Dave Meltzer Suggests WWE Doesn't Have Confidence In NXT Stand & Deliver

For the first time since 2015, "WWE NXT" will not be part of the WrestleMania weekend festivities as the brand's annual Stand and Deliver Premium Live Event has had a change of dates. Many fans originally believed for "NXT" to have its annual WrestleMania weekend event on the morning of night one of WrestleMania 42 like last year, but a recent announcement from WWE has confirmed that the 2026 Stand and Deliver event will now take place on April 4 at The Factory at The District in Chesterfield, Missouri. 

Dave Meltzer was asked about the change of dates during a recent episode of "Wrestling Observer Radio," which led to him feeling like WWE simply doesn't have the confidence in the "NXT" brand that the company once did. "It really was telling to me, as far as their confidence in NXT that they would book a 2,100 seat building for their biggest show of the year. As opposed to 5,000 [or] 7,000–there's so many buildings in the St. Louis market that they could have run, to pick that one was really interesting. I mean it just basically says that they do not have confidence that NXT, at this stage of the game, can sell a lot of tickets."

Meltzer did note that there are a number of reasons why Stand and Deliver is happening two weeks before WrestleMania 42 outside of the lack of confidence from WWE, with another major point being that it ease the schedule for the production team over WrestleMania weekend. "It was just so hard from a production standpoint to go and do SmackDown on Friday night, Stand and Deliver on Saturday morning, plus it's the fact that it's the morning because it's Vegas not in the afternoon, and then come back with Saturday night [for] WrestleMania."

Please credit "Wrestling Observer Radio" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.