worse.

As NXT heads to The Factory in Saint Louis for its October 8 show, the drama is only beginning. Tickets for the event are still available via Ticketmaster, and fans will have another chance next week to watch NXT live on The CW if they can figure it out.