Bill Apter Discusses Onset Of The Wednesday Wrestling War, If Vince McMahon Will Leave NXT Alone
We're ust two weeks away from a new era in pro wrestling with AEW premiering on TNT on Wednesdays to go head-to-head with NXT on USA Network. Wrestling journalist Bill Apter talked about the dawn of the Wednesday Night Wars when he spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast.
"It feels like the onset of a war. I'm very excited and my finger is probably gonna start aching because I'm going to be channel-turning back and forth like I used to do in the WCW vs. WWE days," Apter said before responding to fans who wondered how Vince McMahon would react to AEW's arrival.
"He'd be crazy if he didn't put NXT up in the same time slot because that's the WWE's brand that has the type of flavor that AEW has."
There were numerous tactics used on both sides during the Monday Night Wars and Apter was asked if McMahon will use some of the same tactics that WCW used against him.
"I think when NXT premieres against AEW, he should take someone like he did with Stone Cold Steve Austin and have one of those legendary stars on that first NXT show? Someone like The Undertaker could made an appearance," said Apter. "No schtick, just comes out and does his thing, 'N-X-T' [Undertaker voice]. Boom and he's gone."
NXT has been Triple H's baby as he is the founder of the brand and a senior producer. But WWE is Vince McMahon's company and Apter was asked if McMahon will let Hunter run NXT independently.
"It's hard to say because I've known Vince my whole career and I knew his father. I think if there's something that just feels out of place and wrong to him, then he will want to change it. But if he looks at the track record of Triple H with NXT, maybe there will be more trust to say let's see what happens," stated Apter.
NXT delighted its most loyal fans by extending their partnership with Full Sail University and continuing to film their USA show from that location. Apter talked about why he enjoys the Full Sail atmosphere so much.
"As soon as I heard they were gonna be doing it every week like from Full Sail, it was almost like the Georgia Championship Wrestling feel to me. When they were all in that Turner studio, I loved that. But when you look at NXT, Full Sail appears like it's a bigger arena," revealed Apter.
He then talked about how he'd love to see NXT on the road but it may be financially too much to do. You also have to be careful about running shows in front of the same fans each week.
"You really have to rotate the audience so you don't see the same fans in the same rows every week because then it will look like there are three shows taped at once? Or you have to tell the fans to come back wearing different clothing," said Apter.
"I didn't really think they were going to do it from the same place each week. If it's in terms of budget, they can take it around a different city in Florida every week. But thinking with AEW ? and I know they have a lot of brains behind the money ? but it's so costly moving shows every week. I can't even imagine what this is going to cost them bringing it from state to state."
Apter's book "Is Wrestling Fixed? I Didn't Know It Was Broken!" is now available to purchase on-line and at all major booksellers. It can be found here at Amazon.com. His full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of today's episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post. In it Apter discusses the onset of the Wednesday Wrestling War, if Vince McMahon will trust Triple H with NXT, who he would like to see head AEW's booking committee, Chris Jericho as AEW World Champion, if Andy Kaufman would support AEW or NXT and more.
You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.