Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

In Depth: AEW Dynamite, WWE NXT Tuesday Viewership Strive


Wed 19 Oct 2022 | 05:25 PM
Rana Atef

Early Wednesday, WWE NXT and AEW Dynamite came head to head for the first time in 18 months as AEW's brand used to gain more views than NXT. 

Since the announcement of the moving of AEW Dynamite from Wednesday to Tuesday due to the NFL game on the TBS channel, Pro wrestling fans recalled WWE Creative Head and top senior WWE official Triple H about the victory of AEW's product over NXT.

In August 2019, WWE moved NXT to USA Network after running exclusively on WWE Network in the US and turning the show to NXT becoming a two-hour episode with AEW Dynamite, which debuted on TNT (now on TBS) in October 2019. It led to a “Wednesday Night War” as some fans and media outlets called it.

In April 2021, WWE and USA Network decided to move NXT to Tuesday nights, after a few months, WWE rebranded NXT from the black & gold look to the 2.0. 

Triple H told Ariel Halawani last month about the strive for viewership between both brands: “People put so much pressure on this competitive war, it never was that. Look, first of all, they beat our developmental system? Good for them, right? [laughs]”

He added: “No it was never that [competitive war]. There was never even pressure of ‘You have to beat that.’ It was never that. It was put on the best product that we could. As I said, it [NXT] shifted over time, in the pandemic all of that shifted over time.”

This statement was heavily criticized by Pro wrestling fans as Triple H always described NXT as a third top brand for the company.

Regarding today's early morning shows, both brands prepared stacked match cards and events for both shows to attract fans.

According to Wrestling Observer Bryan Alvarez, WWE is determined to defeat AEW in the ratings tonight. 

On the other hand, AEW Chairman, Booker, and the Head of the Creative system at the promotion Tony Khan said: "It's important for us to be the most-watched wrestling show," adding: "We want to maintain the great audience we consistently have on Wednesdays and bring it to this one-time-only Tuesday special. We want to be the number-one wrestling show this week on Tuesday."

Starting with NXT, Triple H started the NXT episode with the appearance of Raw's top faction The Judgement Day. The who faction's members were in the show, including Damian Priest and Finn Balor.

In addition, the episode saw the first in-ring action for Rhea Ripley in more than 3 months. Both Ripley and Roxana Perez did a good match, although Ripley did many over-selling scenes.

Moreover, a match between SmackDown superstar Raquel Rodriguez and Cora Jade took place, and it was cut short by the interference of Perez.

The members of Raw's OC (Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson) participated in a good 6-man tag team.

Former Intercontinental Champion and SmackDown star Shinsuke Nakamura made a surprising return to in-ring action. He did a fine performance with Stacks.

SmackDown star Shotzi also made several appearances throughout the episode, alongside hosting next week's Halloween Havoc. In addition, Raw/SmackDown star Sonya Deville had a strong contest with Alba Fyre.

NXT Women's champion, the trending, Mandy Rose made an appearance at the episode. 

Popular Raw superstar and former world champion Kevin Owens headlined the episode with his KO show where he hosted NXT Champion Bron Breaker and the two #1 contenders for the title: Ilja Dragunov and JD McDonagh.

Owens did a great and interesting job in moderating the confrontation between the three stars.

By the end of the episode, Mr. Money in the Bank Austin Theory teased cashing in his briefcase for the NXT title. 

Ironically, NXT announced that the upcoming Tuesday will be a special event entitled Tag-Team Title Tuesday!

It is worth pointing out that today's AEW Dynamite show was held under the theme of Title Tuesday!

Moving to AEW Dynamite, the episode opened with a dynamic Trios title match where the champions Death Triangle successfully retained their titles against Best Friends, headed by the newly crowned AEW All-Atlantic Champion Orange Cassidy. 

Interim AEW World Women's Champion Toni Storm retained her title in a fine match against Hikaru Shida.

After the match Britt Baker, Saraya, Jamie Hayter, Rebel, and Riho made appearances.

The most marvellous segment in the episode of the year was the epic confrontation between MJF and William Regal.

During the segment, all pro wrestling fans watched thoroughly the great performance and the well-written promo.

ROH World Champion Chris Jericho delivered an entertaining match against Dalton Castle.

There were several backstage appearances by the top of the company's stars such as Darby Allin, Jay Lethal, The Acclaimed, FTR, Swerve In Our Glory, Bryan Danielson, and Wheeler Yuta.

The show was headlined by a great match between Jon Moxley and Adam Hangman Page for the AEW World title which ended a tragic end with a severe injury for Hangman. 

The in-ring injury of Hangman made the name of the superstar and AEW Dynamite trending worldwide.

WWE NXT was also among the worldwide trends at the same time.

The episode ended with a confrontation between MJF and Moxley as MJF teased cashing his chip, however, he announced having his title match at Full Gear.