WWE NXT Vs. AEW All Out Is Triple H’s Reckoning

Triple H was named WWE’s new head of creative, and NXT will now go head-to-head against AEW All Out. … [+]

Credit: WWE.com

WWE NXT will reportedly go head-to-head with AEW All Out during Labor Day weekend on September 4, 2022.

The counter-programming effort will be a return to the head-to-head wars for WWE head of creative Triple H, who was humiliated as head of WWE NXT during a one-sided Wednesday Night Wars against AEW Dynamite.

Despite a two-week start and a clear directive from the top of WWE to put AEW out of business with WWE’s once-piping-hot developmental brand, NXT was outclassed by the upstart AEW in a ratings war from October 2, 2019 to April 7, 2021.

WWE’s leadership has been split amongst two CEO’s—Nick Khan and Stephanie McMahon—in place of Vince McMahon, but from a wrestling standpoint, Triple H’s current role as Executive Vice President of Talent Relations most closely mirrors that of Vince McMahon’s. And while McMahon is out of the picture, his bloodlust for competition remains high within the walls of Titan Towers.

Possibly fueling WWE’s decision to go directly after AEW is Tony Khan’s recent tweet trolling Vince McMahon’s retirement ahead of AEW Rampage.

“Thanks to you wrestling fans and your great support of AEW, I’m grateful to now be the longest-tenured CEO in pro wrestling,” Khan said in a tweet the day McMahon retired.

“Thank you very much to every single person who watches @AEWonTV!”

Khan was recently asked about potentially having a more positive working relationship with WWE now that it is under new management. Not only does that seem to be the case in light of NXT’s announcement, Khan himself was dubious of a possibly kinder, gentler WWE.

“I’m not sure if that’s the case, but I would certainly be open to talking to pretty much any wrestling promotion in the world about how to work together if the circumstances are right,” Khan told Steve Fall of the NBC Sports Boston.

“We’ve worked with, I would say in terms of securing footage or providing talent, probably with at least a dozen companies around the world, including Ring of Honor before I was the owner of Ring of Honor, when they were independently owned by Sinclair”.

“I’d like to think that was positively received by them when we did things to help them out when they were in tough times, and I think that goodwill helped us in the sale process, that they knew it was something they put a lot of time, effort and financial backing into was going to have a good home, with somebody who was going to take care of it and love Ring of Honor. I think our track record with AEW showed them that, and now both companies are really strong.”

NXT going head-to-head with AEW All Out will be something of a reckoning for Triple H. Triple H’s abilities as a successor to Vince McMahon were questioned and crippled amid WWE NXT’s failure to defeat AEW in the Wednesday Night Wars. As recently as June 2022, Triple H was on the outside looking in on WWE’s power structure after spending the previous decade as the heir-apparent alongside Stephanie McMahon. It took an uncanny turn of events—and a bombshell sexual misconduct scandal that forced Vince McMahon’s retirement—for Triple H to return to power as WWE simply had nobody else ready to fill McMahon’s shoes.

With no Vince McMahon to micromanage Triple H’s vision, it can be argued that Triple H will now receive a fair shake in a head-to-head competition against AEW. But to be fair, Vince McMahon was not known to meddle in the NXT creative process during the Wednesday Night Wars.

NXT vs. AEW All Out will serve as a completely different dynamic for WWE as NXT will be the clear underdog to one of AEW’s biggest shows of the year. With a mostly developmental roster, NXT’s goal isn’t necessary to beat AEW All Out, but to hurt the pay-per-view. If this move is any indication, the Tripe H era of WWE could end up being every bit as petty as Vince McMahon era.