NXT/USA Update: How Much Money Will USA Pay? Vince McMahon’s Role, Mauro Ranallo, More

Aug 20, 2019

Money

USA Network will pay “at least $50 million” per year for the rights to air NXT on the network each Wednesday, according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio. This means that NXT will be profitable for the first time in its history. WWE would previously take a loss on the brand because it was primarily developmental.

USA is technically paying more for NXT than what TNT is paying for AEW, Meltzer says, but the deals are structured differently. USA is directly paying WWE, while TNT is paying for the production costs of AEW (WWE pays its own production costs). AEW also receives an advertising revenue split with TNT, so the money they make will depend on the amount of viewers they get. According to Meltzer, if they get something like 2 million viewers, they’ll probably be making more money than the NXT/USA deal, but below 1 million would probably mean they’re making less.

Vince McMahon

Vince McMahon will likely not attend most live NXTs, simply because of the travel and time constraints, according to Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio. Vince already has reportedly been missing Raw more frequently recently.

Traveling back and forth for Raw on Monday, NXT on Wednesday and SmackDown on Friday along with the XFL would be a lot to do for any human. Triple H currently attends most shows for each brand, so he’ll have to attempt to juggle that schedule.

But Meltzer also stressed that Vince would very likely become more hands on depending on how the ratings are, especially compared to AEW. Vince is “adamant” about beating AEW and it’s likely that he would start making changes and bring in more “main roster” guys if he feels that things are not going well.

Mauro Ranallo

There has been no indication yet that anything will change regarding Mauro Ranallo.

When Mauro signed on to be an NXT commentator in 2017, he cited the easier schedule, taping once a month or so. NXT going live every week has raised questions about his future.

According to Dave Meltzer, the travel schedule was not the primary reason for him briefly leaving WWE in 2017. The exact details aren’t known, but he and Vince McMahon reportedly had issues with each other, with Vince wanting Mauro to be more “Michael Cole-like.” There was also the well publicized situation with JBL where JBL was accused of “bullying” Mauro.

With Vince not expected to be at NXT shows most of the time (and thus not talking in Mauro’s ear), Mauro may not have any issues continuing on NXT commentary.

Update: Mauro posted these tweets:

I had the honor of being part of the first #SmackDownLive broadcast on @USA_Network I am even more excited to be part of the @WWENXT broadcast team with @McGuinnessNigel & @TheBethPhoenix on USA! WE’LL DO IT LIVE! 😎❤️🙏🏻

— Mauro Ranallo (@mauroranallo) August 20, 2019

One more time for the kids in the back (& because Twitter can never take things at face value) I WILL BE ANNOUNCING @WWENXT ON @USA_Network EVERY WEDNESDAY AT @FullSail Now back to your regularly scheduled trol-I mean tweeting.😎❤️🙏🏻 #NXTOnUSA

— Mauro Ranallo (@mauroranallo) August 20, 2019