Verdict
For the third week in a row, AEW wins the rating war with 1,014,000 viewers to WWE NXT’s 712,000 viewers. It’s three weeks and the lure of AEW Dynamite being the new kid on the block hasn’t gone away. It is fair to say that AEW could continuously defeat WWE NXT in the rating war. After some time, It would be neat to see a one-off from AEW in a one-off timeslot against a WWE Monday Night RAW or Friday Night Smackdown. Until that happens, the real measuring stick will be the rating comparison between an AEW Pay Per View, such as Full Gear, and an NXT Takeover special.
I also give AEW Dynamite my vote this week for what interests me. I think this was the weakest week for both Dynamite and WWE NXT since the inception of the Wednesday Night Wars, but AEW Dynamite gets my vote. The matches that had my attention on WWE NXT were Tommaso Ciampa versus Angel Garza, Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan versus Imperium, Matt Riddle versus Bronson Reed, and Pete Dunne versus Damian Priest. In comparison, those matches were edged out by SoCal Uncensored versus Best Friends, The Jurassic Express versus The Lucha Bros, Pac and Jon Moxley versus Adam Page and Kenny Omega, and Darby Allin versus Chris Jericho.
With AEW Dynamite, there was an overload of tag team wrestling, which I thought was going to be a detriment at first. However, almost all of the tag team matches were electric. The Philadelphia crowd popped big for everyone involved with the Pac and Jon Moxley versus Adam Page and Kenny Omega tag match. The cherry on top was the Philadelphia Street Fight between Darby Allin and Chris Jericho with the AEW World Championship on the line.
On the WWE NXT side of things, I enjoyed the return of Tommaso Ciampa, the battle between Matt Riddle and Bronson Reed, the athleticism on display with Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan versus Imperium, and the main event featuring Pete Dunne and Damian Priest. What the show didn’t have going for it was any stakes on the line during the matches on the card. AEW is in the middle of a Tag Team Championship tournament while featuring their Women’s Championship and World Championship matches on the same show. I understand that WWE NXT had some returns this week, which is nice, but it didn’t measure up overall.
For those keeping score, that is AEW Dynamite in the rating war lead, 3-0, and leading my Wednesday Night War scorecard, 2-1. I’ll be back next week for week four of the Wednesday Night Wars!
