Shawn Michaels says booking NXT Battleground for Memorial Day weekend had nothing to do with AEW Double or Nothing.
WWE announced yesterday that the next NXT premium live event following Stand & Deliver will take place May 28 in Lowell, MA. No start time was listed for the event. NXT Battleground will take place on the same day as AEW's annual May pay-per-view and one day after the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments from Saudi Arabia.
Michaels was asked by Ariel Helwani if the date was chosen to go up against AEW's pay-per-view.
Michaels responded:
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No, no, look, I'll say this, from a holiday standpoint, that's the thing. In the past, we've done well on the holidays. So, it's my understanding that's why we did that. It's no different then, you know, we used to do stuff back in the day on Christmas and on Thanksgiving. Holidays were always big days, so, that's what this is for us.
It's just that was the date that was available. Obviously, the holiday does really well for us.
Our own Dave Meltzer addressed the situation as well in Friday's edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Meltzer wrote:
The key is that the show is probably going head-to-head with AEW’s Double or Nothing show in Las Vegas. One could say it was a coincidence, but if you follow history it indicates that wouldn’t be the case, that WWE arranged a Shawn Michaels press conference on 3/30 head-to-head at the exact same time as AEW’s press conference with Tony Khan.
He also commented on WWE not announcing a start time for the NXT event.
Meltzer continued:
Actually NXT could do an afternoon show or an evening show as when they sent out the press release, for the first time I can ever recall, they never listed a start time for the event, which sounds like head games. When asking WWE, they said they aren’t sure a start time has been locked in.