After getting hit hard last week by Game 7 of the World Series, it was easy to predict a solid bounceback this week in the ratings for both AEW Dynamite and NXT. That much was kind of a given. But that wasn’t the only significant thing going on, with NXT’s impromptu dismantling of SmackDown, and then a much lesser invasion on Raw. Many figured this would end up impacting NXT’s ratings on Wednesday, be it through making the brand look bigger and more on-par with the main roster, or though curiosity on whether or not any of Raw or SmackDown’s stars would retaliate.
While I didn’t predict NXT would beat AEW this week, I did figure that the gap may well close. And that ended up being the case, to say the least. This was far and away the closest battle yet in the Wednesday Night Wars, and should it persist, we now genuinely have a war on our hands…
AEW Dynamite averaged 822,000 viewers, up from last week’s 759,000. NXT meanwhile boasted 813,000, jumping pretty big from last week’s devastated 580,000.
As far as the key 18-49 demo goes, AEW was eighth for the night with a 0.35 rating, with NXT meanwhile finishing 12th with a 0.30. That’s a rise for both of them, and a huge one for NXT, over double what they had last time.
NXT saw the OC make their mark, attacking the Undisputed Era before the show and ended up main eventing against Tommaso Ciampa, Matt Riddle & Keith Lee. This wasn’t announced in advance, aside from in a teaser three minutes before the show. Still the speculation of this kinda thing occurring was pretty high.
Whilst NXT was fending off a counter-invasion of their own, AEW was in the midst of their first official go-home show, a hard sell for Full Gear.
This included more promos and videos than usual. While they were very well-received, and this is seen as a necessary step for selling a PPV, traditionally people tune out during video packages. So that may well have affected the crossover.
total were watching wrestling last night. Compare that to 1,339,000 last week.
It’s hard to say if this will maintain. NXT in particular is a bit of a question mark, though these ratings should hold strong atleast until the end of this angle. After Survivor Series, we’ll have to see. But the shows themselves are always really good stuff, so one would think the retention rate would be solid.
If these end up becoming the standard numbers for both for the foreseeable future, as some were thinking this week would be, I think that’s pretty great. AEW still way ahead of TNT’s 500k projections, NXT likely beating a lot of internal predictions as well. And I see no reason why the both of them can’t rise with time as long as they’re putting out the best product they can.
I’ll certainly be there to follow it every step of the way. I say it a lot, but we’re in a really cool time in wrestling right now.
