September 30, 2019 Observer Newsletter: Everything changes next week, Impact moving to AXS

Wrestling changes in just a few days and everyone is pulling out all the stops this week to get a head start.

WWE is loading up Raw on Monday, NXT on Wednesday and even more, Smackdown on Friday. It’ll be a huge week for them but in some ways it’s trying to hot shot three shows in one week, not only that, but a PPV week.

It’s short-term thinking, but there are key reasons for it. NXT moves to two-hours and goes head-to-head with AEW (and WWE’s own Total Divas). NXT is there more to make sure AEW isn’t successful. But the FOX debut, which the network has done a great job pushing, is really the most important thing.

The idea is to give a facelift to a somewhat stale product, with new sets for Raw and Smackdown, new announcing teams and in a few weeks, new separate rosters.

The idea is that NXT on television will make their stars bigger, will lead to more touring and bigger crowds. In theory.

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