As noted, AEW Dynamite topped WWE NXT in viewership once again this past week. Dynamite averaged 693,000 viewers on TNT, topping the 637,000 viewers garnered by NXT on the USA Network by 9%. AEW ranked #16 in the Cable Top 150, while NXT ranked #51. AEW ranked #67 in viewership, while NXT ranked #70 in viewership.
The NXT main event between Damian Priest and NXT North American Champion Keith Lee actually topped the AEW main event between Lance Archer and Dustin Rhodes, according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio. These were the only two quarters of the show that NXT won, and they were the final two quarters of the show. It’s interesting that NXT had the advantage late in the show as they usually have an early advantage because of the stronger lead-in from the USA Network.
NXT was beaten badly in every quarter-hour segment for the 18-49 key demographic. There was a bigger gap than usual this week as NXT lost a lot of the overall quarter-hour segments, and every one of the quarters in the 18-49 demo.
AEW’s quarter-hour segment featuring the Bubbly Bunch segment and the No DQ match with The Best Friends vs. Kip Sabian and Jimmy Havoc was the strongest quarter in the key 18-49 demographic. The end of the match lost viewers but gained in the 18-49 demographic, which is key.
AEW has dominated the so-called Wednesday Night War and has a streak of quarter-hour wins. There are some people in AEW who believe Orange Cassidy is drawing fans and helping the show out as he appeals to casual viewers who find him funny. There has been a lot of skepticism surrounding Cassidy among fans online, but he’s usually over with casual fans and live crowds. It might be early to declare Cassidy a ratings draw, but week after week he’s featured in strong quarter-hour segments. Cassidy’s match with Havoc on the April 22 edition of Dynamite was the highest-rated segment on the whole show.
NXT had a big gain for the segment between #1 contender Io Shirai and NXT Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair, which also featured Dexter Lumis vs. Shane Thorne. While the brief Flair and Shirai segment did good, the non-title match between Flair and Mia Yim did not. Flair vs. Yim was the low-point of the show with just 170,000 viewers in the 18-49 demographic, which was described as dreadful. This quarter-hour segment averaged a total of 589,000 viewers for the low-point in the 18-49 demo, and the second-lowest point of the show overall.
It was noted that one of the main reasons WWE put the NXT Women’s Title on Flair was so she could help boost the ratings, and there are people within WWE who are waiting to see if Flair is going to help like they wanted her to. It was noted that last week’s title match with Shirai may perform, but the Flair experiment did not work with Yim last week.
Stay tuned for more on the NXT and AEW ratings. You can click here for our full ratings report on last Wednesday’s episodes.
Follow Marc on Twitter at @this_is_marc. Send any news, tips or corrections to us by clicking here.
