We are now in the new era of NXT being live on the USA network, at least for the first hour. The second hour goes back to the WWE Network. Network subscribers would probably watch the full two hours on the network itself, rather than switch back and forth.
Judging from this past week on NXT, the first hour was more geared toward a television audience while the second hour was more for the Network audience, which wouldn’t be that surprising. Hour One ended with the Matt Riddle / Killian Dain streetfight and Riddle picking up the win via submission. NXT champion Adam Cole came out and taunted Riddle, who immediately put Cole in an armbar forcing Cole to tap. The Undisputed Era hit the ring but Riddle escaped, setting up the stage for the championship match next week.
Meanwhile, in Hour Two it ended with the newly arrived Imperium faction from NXT UK facing Kushida and Breezango. While Kushida picked up the win, he was blindsided by WWE UK champion
Walter on the way to the entrance ramp.
In a simplified analysis, NXT’s first hour was more for the television audience because they ended it with the classic narrative of ‘good guy’ (Riddle) getting the upper hand on the ‘bad guy’ (Adam Cole), thus keeping the viewers happy.
Whereas the second hour, the ending definitely had a feel of being a ‘network’ oriented production. I can recall many instances where an NXT episode ended with guys who would basically be considered mid-carders on the main roster. The show ending with Imperium getting the ‘upper hand’ also fits in with not following the standard narrative of faces ‘winning’, even though Walters gets hefty chants himself.
So it almost seems like for now, there are two NXT episodes being shown on Wednesday nights for the two hours, and it remains to be seen if that is a good or bad idea going forward.
An average professional doing the 9-5 grind who really loves wrestling across all platforms. Here's hoping wrestlers finally get some basic workers rights in 2021.
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