In an interview on Scottish wrestler Grado’s Wrestling Daft podcast Chris Jericho talked about AEW and the “Wednesday Night Wars” against WWE NXT. While Jericho and Grado made for an extremely entertaining listen, there was one gem that really stood out.
Chris Jericho On NXT
In discussing the ratings battles with WWE’s third brand, Jericho was confident of AEW Dynamite’s success. He summed it up to the NXT brand being minor league compared to AEW and that the Khan-owned promotion had star power behind it. Jericho cemented it by saying the NXT roster were “still unknown performers” and that the competition just wasn’t there for AEW.
The AEW World Champion feels that WWE NXT being put up against AEW Dynamite is WWE using NXT to protect RAW and SmackDown. However, he says that those two shows are what Dynamite is competing against. This is in contrast to what Shad Khan and Cody Rhodes said earlier in the year about the two companies competing. It’s also in contrast to what Jericho said earlier in the month when speaking to Complex.
AEW vs. NXT: State of the War
While the ratings for both shows have been slipping each week, AEW has managed to maintain a sizable lead. That said, the better show top to bottom between the two leans towards WWE NXT. This is down to both companies presenting similar styles in-ring but NXT having a heavy focus on storytelling in-ring as well. NXT is its own entity but it still sticks to its roots as a developmental promotion in practice.
Both NXT and AEW share the same core fanbase so right now it’s a race to picking up the mainstream fans. NXT has a deeper well to pull from if it reels over SmackDown and RAW fans who either don’t watch NXT already or who didn’t have the Network. On the flipside, AEW has the network support and promotion that NXT isn’t getting from USA.
On top of being promoted like regular—same as NXT actually—AEW has the benefit of being advertised during major sporting events. Plus, AEW is planning a recap/highlights show. And there are the replays throughout the week. The network support is there.
Ultimately, AEW should take CM Punk’s advice on this and stop mentioning WWE and focus on itself.
