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AEW Dynamite scored huge in ratings and defeated WWE NXT for the second week in a row by a huge margin. AEW Dynamite's July 22, 2020 episode averaged 845,000 viewers and a 0.35 rating, finishing No. 5 in the 18-49-year-old key demo. On USA Network, WWE NXT averaged 615,000 viewers and a 0.23 rating, finishing No. 20 in the 18-49 demographic. This represents a win of over 130,000 viewers in AEW's favor for this week in the Wednesday Night War.
AEW Dynamite hypes independent star and delivers a return
AEW did an excellent job this week of generating interest in their program through social media. It started with AEW President Tony Khan hyping that "one of the top independent wrestlers in the world" would answer Cody's open challenge for the TNT Championship on this week's AEW Dynamite. This was followed by the AEW World Champion Jon Moxley promoting the show on ESPN Radio.
On Tuesday afternoon, Moxley appeared on the Dan Le Batard Show on ESPN Radio. Moxley discussed the appearance of a wrestler to answer Cody's challenge that made him very happy. Moxley went on to say that this wrestler would excite hardcore fans as well as casual fans who will be in for a treat on AEW Dynamite. These promises were delivered upon as Eddie Kingston answered the call and delivered a quality opener for the TNT Championship against Cody.
This episode also included the return of Sammy Guevara to end the broadcast. A night of good, quality wrestling action combined with a surprise debut and return brought viewers in. The 845,000 viewers is up from last week's 788,000 viewers, and it is AEW's second-highest rating of the pandemic era since averaging 932,000 viewers for the March 18 episode. On the other hand, WWE NXT found themselves in the opposite predicament.
WWE NXT averages its lowest ratings in 2 months
This week's WWE NXT featured a big main event in Karrion Kross versus Dominik Dijakovic as well as the announcement of the NXT North American Championship tournament following Keith Lee relinquishing the title. It was definitely a newsworthy show due to that, but the viewership was not there like it was for the two weeks of the Great American Bash.
WWE NXT for July 22 averaged 615,000 viewers, which is down from last week's 631,000 viewers. This number is the lowest for NXT since averaging 604,000 viewers for their May 13 episode. This is very concerning due to the current issues with ratings on both RAW and Smackdown. The ratings have slipped for NXT since winning three weeks straight over AEW Dynamite, but this week should be slightly concerning.
We shall see how WWE responds to this huge beating in the ratings for NXT and how AEW Dynamite will keep momentum in the Wednesday Night War.
