Wednesday Night Wars 12/18/2019 Ratings

Well, it has finally happened. WWE NXT has scored a clear and decisive victory over AEW Dynamite in the Wednesday Night Wars! Both shows put their best foot forward for their year end show (neither shows will be held during Christmas week), and it was NXT who came out on top. Unlike previous weeks, this was a clear and decisive victory because NXT garnered more viewers AND a higher rating in the 18-49 dedmographic. This is the first thime that this has happened.

The number of viewers only went up slightly for NXT from 778,000 viewers to 795,000 viewers. That's only an increase of 2.2%. The difference maker was what happened with Dynamite. The number of viewers there actually fell significantly from 778,000 to 683,000. This is a drop of 12.2%. In the 18-49 demographics, NXT's rating went up noticeable from last week's 0.24 to this week's 0.27. Dynamite's went the other way, dropping from 0.28 to 0.25. With all these numbers tallied, the record is now 3-8-1 for NXT and 8-3-1 for Dynamite in terms of viewers. For the 18-49 demographic ratings, the record is 1-11 for NXT and 11-1 for Dynamite.

Looking at the chart above, you may notice an interesting trend. NXT's recent victories aren't due to a significant rise in their numbers. For the most past, NXT's ratings are relatively steady. The change in the tide is more so due to the fluctuations in Dynamite's number. And unfortuantely for AEW, there are more dips than peaks. This suggests that WWE has a steadier fan base while AEW is trying to find its niche. This is not surprising since Dynamite has only been on the air for 12 weeks. However, as Chrise Jericho said in a recent interview, it definitely seems like "the honeymoon period is over."

As previously mentioned, both shows put their best foot forward this week. In the case of NXT, this effort included a men's championship match between Adam Cole and Finn Balor and a women's championship match between Shayna Baszler and Rhea Ripley. The men's match was exciting with impressive back and forth moves by the two wrestler, but the ending was a little disappointing with a classic WWE "distraction finish". This did set up a future storyline between Balor and Johnny Gargano, though. For the women's match, Ripley unsurprisngly captured the title in a story arc that has been building for weeks if not months. So it was a nice ending to the story of Ripley's rise to the top. This also frees up Baszler for her expected move to Raw or Smackdown. So everything is tied up nicely for the two women.

Over on Dynamite, Chris Jericho's match with Jungle boy was entertaining as expected. It resulted in a draw as Jungle Boy was able to outlast 10 minutes, something that Jericho claimed Jungle Boy wouldn't be able to do. Although this doesn't translate to an actual victory for Jungle Boy, this match does introduce a blemish to Jericho's pefect AEW record with a draw. As usual, the highlight of the match was Jericho's performance - not so much his wrestling technique, but his portrayal of a great heel-champion complete with temper tantrums and denials. In addition, Dynamite featured a tag team championship match between SCU and the Young Bucks. The two teams put on a wrestling clinic in a thoroughly enjoyable match. However, I was actually suprised to see SCU retain the gold with a clean victory in this case. I have nothing against the SCU. It is just that the Young Bucks are the fan favorites, and I would have thought AEW would want to give the fans what they want. I can imagine why the Bucks weren't given the straps initially. After all, they are vice presidents in the company, and giving them the gold too early would be too on-the-nose. But at this point, it is obvious that the vice presidents will have their share of victories and losses just like everyone else, so there is no reason not to pull the trigger. In addition, AEW seems to be setting up an SCU split with subtle hints of Christopher Daniels retiring and Scorpio Sky becoming a singles star. Also on Dynamite this week is one Orange Cassidy, and his performance definitely deserves an honorable mention. By now, we all know Cassidy's schtick. Some people love it; some people hate it. Regardless of how silly it is, though, Cassidy plays the role perfectly. He is the only wrestler who has made me burst out laughing with his in-ring performance.

NXT got their first rock-solid victory this week in the Wednesday Night Wars. And unless AEW can do something to spark more interest again, this most likely won't be NXT's last win. AEW has now lost that new car smell, and it must find a strategy to lock in a steady audience base like the WWE has obviously done. There will be no live shows for either brand next week as the performers get Christmas week off. So the question now is how will the two shows try to grab our attention in the new year. Dynamite sort of left us with a cliffhanger with the Dark Order seemingly taking over the show. It will be interesting to see how that plays out in 2020 and whether that will help AEW's ratings in the new year.