WWE cancels FCW TV, confusion persists over the new NXT's availability

Three months ago, WWE informed the Bright House Network which aired their tapes of Florida Championship Wrestling that FCW were going to stop producing television for them. This caused rumours to spread that WWE planned to shut down FCW and relocate their developmental promotion to Stamford, Connecticut, which Triple H quickly shot down. However, changes were clearly afoot and they were being kept confidential until WWE were good and ready to pull the trigger on them. A couple of weeks ago, WWE announced that they were moving their NXT tapings to Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida, and from then on primarily use FCW talent, which seemed to make their separate FCW television tapings surplus to requirements. So it should come as no surprise that WWE have decided to cancel FCW TV once again according to Bryan Alvarez yesterday:

FCW announced last night that their final TV taping will take place on June 7th. Someone alert HHH so he can do damage control on WWE.com.

Bryan's sarcasm is warranted here, as it is clear now that WWE only reinstated the FCW tapings to save face after the news leaked prematurely and they weren't ready to announce the changes to NXT. However, with WWE entering into a formal partnership with Full Sail University for the NXT tapings, FCW's future should be secured.

So everything's sorted now, right? Um, not quite. Widespread confusion still persists over whether the new NXT will be made available in the United States and if so, where it will be shown. Indeed NXT's new announcer Jim Ross, who should know better than anybody, was none the wiser on his blog last Saturday:

NXT will air on TV as it has been but I'm unsure as to where it airs, many of you who currently watch it know that info better than I, nor do I know exactly when the four, one hour broadcasts we taped Thursday evening will launch but I'm assuming that it won't be for a few weeks.

NXT has not replaced FCW on TV as FCW will continue to tape its shows as it has been doing for quite some time. FCW actually tapes their next grouping of TV shows next Thursday at the FCW Arena in Tampa, as usual.

Apparently, NXT airs somewhat extensively outside the USA already. Again, I'm not sure of where fans in the USA will be able to see the new, NXT at this time. I'm sure that WWE.com will have all that info.

According to Dave Meltzer on his subscriber only message board, currently the revamped NXT is not scheduled to be aired on the WWE.com website for American viewers, who will have to make do with an alternative lame duck version of the current format of the show that features all the lowest ranked workers on the WWE totem poll:

As of when they taped in Florida, they didn't know what they were doing with the tapes. I haven't heard different.

Vince had a mindset that if they put the new show on the Internet, it means it'll be looked at by TV people as an Internet show and thus, not worthy of a TV deal. So the plan was to put the Florida tapings on at some point overseas, since that's TV, but tape on Tuesdays for the U.S. Internet.

Keep in mind that was expected to change based on the next person Vince talks to every day. So who knows what will air when and where. HHH didn't even have any answers.

If that's the case, then they should have come up with a new name for the revamped NXT to diversify it even further from their existing online show and prevent brand confusion. This current state of affairs sucks for American fans of FCW like our very own Sergio Hernandez, who will soon be unable to view FCW wrestlers ply their craft in a new and improved environment, so hopefully WWE will find a way to air the new NXT domestically in order to cultivate a growing fan base for their developmental talent.