Wednesday Night Wars: Both Shows Down In Viewership As AEW Continued Its Winning Ways Over NXT

KEY POINTS

AEW emerged victorious over NXT in the ratings, despite both shows suffering drops in overall viewership
AEW broke into the top five cable shows for Wednesday in the 18-49 demographic, beating out the NBA and Fox News
Both shows continued the builds to their next respective pay-per-views, AEW Revolution and NXT TakeOver: Portland

Despite both shows experiencing a slight drop in viewership, Friday’s ratings report from ShowbuzzDaily showed AEW Dynamite continued its winning ways over WWE NXT.

AEW Dynamite emerged victorious in the Wednesday ratings with 828,000 viewers, down from the previous episode’s 871,000 viewership. It was slightly down in the 18-49 demographic as well, scoring a 0.34 from 0.35 the week prior. However, it was enough to put Dynamite in the top five for the night, beating out one of the NBA games on ESPN and Tucker Carlson on Fox News.

The show opened with Jon Moxley and Chris Jericho trading words as they continue building to their AEW Championship match at AEW Revolution. It then moved to the opening match with the Young Bucks taking on The Butcher and The Blade, ending with Butcher and Blade’s attempted beat down being cut off by the AEW Tag Team Champs Kenny Omega and Hangman Page. However, it wasn’t enough to end the tension between the Elite and Hangman Page.

Other featured matches included Nyla Rose vs. Big Swole, Cody vs. Kip Sabien, SCU vs. The Hybrid 2, and the Inner Circle’s Chris Jericho, Santana and Ortiz vs. Private Party and Darby Allin. Britt Baker also got the chance to continue voicing her displeasure with AEW Women’s Champion Riho and her absence on the show.

WWE NXT, meanwhile, dropped from 769,000 viewers to 712,000 for Wednesday’s episode. The same occurred in the 18-49 demographic, dropping from 0.24 to 0.22.

The focus of Wednesday’s episode was the finals of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, pitting the team of Matt Riddle and Pete Dunne against Grizzled Young Veterans. Riddle and Dunne ultimately won the tournament, earning themselves a match at NXT TakeOver: Portland for the NXT Tag Team Championship against the Undisputed Era.

Tommaso Ciampa was also announced as Adam Cole’s challenger at TakeOver for the NXT Championship.

Finn Balor was also featured, taking on Trent Seven in the show’s opening match. It also featured matches between Shotzi Blackheart and Deonna Purrazzo, Damian Priest vs. Dominik Dijakovic, Tegan Nox taking on Dakota Kai, and Chelsea Green vs. Kayden Carter.