AEW Continues To Pick Up Steam As Dynamite Wins Another Round Of The Wednesday Night War

TheSportster

By Josh Coulson

Published Jan 17, 2020

AEW Dynamite picked up another win in the Wednesday Night War as more than 200,000 extra people watched its show live over NXT this week.

AEW's Bash at the Beach special ensured Dynamite was watched by more wrestling fans live than NXT as the new promotion continues to pick up steam.

The Wednesday Night War between NXT and AEW Dynamite was sort of on hiatus over the festive season. Since the shows ran taped matches, award shows, or nothing at all on certain weeks, it would have been unfair to consider one show victorious over the other. However, last week marked a return to both NXT and Dynamite running live shows.

The first week proper of the Wednesday Night War in 2020 marked a win for Dynamite. 947,000 viewers tuned in to watch AEW live compared to NXT's 721,000. Seven days later and although the viewership of both shows declined slightly compared to the previous week, Dynamite is celebrating another win in the war in week 15.

940,000 watched Dynamite live this week, so a drop off of 7000 fans compared to the week before. A round 700,000 fans chose to tune in to NXT, so a slightly bigger drop off for the black and gold brand. There are pros and cons to this number for AEW. The promotion announced that its deal with TNT has been extended until 2023, so clearly staying around that 900,000 mark is enough to keep the network happy.

On the downside, this week's episode of Dynamite was a special that was hyped ahead of the time. A Bash at the Beach special as an ode to the WCW PPV of the same name. Truth be told, aside from the bikini-clad woman in a lifeguard chair and the announce team wearing Hawaiian shirts, AEW didn't exactly lean into the Bash at the Beach theme. The show was one of the best so far though, with a terrific Jon Moxley thread running throughout.

As for NXT, Triple H and co will be hoping the next couple of weeks cause a boost in the show's ratings. Next week's episode will be the go-home show before Worlds Collide. The week after that will not only feature Worlds Collide fallout, but could also feature the reactions to what goes down at the previous weekend's Royal Rumble. Although not yet confirmed, we're assuming Superstars from NXT will be present in both the men's and women's Rumble matches.

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