Wednesday Night Wars 12/11/2019 Ratings

If you had asked me a month ago who would win next week's Wednesday Night Wars, I would have said AEW. But as of last week, my answer would have been "I don't know." The change of heart is due to the fact that the last few weeks' numbers were volatile to say the least. And just last week, AEW was only able to squeak out a victory by a mere 6,000 viewers. So it was practically a dead heat. Yet somehow, I was still surprised by this week's ratings. That's because it ended up being a TIE!

That's right. Both shows scored 778,000 viewers. For NXT, this was down 7.9% from 845,000. For Dynamite, this was down 8.6% from 851,000. Ratings-wise, Dynamite still got the victory with a 0.28 among the 18-49 demographic compared to NXT's 0.24 rating. So for anyone keeping track, the record is now 2-8-1 for NXT and 8-2-1 for Dynamite in terms of viewers. For the 18-49 demographic ratings, the record is 0-11 for NXT and 11-0 for Dynamite. Interestingly, as seen in the chart above, it looks like both shows' numbers are now leveling out at the same volume. This definitely makes things interesting and reminiscent of the original Monday Night Wars.

This week's Dynamite featured the champion Chris Jericho in entertaining segments as well as great wrestling as usual. The only exception is the women's match between Emi Sakura and Big Swole. The wrestling in this match was weak, and it did not really advance either wrestlers' characters. I know this match was an attempt to push Big Swole, but that didn't happen thanks to Sakura's silly antics with her Freddie Mercury schtick. Granted that the division is still young, but I feel AEW really needs to improve their women's roster. Hopefully, the recent addition of Kris Statlander can help with that. On the opposite of the spectrum, the match between the Young Bucks and Pride and Powerful was just explosive with more tables than I can count. It is no wonder why these four are stars.

Over on the USA network, we saw the cruiserwieght championship change hands as Angel Garza defeats Lio Rush. Cruiserweight matches are known for their high flying action, and this match definitely didn't disappoint as both wrestler put on spectacular performances. Another highlight was the #1 contenders match for the NXT championship between Finn Balor, Keith Lee, and Tommaso Ciampa. These are three of the company's top stars right now, and it is not hard to see why in this back and forth match. Moving Balor back from Raw/Smackdown to NXT seems like a step backwards for him, but I am glad to see him regaining his star power again.

Dynamite and NXT tied this week. So once again, it could be anyone's game next week. NXT has already announced a Men's title match between Adam Cole and Finn Balor and a Women's title match between Shayna Baszler and Rhea Ripley for next week's episode. Given the popularity of these four wrestlers, these should be great match-ups. Not to be outdone, next week's Dynamite also has two championship matches scheduled (sort of), a non-title bout between Chris Jericho and Jungle Boy and a tag team championship bout between SCU and the Young Bucks. The Jericho/Jungle Boy match should be entertaining, although the outcome is very predictable. The tag team match, however, can go either way. So there should be plenty of intrigue among AEW fans. But will any of these championship matches make a difference in the ratings? AEW featured a championship match during Thanksgiving week's Dynamite, but that didn't help its numbers at all. So who knows if these title matches will make much of a difference this time?