CM Punk, Cena, Cody Set For NXT’s Blood & Guts Counter-Show

WWE is loading up next week’s episode of NXT with a heavy dose of main roster star power, setting the show up as direct counter-programming to AEW’s Blood & Guts edition of Dynamite. The NXT episode will air on a Wednesday instead of its usual Tuesday slot specifically to collide with AEW’s show, and the roster additions announced since Sunday’s Halloween Havoc special make it clear WWE wants eyes on NXT that night.

The headline addition is CM Punk. After Grayson Waller retained the NXT Championship against Tony D’Angelo in the Halloween Havoc main event, a video from Punk aired on the titantron warning Waller that he’s coming for the title next week. That sets up a Punk–Waller NXT Championship match as the show’s centerpiece.

The NXT Women’s Championship will also be on the line, with Kelani Jordan defending after her Halloween Havoc win over Wren Sinclair. Backstage, Robert Stone informed Jordan she’d be facing a mystery opponent next week, and hinted he’d been in contact with Raw general manager Adam Pearce and SmackDown’s Nick Aldis — suggesting her next challenger will be pulled from the main roster rather than NXT’s own ranks.

Elsewhere on the card, Jackson Drake, Brad Baylor and Ricky Smokes — who interfered in Drake’s North American Championship defense against EK Prosper earlier in the week — have been booked into a six-man tag match against Chad Gable, Dragon Lee and Rey Fenix, pairing more established main roster names against the villainous Vanity Project faction.

John Cena is also set to appear. His NXT appearance follows Raw’s announcement that he’ll be returning to that show in Brooklyn for the first time since Backlash, and his NXT visit is expected to include an update on the John Cena Classic tournament.

Finally, Cody Rhodes will be on hand to present the trophy for the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, as Noam Dar and Romeo Moreno — now competing as Ultranueva — face Hank and Tank in the tournament final.

The scheduling move is a clear shot across AEW’s bow. Blood & Guts is one of AEW’s signature stipulation matches, built around the double-cage, dual-ring structure popularized by WCW’s War Games, and typically draws a dedicated audience looking for a violent, high-stakes brawl. By shifting NXT to the same night and stacking it with Punk, Cena and Cody — three of the biggest needle-movers in the company — WWE is signaling it wants to make Wednesday a real battleground rather than ceding the night to its competitor.

It also underscores how much WWE now treats NXT as a legitimate extension of its main roster programming rather than a purely developmental show. Title matches involving Punk and a cross-brand women’s title defense give the episode stakes that feel closer to Raw or SmackDown than a typical Tuesday night NXT broadcast. Expect WWE to continue blurring that line as the Wednesday showdown approaches, and watch for further surprise appearances as both companies jockey for attention that night.