Backstage News On How NBC Universal Feels About WWE NXT

The most recent premium live event from "NXT" — Halloween Havoc — took place on October 22. The card was headlined by Bron Breakker defending the "NXT" Championship in a Triple Threat match against Ilja Dragunov and JD McDonagh, and apparently was a huge hit over at Peacock. 

On Twitter, the Wrestling Observer's Andrew Zarian dropped a pretty positive stat for the "NXT" event: "Halloween Havoc was NXT's most-viewed standalone PLE since the start of the Peacock relationship. By standalone, I mean running a weekend where there is no main roster PLE." 

"NXT" TakeOver In Your House 2021, "NXT" TakeOver 36, and "NXT" WarGames 2021 had been the only three standalone premium live events the brand put on since the Peacock partnership began in early 2021. Halloween Havoc 2022 can now be added to that list, topping them all. 

Zarian also added: "More on Halloween Havoc — Execs were "encouraged" that additional promotion helped translate into additional viewership for this PLE. The overall attitude towards NXT from NBCU side of things has been very positive over the past few weeks."

"NXT" officially dropped the "2.0" from its name a few weeks ago, as the brand had taken on a new identity starting in September in 2021. New developmental stars began being featured more, many of which did not have much previous professional wrestling experience and were new to the business. This was a massive change from the "NXT" that fans knew prior, as "NXT" used to schedule Takeovers during important event weekends, getting associated with WrestleMania and SummerSlam.

"NXT" will have its next premium live event, "NXT" Deadline, on December 10 — the same day as Ring of Honor's Final Battle pay-per-view. No matches for "NXT" Deadline have been announced just yet.