WWE reportedly received an “eye-opening” lesson from Sunday’s doubleheader featuring AAA Ola de Calor and NXT Heatwave at the Bert Ogden Facility in Edinburg, Texas.
The two events were held back-to-back on the same day as AEW All In: London 2026, with AAA going on maiden before NXT Heatwave followed later in the evening.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com remarked WWE lined up NXT second under the belief that the brand would be the bigger attraction for a United States audience.
As per Meltzer, yet, the spectators reaction suggested otherwise. “I heard from even people in the company about that Sunday event, and it was an eye-opener, I would say, because they put NXT second and they put AAA maiden thinking that we’re in the United States and NXT is bigger than AAA.
And all the NXT people, the situation was pretty demanding. A remarkable deal of the audience departed after the AAA event. It was like a Collision, where people are just leaving after the thing.
They shared that maybe half the people were departed for the main spectacular. The Mexicans were all way, way, way more over than the NXT wrestlers, other than Zilla Fatu. Although nobody else, they said Zilla Fatu was so over in that building. Not Kendal Grey, not Tony D, or Myles Borne or anything like that. Building on that, even Nattie, who they figured would be super, super over, and really was not.
And some of them stayed, things were a Mexican audience that came to see lucha libre. Building on that, although the thing is, the learning thing is, if you do this, you should probably put NXT first, rather than put them in three hours into the presentation.”
Based on Meltzer’s account, a significant portion of the audience was primarily interested in the AAA portion of the doubleheader. Moved on from the special event center before NXT Heatwave concluded.
He was told that potentially only around half of the original crowd remained by the time the NXT main pay-per-view took place.
Meltzer moreover noted a considerable difference in those in attendance reactions between the AAA and NXT talent. As per those he spoke with, the Mexican wrestlers were significantly more over with the Edinburg audience than most of the NXT group of talent.
One major exception was Zilla Fatu, who Meltzer mentioned received a particularly strong reaction.
Other NXT names, including Kendal Grey, Tony D’Angelo and Myles Borne, reportedly didn’t receive comparable responses. Meltzer in addition noted that Natalya wasn’t as over with the audience as those involved had evidently anticipated.
The experience could influence how WWE structures similar AAA and NXT doubleheaders in the future. Meltzer put forward that placing NXT inaugural and AAA afterward may have been more effective given that much of the Edinburg attendees appeared to have attended specifically for the lucha libre portion of the show.