Wednesday Night Wars 01/15/2020 Ratings

The ratings for this week's edition of AEW's Dynamite and WWE's NXT was very similar to that of last week's. With that being the case, AEW was able to score another decisive victory in this latest battle of the Wendesday Night Wars.

The numbers of Dynamite viewers this week practically remained unchanged. There was only the slightest drop of 7,000 viewers as the audience size went from 947,000 to 940,000. That is only a drop of 0.7 percent. That is a great sign for the promotion as it shows that there is now a base of loyal and regular viewers. For NXT, the number of viewers also barely dropped. It went from 721,000 to 700,000. Although that is a bigger drop than what Dynamite experienced, that is just a very small decline of 2.9 percent. It is interesting to note that both shows' numbers barely changed. This is an indication that both of these relative new shows have now settled into what will be their normal audience range.

For the 18-49 demographic, Dynamite's rating actually went up from 0.36 to 0.38 despite the audience size going down. This also a great sign for AEW because it shows that they are attracting younger viewers. That is what AEW's intention has been all along, and their strategy for accomplishing this seems to be working. This is also a great foundation for building up an audience because a younger generation will likely remain with the product longer. Similarly, NXT's rating also went up, growing from 0.19 to 0.21. Although this 0.21 is still way lower than Dynamite's 0.38, it looks like the NXT brand is also on an upswing to attract more young viewers. If both shows are able to continue this trend, the size of their combined audiences is well on its way to overtaking that of WWE's flagship show Monday Night RAW. Given that NXT is supposed be the WWE's "minor league" and AEW was previously called a "piss-ant company" by a WWE official, this is quite ironic. Who knows? We may be well on our way to seeing Wednesday nights become the official night for wrestling fans.

This week's episode of Dynamite was titled "Bash at the Beach". (For those of you who remember, yes, that's the same name WCW used for one of their pay-per-views.) The reason for the special title is that the show is being boradcasted from Miami, Florida, and it serves as the kick-off show for next week's episide which will occur on a cruise ship. Although next week's episode definitely has my interest piqued, the special title this week has left me disappointed. Short of some decorations, there was really nothing special about the episode that would warrant a special name. However, with that being said, the episode itself was entertaining as usual. We saw high-flying action in a 4-way tag team bout, intensity from the likes of Jon Moxley and PAC, and even a match where the 63 year old Diamond Dallas page took a dive off the top rope onto the floor. In addition to the in-ring performances, the show also included segments which effectively advanced the ongoing storylines. The only negative from the show once again involved the women's divion. Although the match itself wasn't bad, it was noticeably filled with botches. Plus, there was no appeal whatsoever from Luthor, the supposedly hard-core member of the Nightmare Collective. He was obviously not in the women's match itself, but he did make his presence felt. Yet, no one seemed to care, and it didn't amount to anything. He just came off as a weird looking character which no one recognizes serving no real purpose. This was all obvious from the crowd reaction. During this women's match, you can see the audience appearing bored, epseically compared to the rest of the show.

Over on NXT, we saw a packed card as well. The next two matches in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Tournament showed off some stellar wrestling, the segments featuring Keith Lee against the Undisputed Era were entertaining, and the women's battle royal to determine the #1 contender capped off the show perfectly. Unlike AEW, NXT's womens division seem to be the star of the brand as opposed to AEW's which currently feels like a detriment. The audience is treated to a variety of characters in that division, and all of the performers can really wrestle. It is no wonder why women's matches often serve as the main event on NXT.

Once again, Dynamite was the clear winner this week with an audience size that was 23% larger than that of NXT's. Although WWE has already announced some potentially great matches for next week's NXT, the next edition of Dynamite will be occurring on a cruise ship. Given that this has never been done by a major wrestling promotion before, it is likely to give AEW the edge for another victory. But of course, only time will tell. In the meantime, the viewership win-loss record stands at 11-3-1 for Dynamite and 3-11-1 for NXT. The record for the coveted 18-49 demographic stands at 14-1 for Dynamite and 1-14 for NXT.