Two Huge WWE Stars Announced For NXT’s Move To The CW

In September 2023, WWE confirmed that SmackDown was moving to the USA Network on a five-year deal starting October 2024. Initially, it seemed that this meant the USA Network would be the future home for all WWE’s brands. However, it was later revealed that due to how much they were paying for SmackDown, both RAW and NXT would be looking for new homes. Therefore, it didn’t come as a surprise when it was announced that NXT was heading to the CW and Raw to Netflix, both in big money deals.

Now, with NXT’s move only a few months away, WWE has begun promoting their developmental brand’s return to the road for its big CW debut, with the October 1st edition taking place in Chicago and the October 8th in St Louis. And seemingly wanting to guarantee a big crowd, it’s being advertised that CM Punk and Randy Orton will appear on the shows in their respective hometowns.

NXT launched in 2010, following the end of WWE’s version of the ECW, and became its brand in 2012. As a developmental show, it would start being broadcast via the WWE Network, although when it became counter-programming for AEW Dynamite, it moved to the USA Network in 2019. This would see the Wednesday Night Wars grip wrestling fans’ attention until WWE and the USA Network agreed to move to Tuesday nights in 2021 in order to stop splitting the audience and costing themselves advertising revenue.