WCCW NexGen

**No. of episodes** | 145 (as of Feb 11, 2023)

***WCCW NexGen***, also known as ***Wednesday Night NexGen*** or simply ***NexGen***, is an American professional wrestling web television program produced by World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) that currently airs live every Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on the ESPN+ streaming service. The show features characters from the NexGen brand, to which WCCW employees are assigned to work and perform. The show debuted on May 6, 2020 and is currently the developmental territory of WCCW.

The show originally aired on ESPN2 from its debut until May 2021 when it moved to Hulu as part of The Walt Disney Company's acquisition of WCCW. Beginning in January 2023, ESPN+ became the exclusive home to past and current episodes of *NexGen*.

## History

### Debut and COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2021)

*WCCW NexGen* officially premiered on May 6, 2020, airing behind closed doors on ESPN2 at the renamed Sacramento Credit Union Center as a replacement for the recently cancelled *WCCW All-Star Wrestling*, maintaining the talent roster from that program. Its debut episode was pushed back from March 14th due to the COVID-19 pandemic. From March 12, 2020 to May 20, 2021, WCCW announced that all of its live programs would air from the Sacramento Credit Union Center in Sacramento, California without an audience until further notice beginning with the following day's episode of *Intensity* due to the COVID-19 pandemic that resulted in the suspension of many professional sports leagues. On May 21, 2021, WCCW announced that they will return in front of live fans with a 25 city tour, therefore the July 13, 2021 edition of Battle Zone would be the final WCCW held behind closed doors.

### Walt Disney merger and move to Hulu (2021–2023)

One day before announcing their return to touring, WCCW announced on May 20, 2021 that they had agreed to a $15 million deal to merge World Class Championship Wrestling, Inc. into the The Walt Disney Company through a new subsidiary called World Class Sports Ventures. The new company would be overseen by then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek and WCCW founder and chairman Jack Thompson. Chapek would be replaced with Bob Iger as of November 20, 2022.

With the formation of World Class Sports Ventures, all of WCCW programming would be moved to Disney-owned streaming services with *NexGen* moving to Hulu as of June 2 with the service also hosting all previous episodes of the series on demand.

#### Move to ESPN+ (2023–present)

In January 2023, WCCW announced that *NexGen* would be moving to ESPN+ effective immediately.

## Special episodes

Throughout its broadcast history, the show has aired episodes that have different themes. Some of them are yearly events such as the WCCW Draft. Others include tributes to various professional wrestlers who have recently died or retired from actively performing, as well as episodes commemorating various show milestones or anniversaries such as *NexGen 100*, which celebrated the 100th broadcast.

## Broadcast

In the United States, the show airs live every Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on the ESPN+ streaming service. *NexGen* is also shown live on Disney+ in most international markets with localized commentary. In Latin America, the program airs on Star+.