Tony Khan Faces Major Hurdle as Top Star Needs to Be Replaced Before NXT vs. AEW Can Start

The biggest showdown of the week kicked off on Tuesday. It was not among WWE stars or AEW stars but between the promotions itself. Both the promotions had their programs airing on the same day, at the same time. Even though Tony Khan has been preparing for this face-off for a long time, he suffered a major blow just moments before it got underway.

Tony Khan suffers a huge blow

Moments before AEW Dynamite kicked off, Tony Khan suffered a massive punch in his gut. He announced that Jon Moxley would not be able to show up for the event. According to Khan himself, doctors did not clear Moxley for participating in the event. Now instead of him, Orange Cassidy will be facing off against Rey Fenix. AEW Dynamite which usually airs on Wednesdays will be aired on Tuesday for this week. This was done as TBS will be broadcasting MLB playoffs in AEW Dynamite’s slot for this week.

To give WWE a tough fight, Khan announced that AEW Dynamite will not have any breaks for the first 30 minutes. According to the match cards publicized by AEW, Moxley, and Fenix were supposed to brawl out for the International title. Moxley had suffered a concussion at AEW Grand Slam weeks ago. And according to medical professionals, he has not fully recovered from the injury yet.

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Tony Khan tried his best to publicize the promotion’s latest episode. The CEO of the promotion wanted a maximum audience for his show. However, this is not the first time WWE and AEW clashed with each other.

Wednesday Night Wars

In August 2019, it was revealed that NXT was moving to the USA Network, airing live for two hours. This move was seen as a response to Dynamite’s upcoming debut. NXT premiered on USA on September 18, 2019, but for the first two weeks, only the first hour was on USA while the second hour was on WWE Network. On October 2, 2019, Dynamite made its debut on TNT, drawing in an impressive 1.409 million viewers, with about 878,000 of them falling into the 18-49 age group. TNT celebrated this as their most successful premiere in over five years.

However, NXT started to catch up when WWE announced that NXT wrestlers would compete at Survivor Series, confirming the brand as a key part of the promotion. NXT even topped the ratings in three out of the last six weeks of 2019. On March 30, 2021, news broke that NXT was changing its TV night to Tuesdays starting on April 13, 2021. This switch was linked to NBCUniversal’s decision to close down NBC Sports Network by the end of the year. Some of the sports programming rights were going to move to USA Network and the streaming service Peacock. WWE officially confirmed this change, and it marked the conclusion of what was called the “Wednesday Night Wars.”

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Do you think Tony Khan’s contingency plan work and will not affect the ratings?