How NXT Has Already Won The Wednesday Night War

Daniel Bryan Adam Cole
WWE.com

The promotion recovered from the mixed reception of Fyter Fest and Fight For The Fallen - plagued variously by production issues, botches, misjudged match lengths and low-rent comedy - with the premiere edition of Dynamite, which trounced NXT in the first head-to-head ratings battles. Both shows were praised critically, but several had it that the huge-scale presentation, deafening reactions to Cody and Riho, the sense of history and importance handed the edge - or at least, the buzz - to AEW.

This pattern continued for some weeks; the excellent, improvised promos on Dynamite, and the expert build to the Cody Vs. Chris Jericho programme led the majority of viewers to hashtag "I'm with AEW" - the first sense that the narrative was slipping away. And then WWE played the hand most feared it would play, but in the most effective way possible: NXT entered the "Brand Warfare" of Survivor Series, compromising the integrity of the WarGames build, but it didn't matter to the audience. The prospect of Adam Cole Vs. Daniel Bryan was as thrilling as the execution. Keith Lee emerged as a star. NXT won the night. NXT handled the invasions far better than RAW and SmackDown, and with NXT put over huge on the night, ratings patterns changed; since Survivor Series, AEW has won just one ratings battle by the narrowest of margins. NXT has defeated AEW twice, and last week, scores were tied ahead of this week's most unpredictable, closely-fought battle since the premiere.

Since at least Survivor Series, 'Change The World' is no longer part of the pro wrestling lexicon.

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Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and surefire Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!