This past weekend during the WWE premium live event NXT No Mercy, it was announced that on Tuesday, October 7, 2025, that episode of WWE NXT would be a special dubbed Invasion, set to feature wrestlers from Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's roster going up against Superstars from the NXT brand.
The name of that event coincides with the Invasion pay-per-view from 2001, revolving around the invasion storyline angle of the WCW roster facing the WWF roster at the time, and nothing else. However, that didn't stop some from being upset over this, as criticism from Israeli fans and media expressed their anger.
Newspaper Israel Hayom posted an article "stunned" over the name, stating that "The choice of the name and the date – a day when Israel commemorates the memory of the massacre from October 7, 2023 – is viewed as extreme insensitivity." Calling it a "preposterous decision" on WWE's behalf, acknowledging the actual source of inspiration from the 2001 event, but still being critical that "the obtuseness and extreme insensitivity to the date and the selection of the name prompts reflection." Attention was even brought to the Survivor Series tag team matches, with other critics online (according to The Jewish Chronicle) drawing extra assumptions that the red V in the Invasion logo was a nod to the red triangle symbol attributed to Hamas.
Wherever your views stand on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is safe to assume WWE did not actively choose this name and logo 24 years ago and decided to link everything up to a particular date for this reason, despite how much World Wrestling Entertainment has been associated with more political controversies in the United States now than ever before in their own right.
In any case, WWE clearly chose to change the name, which happened on tonight's episode of NXT.
During the opening segment, NXT's men's and women's champions Ricky Saints and Jacy Jayne were named the team captains by NXT General Manager Ava, while TNA Director of Authority Santino Marella spoke about the partnership between NXT and TNA. "We've been working together for months now. This is more of an NXT and TNA showcase. No no no no, a showdown. A showdown between NXT and TNA."
Thus, the show was rebranded as NXT Showdown, rather than NXT Invasion, with all future graphics showing the new logo instead.