Edge & Christian Talk NXT Going Head-To-Head With AEW

Recently on E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness, professional wrestling greats Edge and Christian weighed in on the news that WWE's NXT program will be airing live on the USA Network. Edge and Christian shared their thoughts on NXT going head-to-head with AEW's Wednesday Night Dynamite on TBS this Fall. Additionally, Edge talked about the challenges ahead of NXT, namely airing the show live and going from one hour of programming to two hours on USA Network.

According to Edge, it is an exciting time for professional wrestling fans and performers. 'The Rated-R Superstar' went on to say that Wednesday nights will be the new big night for the genre with NXT and AEW battling it out on cable television for ratings supremacy.

"Man, to me, that is so exciting," Edge told Christian. "I really do think it ups everyone's game. I think right now if you're a [professional] wrestling fan, if you're a performer, what an exciting time to be involved in the industry. So, you have RAW and SmackDown [Live] sure, but man, Wednesday nights are going to be the night now. I just think it's fun. I think back to the Nitro and RAW stuff and everything. I'm not saying AEW is WCW. I don't even know if AEW looks at this thing like a competition. I just think they want people to have a different option or another option, but now it's coming to this because hey it's Vince [McMahon] and WWE and if you start a promotion we are going to try to run you out of town. But I think that does up everyone's game."

Christian claimed that the the fans will be the big winners from the Wednesday Night Wars. 'Captain Charisma' also discussed how far NXT has come over the years.

"For sure, competition is healthy. It is! It keeps everybody on their toes. It keeps everybody sharp. And the people that are going to win – I've said it in the past – the people that are going to win in all of this are the fans because they are going to get some really, really great content, as far as [professional] wrestling goes, going forward.

"Yeah, it's also a huge jump for NXT to come off the WWE Network and come onto cable television. That's huge. If you think about where NXT started from, kind of a reality TV type of show. I don't remember what it was on, to be honest with you. It might have been on USA [Network] or Syfy or something like that. But like to see where it moved to where FCW was and now the PC and on The Network. Just the quality of performers that have come out of there and what they've built it into now." Christian added, "you see that it's a legit third brand and that's exciting."

During the podcast, Edge suggested that it will be interesting to see how NXT adapts to going live and going to two hours of programming.

"And I think that [USA Network TV deal] makes it finally feel like a third brand," Edge professed. "It's not this 'are you going up to the main roster?' because we've talked about this. And I never liked that. [Christian] never liked that. To me, it's a lateral shift, but now that really solidifies that idea.

"What will be interesting is a lot of those talents are used to taped shows. Live is way different. And they go from an hour to two hours. And to me, one of the things I loved about NXT was that it was an hour because if you've got that ADD, you can probably focus through that hour and it's just enough time to not overexpose anything. You expose enough and that to me is kind of the biggest question mark. My hope is that if there's talent that's spinning their wheels and can do so much more like an Apollo Crews, like a Cesaro, so many people, let them go to NXT, man. Let them shine there. That to me is how you can fill up those two hours. That to me is how you can use those guys to teach the younger folks, 'okay, this is live TV – this is how this works.' And I think that that's the key."

On the subject of AEW's upcoming new show, Edge indicated that it is exciting because we do not know anything about its presentation at all.  

"And in terms of AEW, what's super exciting about that is we don't even know what it's going to look like!" Edge explained, "like what format? How are they going to do promos? And there are just so many fun things as a fan to sit and watch and see."

Check out the pod here or in the embedded player below. If you use any of the quotations that appear in this article, please credit E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.