Live AEW Dynamite Scores Easy NYD Ratings Win over Pre-Taped WWE NXT Awards Show

A live episode of AEW Dynamite beat a pre-taped 2019 awards edition of WWE NXT in the ratings on Wednesday night.

According to Showbuzz Daily, the New Year's Day episode of Dynamite averaged 967,000 viewers, while NXT garnered 548,000 viewers. The win was an expected one for All Elite Wrestling, and the lack of live competition helped it achieve one of its best viewership numbers.

After not airing a show on Christmas Day, AEW returned with a newsworthy episode Wednesday. In the main event, The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega defeated Pac and The Lucha Brothers, but that was far from the only significant occurrence.

Arn Anderson made his debut as Cody's head coach, and Cody went on to beat Darby Allin in a singles match. Riho retained the AEW Women's Championship over Britt Baker, Hikaru Shida and Nyla Rose. Jon Moxley beat Trent, and Sammy Guevara defeated Dustin Rhodes.

Additionally, Dynamite featured two major promo segments. The first was AEW world champion Chris Jericho's continued effort to recruit Moxley into the Inner Circle. Moxley told Jericho that he would give him his answer next week.

At long last, MJF finally announced his stipulations for a match against Cody. MJF stipulated that Cody must beat Wardlow in a steel cage match and take 10 belt lashings. MJF also said that if Cody touches him, he will not get a match at AEW Revolution on February 29 or any future event.

There were no live promos or segments on NXT after delivering a show with some pre-taped matches on Christmas Day the previous week.

Wednesday's NXT featured the presentation of several awards, and NXT champion Adam Cole cleaned up. Cole was named the NXT Male Competitor and Overall Competitor of the Year. He also shared Rivalry of the Year and Match of the Year honors with Johnny Gargano.

Other awards included Female Competitor of the Year (Shayna Baszler), Tag Team of the Year (Undisputed Era), Future Star of the Year (Dakota Kai) and Breakout Star of the Year (Keith Lee).

Aside from awards, NXT replayed three of the biggest matches of the year in Gargano vs. Cole from NXT TakeOver: New York, the first-ever women's WarGames match and the tag team ladder match from NXT TakeOver: XXV.

NXT will return to regular programming next week, while AEW will feature Riho vs. Kris Statlander for the AEW Women's Championship and the team of Omega and Adam "Hangman" Page vs. Private Party.

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