A former WWE star and champion in NXT has recalled how plans would change specifically to compete with AEW Dynamite.
Before NXT moved to Tuesday nights, it was in direct competition with AEW Dynamite on Wednesdays.
During this time, a lot of stories have come out about how WWE NXT would apparently watch Dynamite and adjust plans to compete.
Former NXT Tag Team Champion Martin Stone (Danny Burch) has now recalled a specific example of that happening.
During an appearance on Cafe de Rene with Rene Dupree, Stone said:
“We would have two TVs in Gorilla and they would be watching AEW, and then they were trying to change the show to compete with what they were doing.
“I’ll never forget. Me and my tag partner (Oney Lorcan), we were scheduled to have a 30-minute main event and I was really excited about it. We had three segments. And I was like, man, we were tag champs, we were gonna be able to go out there and really kill it.
“And then because they were watching (AEW) and they heard that there was a women’s match on first, they cut us to 10 minutes – with entrances – and said, ‘You guys are gonna go on first so we can steal the opening (viewers).’
“So when they turned around said, ‘We were never in competition’ – you’re full of it. Yes you were.”
Since his departure from WWE and NXT in early 2022, he has popped up a couple of times in AEW, most recently when he teamed with Bishop Dyer (Baron Corbin), Hadar Horvitz and Ori Gold in a pre-show eight-man tag team match against Austin Gunn, Billy Gunn, Brady Booker (Bodhi Hayward) and Elijah Drago.
Prior to that, he appeared on AEW Collision in 2024 in a match against RUSH.
