Welcome back to another round of Quick Takes—a post that indulges in the topics that aren’t worth dedicating a full article to, but are still on my mind.
Each week, I try to cram in as many smaller talking points as I can via a speedier process, and I invite you to chime in with your own thoughts about these topics and anything else by keeping the discussion going in the comments below! Drop some more talking points in there for everyone to chat it up about, too!
Without further ado, let’s get into this week’s topics.
NXT Moving to Tuesday Nights
I knew it. As soon as this NBC Sports Network thing happened, I knew NXT would be moving to another night. I figured there was more of a chance it was Tuesday than Thursday, but it had to be one of those two days.
This is all supposedly going down the week after WrestleMania. It has to be for several reasons, namely that NHL will draw more viewers to USA than NXT. It’s also a way to save face for losing to AEW Dynamite in the ratings, as these parties can claim they didn’t “back down” in the Wednesday Night Wars, but left willingly to help USA Network and did what’s best for NXT on another night.
They can say that because it’s at least partially true. However, we all know if NXT was destroying AEW in the ratings, this wouldn’t be as much of a thing.
I’m happy about it, in theory, though. While it does create a new problem in having a conflict with NXT and AEW Dark, that’s less of a problem than NXT and Dynamite. Now, I’ll get to watch both of those main shows without feeling drained by the time I get to Dynamite. Dark doesn’t matter nearly as much and I’m still hoping once Elevation happens, Dark won’t be as long.
NXT TakeOver on April 8
Although it hasn’t been 100% confirmed yet, it seems we’re getting the traditional “pre-WrestleMania” edition of TakeOver, but it will be on Thursday, April 8th. This is due in part to the “too big for one night” two-part edition of WrestleMania, but also because there isn’t another night to do it, with SmackDown, NXT itself, etc.
As a very general look ahead, I’d assume this is where Karrion Kross wins the title from Finn Balor, we’ll get Kyle O’Reilly against Adam Cole and maybe the MSK tag title match, among others. More speculation on that card to come.
But what does that mean for the Hall of Fame? No announcements have been made yet about carrying over last year’s class that never received their inductions or what date/time that will go down. Is WWE thinking about pushing it beyond WrestleMania Week? Maybe doing it at SummerSlam 2021?
Theoretically, that might work better than just doing it Tuesday, April 6th or something. That’s especially true if if it’s not in front of anyone and it’s just a Zoom call. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather wait, get a Hall of Fame in another month when maybe the pandemic has allowed for more gatherings, and these people can get their actual inductions, rather than to do some lame Skype chat that’s tossed out of the way on the busiest week of the year.
As far as names for the TakeOver event, they took forever to announce Vengeance Day. I hope they don’t wait that long and only announce it the week before. Give me another one of the retro names, too, as I’m digging that. Let’s do something like NXT TakeOver: Capitol Punishment (since it’s in the Capitol Wrestling Center) or NXT TakeOver: Fully Loaded or whatever. There are plenty of options. I would just rather it not be “NXT TakeOver 34” or “NXT TakeOver: Orlando”, nor some of the more bland names like Unforgiven, Armageddon or Payback.
William Regal’s Landscape-Changing Announcement
After Adam Pearce sent a Raw referee to screw Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez out of the Women’s Tag Team Championship match, William Regal said he’ll have an announcement next week that will change the landscape.
Some think it’s the Tuesday switch. Others think that’s just the TakeOver announcement, but I don’t see how either of those are a response to the women’s tag match. The only way around the latter is to say that the women’s tag team titles will be defended on that card, but I have no rationality behind the former.
I’m really, really hoping this doesn’t mean another title is going to be created. We don’t need the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship belts. There aren’t THAT many tag teams to make it necessary.
AEW Signing Hall of Fame Talent
Paul Wight said on Dynamite that at Revolution, a new signing will be announced and that this person is Hall of Fame worthy and that it’s not who we think it is.
Naturally, people’s speculations are running wild. I’ve heard some absolutely ridiculous suggestions like The Rock and John Cena, while others seem to think HOF-worthy means “it must be a previous Hall of Famer” (which I totally disagree about) and are pointing to Kurt Angle, Mark Henry and others like that.
If I’d venture a guess, I’d say it’s Thea Trinidad, Mr. Anderson, or RVD. I know everyone is harping on Brock Lesnar or CM Punk, which would be huge, but I just can’t imagine that’s the case. I’ll tell you what, though…this is one of the things I’m most excited about with Revolution. I’m anticipating this more than half the matches on the card!
AEW Revolution in Cinemark
Very quick note on AEW Revolution being shown in some Cinemark movie theaters. This is pretty neat. Some people might not want to pay the full price for the pay-per-view, may want to get a group of people together and may want to “go to the movies”, but without many films coming out, this is an alternative. It also gives the theaters something to help their revenue.
I won’t be doing that by any means, but I like the idea of having that as an option. It would be cool if AEW kept that going in the future. They don’t have a network streaming platform quite the same as WWE does, so it’s not as though it all funnels into the one direction. This is just another potential revenue stream and I see it as a win-win.
What are your takes on these topics? Keep the discussion going in the comments below!
