The Wednesday Night Wars Have Begun

Last night marked one of the more monumental and historic nights the professional wrestling industry has seen in my lifetime. All Elite Wrestling made their nationally televised debut on TNT, and the WWE’s NXT met ‘em in the same timeslot on USA, resulting in NIGHT ONE of the “Wednesday Night Wars”.

As you could see above, I didn’t pick sides – I had both screens going, making sure I didn’t miss a MINUTE of the action, and I’m here to tell ya what I thought the shows!

Firstly, NXT kicking off their show with an NXT Championship match worthy of main eventing a ‘TakeOver’ (and announcing beforehand that it wouldn’t have any commercial breaks) was a complete dick-on-the-table move from Hunter and the WWE. They knew Cody would be in the first segment of the night over on TNT, and came out swinging. Adam Cole and Matt Riddle then proceeded to go out there and do exactly what they were intended to do in stealing the show. Bell-to-bell, this was far and away the best match of the night, across either program, and one that I’m gonna have to go back to with audio next time around.

Cody’s match against Sammy Guevara was really enthralling as well, though, and even featured a cameo by JAY AND SILENT BOB!

You really do know the way to my heart, Cody.

Oh, and you folks have no idea how happy I am to see that Kevin Smith is now a wrestling fan…

Next, presentation-wise, AEW obviously blew NXT out of the water. This was expected, as All Elite sold out a basketball arena, and NXT was just operating out of Full Sail per usual, but still a bit jarring when you’re watching the programs side-by-side. NXT looks dark and small, while AEW looks vibrant and HUUUGE – which was one of the show’s best features. Just the feeling that you were watching something massive, and larger than life, and a lot of that boils down to how friggin great commentary was all night. Jim Ross, Excalibur, and Tony Shiavone were the team, and provided the perfect mix of nostalgia and modernness. I can’t speak on NXT’s squad, because I had that show on mute, but I’ll definitely go back and check it out at some point.

NXT brought in Finn Bálor last night, and Tommaso Ciampa, while AEW’s big surprise was…Jake Hager (FKA Jack Swagger), which was the most WCW-esque shit they pulled (literally Lex Luger’s Nitro debut in 2019), but I still have to say, I enjoyed All Elite way more. It might’ve been the freshness of it all, and the legitimate “anything can happen” feel I thought the show had. I mean, Kenny Omega coming to the aid of Riho after her PHENOMENAL AEW Women’s Championship victory (this was the PERFECT David vs Goliath story, check it out) was AWESOME. It reminded me so much of the Attitude Era, where Stone Cold would come out, save somebody from a bunch of heels, and that’d be that. No horrible “BUT WHO WAS THE FORKLIFT DRIVER?!” shit, just…he helped out somebody in need because they needed it. That’s the end of that. I love that.

Plus, that Dirty Deeds through the glass table was siiiiiiiiiick!

It is a bit weird that AEW seemingly doesn’t know their own ruleset yet (and nor do the fans), because DQs coulda been flyin out left and right in that main event especially, but I’m sure they’ll figure that out.

WWE issued a statement acknowledging AEW, and the Wednesday Night Wars themselves, which was sorta lame:

Cool to see AEW acknowledged by WWE, but at the same time, we all know how the WWE feels. It ain’t “This is so great for the fans! We wish you the best of luck!”. It’s “We fucking hate your guts and hope to put each and every one of you out of business.”

Like they said in that tweet, though: this is a marathon, not a one-night sprint. We’ll just have to wait and see how this plays out over time.