Wednesday Night Wars: AEW Returns To Its Winning Ways In A Close Race With NXT

While AEW returned to its winning ways in the ratings over NXT, it proved to be a close race between the two shows.

According to ShowbuzzDaily, AEW Dynamite once again topped WWE NXT in the ratings after dropping two weeks in a row to WWE’s rival show with 851,000 viewers. This is a big bump from Nov. 27’s episode where Dynamite pulled in its lowest rating yet at 663,000 viewers.

Coming off of Nov. 27’s episode, Wednesday’s episode was headlined by Joey Janela taking on Jon Moxley in a rematch from Fyter Fest in June. Dustin Rhodes returned to action, teaming with the Young Bucks to battle Sammy Guevara, Santana and Ortiz to open the show while Newcomer Kris Statlander scored a big win over top-ranked women’s championship contender Hikaru Shida. Finally, Chris Jericho’s final title defense of the 2019 was set for Dec. 18 as he is set to defend against the young upstart, Jungle Boy.

However, while AEW managed to take the night, NXT kept things close in the ratings as it pulled in 845,000 viewers. It was a small bump from Nov. 27, which took the night for NXT with 810,000 viewers.

Building off TakeOver: WarGames, Wednesday’s main event saw Tommaso Ciampa, Keith Lee, and Dominik Dijakovic took on the Undisputed Era’s Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, and Roderick Strong. Rhea Ripley and Shayna Baszler’s own rivalry intensified and a NXT Women’s Championship match has been set for Dec. 18. Kushida also returned to action after suffering a broken wrist nearly two months ago in his match with Walter, defeating a game Cameron Grimes.

Despite the close gap in the ratings, the demo split continued to tell the same story it has since both shows started in October.

Viewership in the 18-49 demographic still favors AEW, with a 0.32 rating for Wednesday to NXT's 0.27. NXT, on the other hand, maintained its popularity with the over 50 demo with a 0.38 to AEW’s 0.31.