AEW Dynamite Beats WWE NXT in Weekly Ratings Battle After Changing Locations

AEW Dynamite on TNT beat WWE NXT on USA Network in viewership Wednesday night, as both shows were impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

According to Figure Four Online's Bryan Alvarez, Dynamite averaged 932,000 viewers during its two-hour broadcast, while NXT garnered 542,000 viewers.

Dynamite was originally supposed to be held in Rochester, New York, but it was moved to Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida, with no fans in attendance. Meanwhile, NXT didn't hold a live show, as it instead showed documentary-style videos with Triple H and Tom Phillips serving as the hosts.

Although there were no fans present to react, AEW provided a newsworthy show that featured two huge debuts, including that of Matt Hardy to close the episode.

After the Inner Circle team of Jake Hager, Santana and Ortiz beat The Elite team of Cody, Adam "Hangman" Page and Matt Jackson to earn the advantage in the upcoming Blood and Guts match, Hardy appeared and suggested that he would be the fifth man for The Elite in Blood and Guts, replacing the injured Nick Jackson.

Earlier in the show, it was finally revealed that Brodie Lee is Dark Order's Exalted One. Lee appeared alongside Evil Uno and Stu Grayson to take out SCU.

Lee wrestled as Luke Harper in WWE, and after primarily being a background character in factions like The Wyatt Family, he will have an opportunity to lead his own group now.

Also on Dynamite, The Lucha Brothers defeated Best Friends, Luchasaurus and Jungle Boy beat The Butcher and The Blade, and Hikaru Shida defeated Kris Statlander, Penelope Ford and Riho in a women's Fatal 4-Way match.

There were no live matches or segments on NXT, but videos profiling the Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa feud, Finn Balor and Rhea Ripley were played.

The Gargano vs. Ciampa video took up most of the show and essentially told the story of how they broke into NXT together before Ciampa turned on Gargano and then Gargano turned on Ciampa. The former DIY teammates are scheduled to face off at the next NXT TakeOver.

There was no mention of TakeOver on NXT, however, which creates some uncertainty regarding when it will happen amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

Uncertainty exists within AEW as well since it was said on multiple occasions on Dynamite that Blood and Guts will happen "on the next Dynamite" rather than next week, which has caused speculation that next week's show could be in jeopardy.

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