AEW broadcast its series premier of Wednesday Night Dynamite last night, highlighted by the surprise showing of former WWE star Jack Swagger. He will go by his real name of “Jake Hagar” in AEW.
NXT did not really have any sort of “reveal” but it posted a strong show, going head-to-head against AEW for the first time in history.
Based on industry projections, AEW Dynamite won the initial ratings war Wednesday night.
AEW had 143,000 searches on Google Trends and NXT had just 20,000.
Legal online sportsbooks in the United States are offering millions in free money to lure you away from off-shore sports betting sites. You can get a free $50 VISA gift card and up to $250 in free betting match deposit bonus cash right now at MetroBet.us/Sugar by entering promo code: METROBET
The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer also reported that AEW had three times the number of viewers on Playstation Vue.
It will be interesting to see how WWE handles the news. The thinking when they originally announced that NXT would go up against AEW was that if AEW beat them in the ratings they could simply fall back on the idea that NXT is “their minor leagues” and their “third brand.” Of course AEW’s only TV show would beat it, the thinking was.
But, given how competitive Vince McMahon is – he may begin to up the ante on NXT, particularly if WWE is beaten like a drum. No doubt, Vinny Mac took note of the “Vince Fears Ratings” sign that was prominent throughout AEW’s inaugural TV show on TNT.
We will post the official updated TV ratings results when they are made available this afternoon.
Update:
AEW: 1.409 million viewers (0.84)
NXT: 891,000 viewers (0.66)
