Why is “No Mercy” announced as NXT’s premium live event this year?

The former PLE from the main roster will now be taking place on NXT, as announced by WWE recently.

Why is “No Mercy” announced as NXT’s premium live event this year?

No Mercy (via WWE)

With the new management now settling down across WWE, multiple changes can be seen by the fans. The storylines, venues for the PLEs, and portrayals of all three brands have gone through a significant change under the new regime. Under Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Nick Khan’s authority, it was recently announced that No Mercy PLE will be back, and it will be for NXT.

No Mercy has been familiar to the WWE Universe for over two decades. The first edition took place in 1999 and was an annual PPV until 2008. It was a second-level PPV with a moderate level of matchups each year. WWE brought No Mercy back in 2016 and 2017 but did not perform well among fans. Therefore, it was announced that this premium live event will now be in NXT’s territory.

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The real reason behind this is that the CEO, Nick Khan, said in an interview that he wants to promote NXT to the level of SmackDown and Raw. This would mean that all three shows would be treated on an equal footing. This is the same reason why numerous superstars from the main roster have made appearances on NXT in the past few months.

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WWE has been firing on all cylinders to catapult NXT and make it the third main brand in WWE. Various superstars have been part of No Mercy in the past, including Roman Reigns and John Cena. With it’s considerable success, the company is trying to use it to uplift NXT.

According to the press release, NXT: No Mercy will take place on September 30th in Bakersfield, CA. Carmelo Hayes, Tiffany Stratton, Bron Breakker, and Roxxane Perez are promoted in the release. However, it is too soon to predict any math on the card. Surprisingly, NXT North American Champion Dominik Mysterio is not included in the list, which has fans wondering.

Related: Why is WWE making Seth Rollins and other main roster superstars appear more frequently on NXT?

Old WWE/WCW pay-per-views names that are used in NXT

NXT Takeover: In Your House and NXT: The Great American Bash
NXT Takeover: In Your House and The Great American Bash (via WWE)

No Mercy will not be the first time WWE uses an old PPV from the main roster for NXT. In fact, its upcoming premium live event, “The Great American Bash,” is also an old WCW PPV that has been used in NXT for some years. This comes under WWE’s plan to make some changes to their third brand while also using the old yet memorable PPV formats from WCW or WWF.

NXT Takeover was modeled after “Takeover: In Your House,” which was inspired by WWE’s old PPV. In Your House, Halloween Havoc, Battleground, and WarGames are more examples of NXT reusing their old pay-per-view themes. Interestingly, WarGames was an extremely successful idea for an event. WWE even used it on their main roster for Survivor Series last year.

The Bloodline fought against Drew McIntyre, Kevin Owens, and The Brawling Brutes in an acclaimed match. AEW also used the idea in the form of Blood and Guts, which is one of the premier stipulations for their programming.

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