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With WWE NXT passing AEW Dynamite's viewership figures last week heading into WWE Survivor Series, this week's shows may just have been the most hotly anticipated in midweek wrestling since the 'Wednesday Night Wars' began.
Last week, WWE's Black and Gold brand brought in a whopping 916,000 on the go-home show heading into a weekend of NXT TakeOver: WarGames and WWE Survivor Series, while AEW finished up just 23,000 viewers below on 893,000 - but how would both brands retaliate? Particularly with NXT winning the war of WWE brand supremacy at Survivor Series, all eyes were on both shows to see who would put on the "best" show this week.
WWE NXT
This week's episode of NXT on the USA Network opened up with one of the breakout stars of the weekend in Keith Lee, teaming with Dominik Dijakovic to take on two of the hardest working men in the business today, Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly of The Undisputed Era. Or at least, that's how the first portion of the match went, before Strong replaced Fish due to medical reasons. Regardless, this was a colossal clash to kick off the black and gold brand, but no title change would occur - only amazing in-ring action and the most meme-able gif of 2019 with Cole was flattened by Keith Lee.
Another championship would be defended, too, as Lio Rush put his NXT Cruiserweight Championship on the line against Akira Tozawa. The action was incredibly high-paced, as one may predict, with Rush winning a pretty lengthy encounter.
Other matches on NXT involved Shane Thorne vs Mansoor, with the Saudi Arabian Superstar picking up the win, and Dakota Kai reinforced her newfound character by getting disqualified when she hit Candice LeRae with Tegan Nox's knee brace - bringing the other breakout star of the weekend, Rhea Ripley, to the ring.
Xia Li would also finish off Vanessa Borne quickly, before NXT Women's Champion Shayna Baszler would come to the ring flanked by Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir to attack Li, with Ripley making the save after deafening chants from Full Sail, with The Nightmare chasing off the trio before claiming she'll be taking the Queen of Spades' title.
A first-time match would close the show, with Finn Balor taking on Tommaso Ciampa. As most NXT fans would expect, this was an absolute classic that saw the pair brawl outside the ring in a brutal, yet technical, encounter. Adam Cole rushed into the ring, and Ciampa fought him off as Finn Balor stole the NXT Championship and tried to hit Ciampa with the belt, only to miss - but Blackheart ran into an enziguiri and subsequently the 1916 for Balor to pick up the win, but The Prince would make sure only he stood tall to close out the night, flattening Adam Cole with a Pele Kick.
AEW Dynamite
Meanwhile, over on TNT, AEW Dynamite opened with a celebration! Chris Jericho's Thanksgiving Extravaganza saw Soul Train Jones - AKA Virgil - introducing Le Champion, before The Inner Circle would give Jericho some presents and show their thanks, including a Sammy Guevara cardboard cutout and a goat called Chris JeriGOAT, before Chris Jericho's dad, New York Rangers legend Ted Irvine, emerged from a massive gift box inside the ring!
An incredibly entertaining segment for everyone aside from Justin Roberts, whose delivery of a "thank you" from TNT was subpar, so much so that The Inner Circle would attack, bringing SCU to the ring to make the save.
During this segment, AEW would also send out a press release announcing their own branded sparkling wine - A Little Bit of the Bubbly - released in collaboration with Chris Jericho and Nocking Point Wines, founded by Stephen Amell.
The first match on Dynamite saw Best Friends take on Lucha Bros, with some miscommunication between Fenix and Pentagon allowing Chuckie T and Trent to enforce themselves as arguably the strongest contenders for the AEW Tag Team Championships.
Another tag team match followed, with Kris Stadtlander making her Dynamite debut, teaming with Hikaru Shida to take on Bea Priestley and Emi Sakura. A quick match saw Sakura win for her team after hitting Statlander with her microphone stand.
If that match was short, though, it wasn't as short as Cody's return to the ring, as he made quick work of Matt Nicks in less time than it took you to read this sentence. The true news was what happened post-match, though, as Butcher (Andy Williams of metal band Every Time I Die) and Blade (Braxton Sutter) debuted to assault Cody Rhodes after he called out MJF. Allie would come to the ring to reveal herself as the manager of the pair, but now going by The Bunny.
AEW's standout match of the night had to be PAC vs Kenny Omega in a rematch from All Out. This match was frantic, to begin with, before Omega seemed to favor his knee. A tremendous back and forth saw some incredibly high octane action, but the match would end in a roll-up as Omega took the win via crucifix pinfall.
The match following this would be the match for the Dynamite Diamond Ring between MJF and Hangman Page. MJF was flanked by Wardlow, who would make his presence felt in more ways than one - but the final blow would come from MJF, who won the match using Cody's finishing move.
A really entertaining segment would follow, as DDP would have to present the ring to MJF (which is even cooler if you know how the WWE Hall of Famer really feels about the rising star) only for a scuffle to break out, potentially teasing one more match from the WCW legend!
Dustin Rhodes would return to AEW to call out Jake Hager following a previous assault from the Bellator star, but Guevara, Santana, and Ortiz would attack Rhodes mid-interview, only for The Young Bucks to come out and turn the tables.
The AEW World Championship was on the line in the main event, as Le Champion would defend his gold against Scorpio Sky. Sky would have a great showing in this encounter, but come up short in a match that saw, much like on NXT, an attempt to use the belt as a weapon - by Jericho - for Sky to get the near fall, before being hit with a Codebreaker and tapping out to the Liontamer.
The night wasn't over there, though, as Jon Moxley would emerge from the crowd to seemingly stake his claim at a title shot!
Verdict
Well, if I could get away with saying this, I really would - but wrestling fans who watched both shows were undoubtedly the winners. Both WWE NXT and AEW Dynamite were thoroughly entertaining this week.
If I was to look at both shows on paper, AEW might have edged it with the Jericho celebration starting the show and Moxley being teased as Le Champion's next challenger at the end, but having watched both, I have to say that this week's NXT was pretty flawless.
AEW Dynamite had some great high points, namely the aforementioned beginning and end, as well as the DDP segment, and PAC vs Omega, but NXT just felt like a show with absolutely no lulls. It was non-stop from start to finish, and I genuinely didn't feel bored once. The lasting impressions from the show this week were the ending of Finn Balor hitting Adam Cole with the Pele kick, Rhea Ripley establishing her dominance yet again, and Keith Lee flattening Adam Cole.
Both shows were incredibly meaningful and both brands set their viewers up wonderfully for next week and beyond, but I have to say - WWE's black and gold brand was just a touch more enjoyable for myself.
Who do you think won the week? Do you agree? Let us know via the poll below.
What makes Sting special? His first AEW opponent opens up RIGHT HERE.
