In the first direct ratings battle in quite a while, WWE’s third show defeated AEW’s main show – a sign of a massive shift in the balance of power.
WWE’s first year without its founder Vince McMahon is slowly coming to an end – and this news illustrates how much the world’s largest wrestling league has consolidated its position of power this year.
In a rare direct ratings battle, WWE inflicted a painful defeat on competitor AEW – even though the market leader “only” had to field its third most important show.
WWE defeats AEW even with the third show
For the first time in a while, WWE’s developmental roster NXT competed against AEW’s main show Dynamite in a live time slot competition on Wednesday – the reason being that NXT was moved from Tuesday to Wednesday due to coverage of the US presidential election.
NXT offered a special edition from the old ECW Arena in Philadelphia, with guest appearances by various legends from WWE Hall of Famer Paul Heyman’s former cult league – including Rob Van Dam, Rhyno, Dawn Marie, Francine and the Dudley Boyz. The main attraction on Dynamite was the first announced appearance of newly signed ex-WWE Champion Bobby Lashley.
Despite Lashley and despite the fact that AEW actually had a valuable advantage in the usual time slot, NXT won – both in terms of total viewers and in the more important rating of the key demographic between 18 and 49.
NXT was able to attract a total of 921,000 viewers, while AEW Dynamite attracted around 609,000 viewers. In the “Demo Rating” it was much closer, but NXT also triumphed there with 0.17 to 0.16. It was the weakest rating that Tony Khan’s league has ever achieved in its regular Dynamite slot.
The balance of power has shifted massively
A direct comparison shows how far apart WWE and AEW are currently. It’s a massive power shift compared to late 2021 / early 2022, when AEW Dynamite was even able to beat WWE’s flagship RAW several times in the “demo rating” in a remote duel. This week, RAW’s ratings in the target audience were 0.48, three times higher than Dynamite’s.
2022 saw the biggest WWE boom since the “Attitude Era” around the turn of the millennium, fueled in part by the switch of AEW co-founder Cody Rhodes – now a champion and WWE poster child – and the turmoil surrounding CM Punk, who has since also returned to WWE. The turnaround began under McMahon, who resigned amid serious scandal allegations, and was cemented by the much-praised work of the new strong man “Triple H” Paul Levesque.
AEW was recently able to secure its medium-term future with a new and lucrative TV deal, but despite strong and notable signings in the past 12 months (Adam “Edge” Copeland, Mercedes Moné. Will Ospreay, Kazuchika Okada, Ricochet), the momentum of the best years is still not in sight.
The general demand for an alternative to WWE has noticeably decreased.
