USA Network reportedly behind recent change on NXT

This week, NXT The Great American Bash Night two aired on the USA Network. The event ended with Keith Lee celebrating his win over Adam Cole. Keith Lee is now the first Superstar to hold the NXT Championship as well as the North American Championship at the same time.

USA Network's change to NXT

Dave Meltzer has reported that the home of NXT, the USA Network wanted to pull all the stops to beat AEW Fyter Fest. On the latest Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer noted that USA Network was willing to forego profit for the sake of ratings on this week's NXT The Great American Bash. To push NXT ahead in the race against AEW, USA Network limited commercial breaks during the last two weeks of the Black and Gold event.

“This was a lot less commercials than the last week even. I mean it was very clear that this show from the NXT side was all about winning and not about making money you know as far as — I shouldn’t say NXT. It’s USA Network that makes that call. So USA Network really wanted a win.” (h/t Wrestletalk)

As of this writing, the ratings of this weeks NXT and AEW aren't out yet. If commercials played a key role in pumping up ratings for NXT last week, the brand must be expecting even better numbers this week given that the show had lesser commercials as compared to night one of the event.

NXT The Great American Bash was WWE's answer to AEW's two week Fyter Fest PPV. Night one of NXT's show saw Tegon Fox defeat three other Superstars to earn a shot at Io Shirai's NXT Women's Championship. The night's main event saw Asuka interfere in the match between Sasha Banks and Io Shirai, aiding the NXT Women's Champion in getting the win.

AEW Fyter Fest wasn't short on the excitement as its night one saw Cody successfully defend the TNT Championship against Jake Hager. Night two of the PPV featured Chris Jericho beating Orange Cassidy in what was a wrestling classic.