The Wednesday Night War *Spoilers for AEW and NXT*

RollieFingers wrote: »

You'd think NXT would have a better chance up against IMPACT and Dark.

Let the Tuesday Night Wars begin.

In the end, the Wednesday Night War was a mauling. There'll be books written about how WWE's "hip young brand" never attracted young viewers.

The White Wolf wrote: »

The "war" coincided with NXT's possibly worst year on record but still they can only blame themselves for positioning themselves into a fight.

I would actually call this decision ill timed given NXT are finally coming out of a tough transitional period but how and ever.

True, and I don't think it's a coincidence that NXT's worst year on record coincided with the indie scene completely drying up either.

There's so many things you could talk about because it is such an interesting thing, but from Week 1 of the war one of the most stark things from the moment you started watching the shows was the difference in atmosphere. Not necessarily atmosphere generated by fans, or how they both coped with the pandemic, but the atmosphere of both shows. One felt fresh, new and exciting and the other felt like the 6th hour of main roster WWE. Pitched against the dynamic new show, the WWE weekly TV format just felt stale and lifeless, and all the things it purported to be (young, exciting) it just wasn't. The matches were still good, but the staleness of the television approach of the company is what dragged it down.

I was never a mad fan of NXT anyway because it was mostly a smoke and mirrors job; it gave the vibe of being all about the next generation, but eventually the truth was exposed once someone was moved to the main roster.

There's a question now over what the likes of Adam Cole will do and that to me is AEW's single greatest contribution to the business over the last 18 months or so; there's no longer that cloud of doom thinking about what will happen to someone once they move up to the main roster.

I wonder is this a WWE decision or there real paymasters NBC who are paying them billions for NXT, RAW & The Network.

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I know there's a few weeks left but how many nights did NXT win in the end?

Where it really mattered, the demo, it finished up at 68-1 in AEW's favour. It was never even close.

This is great news for AEW and terrible news for WWE. I reckon this will trigger a decline in WWE's TV revenue. Dynamite will boost 200-300k more viewers unopposed and Raw is losing about the same annually. At their current trajectory, Raw and Dynamite should reach parity in about 2-3 years and NBCUniversal will start wondering why they're paying $265m a year for Raw when TNT is paying $45m for Dynamite.

I hope NXT and Smackdown eventually get cancelled from TV. They done a WCW and saturated the market with nonsensical storyline telling. WWE was at its peak in 1997/1998 when they were writing just 2 hours of television a week.

Agent Coulson wrote: »

I wonder is this a WWE decision or there real paymasters NBC who are paying them billions for NXT, RAW & The Network.

NBCSN is shutting down and Wednesday is hockey night, so I'd say it's NBCUniversal's call.

OneEightSeven wrote: »

This is great news for AEW and terrible news for WWE. I reckon this will trigger a decline in WWE's TV revenue. Dynamite will boost 200-300k more viewers unopposed and Raw is losing about the same annually. At their current trajectory, Raw and Dynamite should reach parity in about 23 years and NBCUniversal will start wondering why they're paying $265m a year for Raw when TNT is paying $45m for Dynamite.

I hope NXT and Smackdown eventually get cancelled from TV. They done a WCW and saturated the market with nonsensical storyline telling. WWE was at its peak in 1997/1998 when they were writing just 2 hours of television a week.

NBCSN is shutting down and Wednesday is hockey night, so I'd say it's NBCUniversal's call.

Fixed that.

Speaking off the war , I know WWE liked to say NXT was a third brand , but realistically it was viewed as the Third tier minor leagues.

I mean since the change to TV they had "call ups" for some of their major stars they invested alot of TV time to

Matt Riddle
Keith Lee
Belair
T-Bar
Yim

Recently
Priest and Ripley

Now in that time we got Balor, McAfee and Kross. But the perception of this brand is still as a developmental is the win for AEW that big?

Now it may have be bad since TV, I am only catching the ppvs and reading up on it these days.

I think AEW feels that fresher then NXT when I watch as it has an unpredictability about it.

They have spurned thru a good few debuts in the pandemic era, Hardy, Cage, Starks, Lee , Sting, Big Show and now another name incoming.

While NXT has they stars plucked away, if on the writing team it must feel like one step forward two steps back. Especially knowing they won't do anything on WWE TV.

Bring back Alesiter Black, Richochet , Viking Raiders , Gable .... all treated as a joke when they moved up. Why should fans really care after those disasters.

Now I'm not saying this about all of NXT call ups, WWE is littered with ones that are taken seriously, but recently there has been a few main roster misses

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Disney/ESPN just bought the NHL rights out from under the noses of NBC Universal so NXT might not have to move now.

Ye, there's still a 2nd NHL package up for grabs so we'll see. Good news for Vince, bad news for NXT as a whole.

HHH hasn't taken the loss and move away from Wednesday well that's my take from the reading of the speech he gave talent.


Even if he didn't use that one word.

Deleted User wrote: »

https://twitter.com/bryanalvarez/status/1377716535687450624?s=19

Crap numbers for both. Next week is the last week for both shows being on the same night.

I see a lot of people on twitter wondering how could AEW do such a bad rating when it was a very good show. I will say this, even though I really enjoyed the show, this was the least interested I was (before the show) in a Dynamite in a long time so I'm not surprised with the rating tbh.

People in an echo chamber are saying it was a good show.

A solid Christian match. I see him getting a lot of praise for his selling, understandable as AEW fans must not be used to seeing that stuff.

The Inner Circle/Pinnacle stuff was just another backstage brawl.

Do they actually think people care about QT Marshall and a bunch of trainees?
Also, They're quickly killing any shock factor associated with blood. Britt Baker created a great visual a few weeks ago but having two people in two different segments busted open this week just normalises it for people.

The main event was a joke. Mid-card guys who have been booked like shíte for the last 6 months doing a comedy match. You think that's gonna get people watching?

No-one gives a toss about Kenny Omega. That may be hard for the purists to hear but it's the truth. The guy can barely make a dent when he appears on Impact.

AEW hardcores just don't live in the real world, that's why they're baffled when these "amazing" shows don't actually attract viewers. Reddit/Twitter going crazy for the "Forbidden Door" and Kenta while reality shows Kenta's match was the least-watched thing on that show (Unsurprisingly, AEW's own RKO, Ratings Killer Omega, was in that match too). Christian will make a difference? Three weeks of Christian, three weeks of 700k.

Cargill's vignette was arguably the best thing on the show. Made her look like a star.

LineOfBeauty wrote: »

Tough ratings to decipher given that you'd assume a fair chunk of people were watching NXT on Peacock, but I thought NXT would be much closer, or maybe even win in the demo.

No one wants to take into account how many watch AEW on FiteTV in the States over the last 18 months either a sub on FiteTV would be a lot cheaper for a lot of fans than paying for cable TV.