Wednesday Night Wars 01/01/2020 Ratings

As seen in the chart above, AEW Dynamite started 2020 with a huge upswing while NXT went the opposite direction with a big drop. This is not suprising, though, because NXT was another studio show similar to last week. Regardless, at least for now, AEW has returned to their winning ways.

For the first episode of the year, Dynamite's viewers jumped up from 683,000 to 967,000. That's a huge bump of 41.6%. That's good news for AEW because it indicates that the show didn't lose any viewers by taking last week off. For NXT, the number of viewers fell from 831,000 to 548,000, a big tumble of 34.1%. Again, the drop is not too surprising since NXT was not a live episode like usual. But then again, last week's NXT was also a studio show. The only difference is that NXT aired unopposed that week. In terms of the 18-49 demographic, Dynamite spiked up from 0.25 to 0.36. Inversely, NXT dropped significantly from 0.22 to 0.15, the lowest 18-49 rating in the show's history. So to start the new year, the win-loss record is 9-3-1 for Dynamite and 3-9-1 for NXT in terms of viewership. For the 18-49 demographic ratings, the record is 12-1 for Dynamite and 1-12 for NXT.

For this first show of 2020, it is obvious that AEW tried to put their best foot forward. As usual, Dynamite presented us with some great wrestling matches. The spectacular action elicited fantastic fan reaction from the live audience. And in turn, the energy from the crowd made the bouts that much more compelling. It seems impossible, but I could almost feel the excitement coming through the TV screen. The AEW women's division so far has often been criticized (including by me). However, even the womens match this week was impressive. All the competitors in the 4-way match played thier parts perfectly. Riho was the perpetual underdog, Nyla Rose was the monsterous powerhouse, Britt Baker was the technical wrestler, and Hikaru Shida showed off a new harder-hitting style. In addition to the exceptional wrestling, AEW also seems to have listened to fan feedback and adjusted their storylines accordingly. Members of the Elite were positively featured this week, and groups like the Dark Order and the Nightmare Collective were given less air time. There was also an interesting segment which seems to tease Britt Baker turning heel. All these changes definitely makes the show feel more balanced.

NXT was a "Best of 2019" show presenting awards in various categories as well as showing memorable matches from 2019. However, all award presentations were done via previously recorded clips. Therefore, there was no sense of excitement, and the whole show just felt like a recap show (which it essentially was). Ideally, WWE should have combined this week's episode with that of last week's. They were both studio shows, and they both felt like they dragged on unnecessarily to fill the 2 hour time slot. But to be fair, perhaps the WWE did another studio show this week to give their performers two consecutive weeks off for the holiday season, and that has to be commended. To recap, the main winners from the show were:
• Overall Competitor of the Year: Adam Cole
• Male Competitor of the Year: Adam Cole
• Female Competitor of the Year: Shayna Baszler
• Tag Team of the Year: The Undisputed Era
• Best Match of the Year: Adam Cole versus Johnny Gargano during NXT Takeover New York
• Rivalry of the Year: Johnny Gargano and Adam Cole
• Breakout Star of the Year: Keith Lee
• Future Star of the Year: Dakota Kai

This week's edition of the Wednesday Night Wars was unfair, because it was a live Dynamite against a taped NXT with no new matches or segments. So it is not surprising that AEW won by a large margin. Next week, both shows will be back to being live, so it will be real head-to-head competition again. We'll see then which brand will get a strong footing for the new year.