Wednesday Night Wars: AEW Dynamite Scores Third Ratings Win In A Row Over NXT

KEY POINTS

Both shows experienced small drops in the overall ratings, but remained relatively stable from the previous week's ratings
AEW's bump in the demographic was enough for the show to slip into cable's top 5 shows for Wednesday night
NXT's demo bump placed the show back in cable's top 50 programs for the first time since the New Year

AEW Dynamite beat out NXT in Friday’s ratings report for the third week in a row while also cracking into the top five shows on cable for the first time since debuting on Oct. 2.

Dynamite’s viewership won Wednesday night with 940,000 viewers for its “Bash at the Beach” special from Miami. It’s a small drop from the Jan. 8 edition of Dynamite, which scored 947,000 viewers, but has remained relatively stable since the New Year.

It did experience a small bump in the 18-49 demographic, scoring a 0.38 rating compared to Jan. 8’s 0.36 rating. This bump was enough for Dynamite to sneak into cable’s top five shows for Wednesday, outperforming one of the two NBA games airing on ESPN.

A No. 1 contender’s match opened the show as Kenny Omega and Adam Page beat the Young Bucks, Best Friends, and Proud & Powerful to earn a shot at the AEW World Tag Team Championship on the next episode of Dynamite. Jon Moxley and PAC won their matches against Sammy Guevara and Darby Allin, respectively, setting up a no. 1 contender’s match next week for the AEW World Championship.

Cody also accepted the stipulations MJF laid out for a match at AEW Revolution on Feb. 29. As a result, Cody will face Wardlow in a steel cage match on Feb. 19 in Atlanta.

While NXT didn’t fair quite as well, it managed to get back into the top 50 after two less than stellar weeks. Wednesday’s episode pulled in 700,000 viewers, down 721,000 from the Jan. 8 episode. However, it also saw a bump in the 18-49 demographic, up to a 0.21 from Jan. 8’s 0.19.

NXT continued the build to Worlds Collide as the reunited Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa challenged Tyler Bate and Trent Seven to a tag match while Finn Balor vs. Ilja Dragunov was made official. The build to NXT TakeOver: Portland also picked up as Bianca Belair won a no. 1 contender’s battle royal to challenge for the NXT Women’s Championship.

The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic continued as the team of Pete Dunne and Matt Riddle defeated Flash Morgan Webster and Mark Andrews to advance. Zack Gibson and James Drake also managed to get by Kushida and the debuting Alex Shelley to continue in the tournament.