WWE NXT Destroys AEW Dynamite In Tuesday Night War Ratings

WWE NXT beat AEW Dynamite handily in the latest Tuesday Night War, getting revenge for last year’s defeat on a star-studded NXT.

AEW Dynamite garnered 609,000 total viewers, down 24% from last week, with a 0.26 rating in the 18-49 demo. WWE NXT drew 921,000 viewers, up 7.5% from last week, with a 0.30 rating in the 18-49 demo.

Tuesday night was the type of special evening that brought out the best in both WWE and NXT, with WWE rolling out the red carpet with A-List talent for its third brand. This wouldn’t be a national wrestling war without head-to-head competition, if not for one night. As a result, both NXT and AEW put their best foot forward. In addition to the advertised big names, main roster stars LA Knight, Shotzi and even Jade Cargill also made surprise appearances. AEW relied on professional wrestling against NXT’s star-studded variety show, and predictably, they went down in flames.

The petty back-and-forth between WWE and AEW began long before either show went on the air. Beginning last week, WWE wasted no time hyping main roster stars as John Cena, Paul Heyman, Cody Rhodes, Asuka and WWE NXT champion Becky Lynch were all advertised for the show, which would air commercial-free in its first 30 minutes. WWE then opted to swing its sledgehammer at the AEW ant farm by teasing The Undertaker.

Not one to take this war lying down, AEW Dynamite loaded its show with a Title Tuesday where multiple AEW championships were on the line. Title Tuesday also featured Edge’s debut and answered NXT’s 30 minutes of commercial-free programming with “at least” 30 minutes of commercial-free programming of its own. Furthermore, both companies announced an overrun. To get a jump on WWE, Tony Khan announced ROH world champion and NJPW Strong champion Eddie Kingston against Minoru Suzuki 30 minutes before Dynamite went on the air.

WWE NXT vs. AEW Dynamite Ratings

• AEW Dynamite Total Viewership | 609,000
• AEW Dynamite 18-49 Viewership | 0.26
• WWE NXT Total Viewership | 921,000
• WWE NXT 18-49 Viewership | 0.30

Some fans and media insist that the Tuesday War Doesn’t matter. It’s only one night, and in the grand scheme of things, Tuesday’s ratings will have no bearing on WWE or AEW’s business.

What a silly thing to say.

Of course it matters. Just because we live in a 24-hour news cycle, where stories get washed away faster than a TNT Title reign, doesn’t mean there’s no point in covering them. There’s a reason Tuesday Night War hype has dominated social media and wrestling gossip websites. There’s a reason AEW President Tony Khan doing his best Elon Musk impression by trolling the opposition on Twitter. The wrestling media covers the product on a day-to-day basis, and the big news of the day or week dictates that coverage.

WWE NXT vs. AEW in the Tuesday Night War is the biggest wrestling story of the week bar none. The fact that Tuesday Night War discourse is so ubiquitous tells you how much it matters. So what if nobody will be talking about this three weeks from now? By that metric, most wrestling stories don’t matter and don’t warrant coverage. WWE releases were a big story when they happened weeks ago, yet I haven’t seen any Mustafa Ali articles in the weeks since. Is that to say WWE releases didn’t matter? What’s the point of daily wrestling coverage if most stories don’t matter in the grand scheme of things? Hilarious.

This week’s major news story ended in a win for 921,000 as WWE has adversely impacted AEW’s viewership for a third time in the last four weeks. NXT No Mercy and WWE Fastlane each went head-to-head against AEW Collision, leading to historically low viewership for Collision. The September 30 broadcast was the least-watched Collision ever.