WWE Reportedly Viewed Crowd Response To AAA & NXT’s Double Header Events on Aug. 30th As Being “Eye Opening”

WWE held a double header AAA Ola de Calor and NXT Heatwave 2026 events this past Sunday at the Bert Ogden Arena in Edinburg, Texas. The reason for the double header was due to WWE counterprogramming AEW’s entire All In 2026 event that same day with Lucha Libre AAA’s event taking place first and was followed by NXT’s event.

Dave Meltzer reported in a recent episode of the Wrestling Observer Radio that his sources within WWE stated that WWE officials had an “eye opening” reaction to the crowd responses to their double header event.

Meltzer reported that WWE officials likely made the decision to put AAA’s show on first and NXT’s show on second due to the belief that they were in the United States and NXT is bigger than AAA.

Those spoken to reportedly stated that a lot of the audience left after AAA’s show and didn’t stay for NXT’s show right afterwards. Those spoken to reportedly also stated that there was maybe around half of the audience left by the time of the NXT Championship Fatal Four-way match at NXT’s Heatwave 2026 show.

In regards to crowd responses, Meltzer reported that the Mexican talents who appeared and competed were all “way, way, way more over” than the NXT talents outside of Zilla Fatu. WWE officials reportedly had believed that Kendal Grey, Tony D’Angelo, Myles Borne, and Nattie would have been way more over with the crowd.

In regards to the reason for the crowd’s response to the double header events, Meltzer reported that this was primarily a Mexican audience than came to see lucha libre and some of them stayed for NXT’s show but most left when AAA’s show was over.

In regards to the attendance for the double header events, WrestleTix had reported that WWE had sold and distributed around 5,440 tickets as of the morning of the events.