There is always going to be a promotion or two that looks to compete with WrestleMania weekend, but WWE appears to be ready for them this year. The first weekend in April, 2019, will hold multiple events for WWE fans, but there are other wrestling events taking place at the same time. Now, Vince McMahon and company have confirmed that NXT TakeOver will have its date moved, which means it will no longer compete against Ring of Honor.
As has been the case for the last few years, WWE had been holding the Hall of Fame ceremony on Friday night, NXT TakeOver on Saturday, and WrestleMania on Sunday. All of those events will take place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, and one of them will be met with direct competition from not too far away.
Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) are set to run their sold-out G1 SuperCard on Saturday night and it will be held in Madison Square Garden. It was expected that the event would go head-to-head with NXT TakeOver , and that is what was going to happen.
WWE is making sure that won’t take place and that NXT TakeOver will take place unopposed as its date has now been changed.
For a while, there was speculation that WWE would make the move, but there was no confirmation until now. PW Insider received word from the company that NXT TakeOver will be moved to Friday, April 5, 2019, and the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony will be moved to Saturday evening.
As usual, WWE kept it very simple in their reasoning for the switch.
“WWE will be going back to is previous WrestleMania Week schedule with NXT TakeOver on Friday, April 5 and the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Saturday, April 6. We believe this better serves our fans.”
The current format has been in place for a couple of years, but the change for 2019 will take it back to how things were in 2016. WWE moved the two events in order to give those working WrestleMania on Sunday the chance to rest up and refresh.
NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn will now run unopposed while the WWE Hall of Fame will go head-to-head with the Ring of Honor/NJPW show at MSG. That show is expected to be streamed across different platforms for many fans to watch.
The WrestleMania 35 week has a new look with the change, and all events are scheduled to be held at the Barclays Center. AXXESS has not yet had its location revealed.
April 5, 2018
- NXT TakeOver Brooklyn
- WWE WrestleMania AXXESS
April 6, 2018
- WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
- WWE WrestleMania AXXESS
April 7, 2018
- WrestleMania 35
- WWE WrestleMania AXXESS
April 8, 2018
- Monday Night Raw
- WWE WrestleMania AXXESS – Final day
April 9, 2018
- SmackDown Live
