Wednesday Night War: NXT Beats AEW In Ratings, Demographics On A Night Dominated By Impeachment

Friday’s ratings report revealed NXT beat AEW in the ratings and key demographics for the first time since both shows have been on the air.

WWE NXT took the night with 795,000 overall viewers for a show that has been described as a TakeOver caliber show by fans and critics.

NXT was headlined by Rhea Ripley challenging Shayna Baszler for the NXT Women’s Championship, ending Baszler’s 416 day title reign. Adam Cole also defended the NXT Championship to open the show against Finn Balor and ended with the return of Johnny Gargano after suffering a neck injury on the Oct. 23 episode of NXT.

AEW Dynamite walked away from Wednesday’s episode with 683,000 viewers; the show’s second lowest rating since its Oct. 2 premiere.

In the main event, the Young Bucks unsuccessfully challenged SCU for the AEW World Tag Team Championship before both teams were attacked by the returning Dark Order. Jungle Boy was then given a chance to shine in a “10 Minute Challenge” match against AEW World Champion Chris Jericho.

Wednesday was also a big night for NXT as it beat AEW in all key demographics for the first time. NXT maintained its dominance in the over 50 demo with a 0.36 to AEW’s 0.27 while getting its first win in the 18-49 demo with 0.27 versus AEW’s 0.25.

Despite the win, it was a down night for both shows because of news surrounding President Donald Trump’s impeachment. This was reflected in the ratings as nine of the top 10 spots for Wednesday were primetime news shows reporting on the House of Representative’s impeachment vote.

The only exception was a regular season NBA game between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks.