Jay's Ways - AEW VS NXT Ratings Submitted by Justin Watry on 12/01/2020 at 08:53 PM
After I got home from work yesterday around 6:45pm, I logged onto Twitter real quickly before WWE Raw started to check any news or rumors. The usual routine for many die hard wrestling. There was a whole lot of nothing going on. The regular reality television shows featuring WWE personalities, more chaos before Raw like every Monday night and then a post about Wednesday night’s ratings.
AEW Dynamite airs on Wednesday night.
WWE NXT airs on Wednesday night.
Each week, there is a big showdown between both shows, and the back and forth sparring from fans commenced. This week was…
“WWE NXT Defeats AEW Dynamite In Viewership!”
A rarity. The numbers were 712,000 to 710,000 viewers, a close battle. AEW was ahead in the supposed all important and all powerful main demographic. A noteworthy night to say the least for both brands. A lot of chatter was about NXT winning right before Thanksgiving for the second year in a row. The fact that AEW posted its lowest viewership since June. The usual arguing about the card for each show, which was better, etc. You know what my first reaction was to the big ratings headline after read it?
WHO CARES?
Seriously. I had totally forgotten about the holiday delay in ratings. I didn’t remember that we never got viewership figures from the previous week. It was a complete non-factor and wasn’t even in my mind, much less the way back of my mind. I watched NXT (as I do every week), thought it was a good show and moved on. AEW Dynamite has not earned my viewing in months, minus a few YouTube clips here and there. Reading through their recap in five minutes has worked for the second half of 2020 thus far, so I am sticking with that.
It just feels all…I don’t know, pointless.
AEW already has their TNT contract in place for the next few years. WWE NXT already has their USA Network home locked up. There is no story to be made every single week Wednesday night or Thursday afternoon when ratings drop. Okay, AEW went down in viewership. Cool, guess what? Next week, their numbers will increase. Their big “Winter Is Coming” special is Wednesday. AEW Dynamite will see a big bump, while NXT will falter. Just how it is…and none of it will matter.
It has been over a full year of this. If numbers were 900,000 to 500,000 or one million plus each week for both, we would have more to write about. You could make some assumptions and do some more digging. Right now though, it is a yo-yo. Up, down, up, down, up, down. I remember doing the 411 Foresight Wrestling Podcast last year with Steve Madsen (check out his music at theresonantcomplex.com please). We were so pumped for AEW and NXT, so pumped to find out the ratings, how each show would counter – all that fun stuff. I think it was after week three or four, I kinda shrugged at the mere mention of “Who won the ratings war this time?” BLAH.
I just don’t think it matters as much as some want to believe…
