Wednesday Night Wars 11/13/2019 Ratings

This is week #7, and many have been anxiously waiting to see how this week's ratings will turn out. On the WWE side, we have the continuation of the NXT angle which has garnered great fan feedback and corresponding numbers to match. But on the AEW side, we have the fall out from its Full Gear pay-per-view. So who was this week's winner?

Well, just when it seemed like NXT was poised to get its first win in the Wednesday Night Wars, they slid down as Dynamite enjoyed a healthy boost from their first PPV (see graph). Looking at the numbers, Dynamite's audience went up from 822,000 to 957,000 (16.4%) while NXT's went down from 813,000 to 750,000 (8.4%). Comparing the two shows, Dynamite had 27.6% more viewers than NXT.

The results are actually not too surprising when you consider the quality of WWE's Raw two days prior. Raw was a lackluster show at best, and it is obvious that the WWE is running out of ideas to further the NXT angle. (This corresponds with this week's lower RAW ratings as shown in the graph above.) Yes, there were NXT stars on Raw. However, there were far less, and their run-ins simply don't have the same spark any more. Therefore, it is not too surprising that fans are no longer as intrigued by the NXT brand.

On the AEW side, the company had generated a lot of buzz from thier Full Gear pay-per-view. Granted that a lot of that buzz is negative due to the Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley match. But for a young company like AEW, any publicity is good publicity. So that buzz must have attracted some new eyeballs. Plus, the Code/MJF/Chris Jericho storyline set up from Full Gear definitely piqued a lot of interest from fans, and that storyline was continued effectively on the Dynamite. So it is not surprising that AEW came out on top.

The question now is what will the numbers look like next week? At this rate, Dynamire will likely win again. But then again, Dynamite will not be enjoying the same boost it got from the Full Gear fall out. Also, this will be the last NXT before WWE's Survivor Series pay-per-view which will feature an NXT team for the first time. So who knows?