Could this be Pro Wrestling’s Biggest Week Ever?

September 30, 2019

On February 5th, 1988, the WWF debuted The Main Event on NBC. Featuring a marquee rematch from WrestleMania III between champion Hulk Hogan and challenger Andre the Giant, the show marked the first time in modern times that professional wrestling aired on prime time network television. That night, Andre ended Hogan’s four-year reign as WWF Heavyweight Champion, but the bigger news coming out of that night was the monster rating that the show did. The Main Event landed a gargantuan 15.2 rating and a whopping 33 million viewers.

Fast-forward seven years. September 4th, 1995. WCW Monday Nitro debuts on TNT. The WWF’s Monday Night Raw was preempted that night, so the two shows did not go head-to-head until the following Monday. And although WCW/NWA had been a rival to the WWF for years, it had always been the clear-cut number two promotion. So no one at the time really expected Nitro to emerge as the force it did in the ensuing years. But emerge it did, enjoying an unprecedented 84-week run of higher ratings than Raw. The Monday Night Wars, as they came to be known, revolutionized the business, raising the game of both promotions. Nitro ran until March 2001, when WCW ultimately folded and was purchased by the WWF. The Wars were over but the legacy loomed large.

Those two moments marked significant weeks in professional wrestling history. Each ushered in a new era of prominence and success in the business. But for the past 31 years, those types of moments have been few and far between. That is, until now. Beginning September 30th and continuing through to October 4th, the landscape will change in a way it never has before. Prepare for the biggest week ever in professional wrestling.

On Monday, WWE’s Raw kicks off its 27th year with a huge season premiere on the USA Network, home to Raw for most of its run. The WWE’s flagship show for its entire run, Raw now seems poised to slide into the “B-show” slot, although I doubt that Vince McMahon’s baby will ever truly take a backseat to any other program. The premiere is set to have a Universal Title match between Seth Rollins and Rey Mysterio, a grudge match between real-life rivals Sasha Banks and Alexa Bliss, and appearances by Hulk Hogan and “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair.

Then on Wednesday, October 2nd, All Elite Wrestling, the upstart promotion founded by Jacksonville Jaguars owner Tony Kahn and headed by wrestlers Cody Rhodes, Matt and Nick Jackson (The Young Bucks), and Kenny Omega, makes its television debut on, of all places, TNT, the former home to Monday Nitro. Landing on a major cable network less than a year after its formation is quite the accomplishment for the new company and one that cannot be overlooked. The fact that it is TNT makes it all the more significant. Although TNA Wrestling (now Impact Wrestling) had a prime time show on Spike for a few years, it never really had the same feel that WCW’s Nitro did back in the nineties, as a legitimate competitor to the WWF.

It remains to see how much AEW will challenge the WWE, but they come in with a lot of buzz and momentum, so they should at least be in the conversation for a while. And at the very least, they have forced the WWE to raise their game, which they always tend to do when challenged by a rival. The debut episode of AEW Dynamite features a highly anticipated match-up between Hangman Page and PAC (formerly Neville in WWE), Cody Rhodes vs Sammy Guevara, and a huge six-man main event between Omega and the Bucks against AEW Champion Chris Jericho and two “mystery partners.”

Never one to back down from a fight, in August, the WWE announced that it would be moving NXT, its third brand/developmental show, from the WWE Network to the USA Network on Wednesday nights, not-so-coincidentally in the same time slot as AEW Dynamite. Say hello to the “Wednesday Night Wars!” Although they officially debuted on USA September 18th, the show will move to its full two-hour run-time beginning October 2nd. Airing with “limited commercial interruption,” the show will feature three title matches: NXT Tag Champs The Undisputed ERA (Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly) take on former champs The Street Profits; NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler battles Candice LeRae; and in the main event, NXT Champion Adam Cole defends his title against former UFC competitor and all-around bro Matt Riddle.

Finally, on October 4th, the WWE returns to network prime time, as Friday Night SmackDown makes its highly anticipated debut on Fox. Not since the early nineties has pro wrestling aired on one of the Big Four networks, and even then it was only on a special event basis. So when it was announced last year that the WWE had signed a multi-year, multi billion dollar deal to air their other weekly program, SmackDown Live, on Fox, it definitely raised a lot of eyebrows. By making the move from USA to Fox, Friday Night SmackDown has essentially usurped Raw as WWE’s “A” show.

Friday’s premiere will feature a huge main event match between WWE Heavyweight Champion Kofi Kingston and Brock Lesnar, the former UFC Heavyweight Champion and WWE’s biggest special attraction. Lesnar, who works a limited, part-time schedule, has not competed in a non-pay-per-view match in over 15 years. So, yeah, this one is a pretty big deal. The rest of the card is loaded as well, with a tag team match between The Four Horsewomen (Raw Women’s Champ Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair vs SmackDown Women’s Champ Bayley and “The Boss” Sasha Banks), Roman Reigns battling nemesis Erick Rowan, and Kevin Owens and Shane McMahon culminating their months-long feud in a loser-leaves-WWE ladder match. The show will also be celebrating its 20th Anniversary, with multiple WWE Legends in attendance such as “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Goldberg, Sting, and a heavily rumored appearance by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

After this week, the two big milestones mentioned at the top will likely still remain the biggest single nights in pro wrestling TV history. They represented a shift in the paradigm from what wrestling had been before to what it would become. No one is expecting ratings anywhere near what The Main Event produced in February 1988 and it is highly unlikely AEW Dynamite can top the ratings of either Raw or Friday Night SmackDown at least not for a while. But in a lot of ways, this week is like both of those major moments (WWE debuting on prime time network TV and a rival company launching a marquee cable show) rolled into one.

Pro wrestling has never seen a week as monumental as this one and will likely never see a similar one again. The bar has been raised and the landscape changed. It’s hard to predict how AEW will fare with such a big move so early into its existence, how NXT’s move will affect that brand, and how the WWE will perform on their biggest stage yet. However it does unfold, one thing is certain: it’ll be one helluva ride. And that’s the bottom line, cause Stone Cold said so!