WWE NXT Scores First 2020 Ratings Victory Over AEW In Narrowest Battle This Year

Just 1,000 viewers separate the April 8th shows, with small rise in overall viewership.

Ciampa Gargano
NXT

WWE NXT defeated AEW in the March 8th Wednesday Night ratings war with 693,000 viewers to Dynamite's 692,000, but the wafer-thin win and cumulative total of 1,385,000 reflected a broader dip in interest for both shows over the past several weeks.

It reflected an increase of 17% on last week's number for NXT, headlined by the heavily promoted (and extremely divisive) "One Final Beat" cinematic battle between Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano. A stacked Women's Title Number One Contender's Ladder Match fleshing out an undercard as the show worked through yet more matches from the cancelled TakeOver: Tampa Bay even that would have taken place before WrestleMania. In response, Dynamite was headlined by TNT Championship tournament match between Cody and Shawn Spears. Both shows were taped but unspoiled in advance of last night's airing.

The all-important 18-49 demographic was won by All Elite Wrestling with 0.26 compared to to NXT's 0.19, ranking AEW 32nd amongst cable shows and NXT 51st - both marginally up from last week. The collected viewing figure for both shows also went up a healthy 110,000 from April 1st, but remains massively down from some of the totals tiptoeing towards 2,000,000 at various stages in the war.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett