WWE NXT
Two NXT superstars debuted in WWE on Tuesday night. Pictured: Bin Wang of China is deadlocked by opponent Wesley Blake during a taping of the WWE's NXT show at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida, Nov. 30, 2016. Reuters

Week two of the “Wednesday Night War” is in the books, and AEW: Dynamite prevailed over WWE NXT for a second straight week.

Showbuzz Daily reported Dynamite had 1.08 million viewers for its second episode, down from the 1.4 million who tuned in for the Oct. 2 premiere. This made Dynamite the No. 8 show on a night led by the MLB playoffs, which held three of the top four cable spots.

WWE NXT also saw a drop in viewership from last week, drawing in 790,000 viewers for its second two-hour episode on USA. It continued the show’s downward trend from the Sept. 18 hour-long debut, which drew nearly 1.18 million viewers, making it the No. 4 show on cable that night.

The ratings released by Showbuzz Daily also highlighted the age divide between the two shows continued to grow.

While NXT has continued to drop, viewers age 50+ increased from 0.36% to 0.0% compared to AEW’s 0.3%. However, male audiences 18-49 skewed sharply towards All Elite Wrestling, drawing 0.66% to NXT’s 0.29%. The difference was still there in the female dem, though the gap was smaller with NXT drawing 0.16% to AEW’s 0.26%.

Despite the viewership drop, both shows were well received by both fans and critics in the professional wrestling sphere. Particular praise was given to Chris Jericho’s promo on Dynamite introducing his new faction, the Inner Circle, consisting of Sammy Guevara, Jake Hager, Santana, and Ortiz. NXT also received praise for several strong matches, particularly the cruiserweight title match between Lio Rush and Drew Gulak.

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