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AEW Dynamite Tops NXT in Ratings with Mike Tyson vs. Chris Jericho Brawl
May 28, 2020
All Elite Wrestling Dynamite prevailed over WWE NXT in the ratings battle Wednesday night, just four days after the Double or Nothing pay-per-view.
According to Showbuzz Daily, Dynamite averaged 827,000 viewers during its two-hour broadcast on TNT, while NXT brought in 731,000 viewers on USA Network.
The main event of Dynamite garnered some crossover attention in the sports world, as former AEW World champion Chris Jericho called out former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson during The Inner Circle's pep rally.
Tyson made his way to the ring flanked by MMA stars Henry Cejudo, Rashad Evans and Vitor Belfort to confront The Inner Circle. Jericho took issue with Tyson knocking him out on an episode of WWE Raw in 2010, and tensions rose to the point that there was a pull-apart brawl to end the show.
The other big news to come out of Dynamite relates to the debuting Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood, who make up the tag team FTR. They used to be known as Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson and were collectively called The Revival in WWE.
After The Young Bucks and Matt Hardy beat Private Party and Joey Janela, The Butcher and The Blade attacked The Bucks. That's when FTR arrived and seemed like they were going to join in on the attack, but they fought off The Butcher and The Blade instead.
Other notable moments on Dynamite included Jungle Boy winning a Battle Royal to earn a TNT Championship match against Cody and Kip Sabian and Jimmy Havoc beating SCU to earn an AEW Tag Team Championship match against Kenny Omega and "Hangman" Adam Page. Both those championship matches are set for the next edition of Dynamite
NXT was headlined by a "fight pit" match between Matt Riddle and Timothy Thatcher, with WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle as the special guest referee. Rather than a traditional steel cage, the fight pit was akin to the lion's den that Owen Hart and Ken Shamrock faced off in at SummerSlam 1998.
Thatcher got bloodied and lost some teeth as a result of a kick to the face from Riddle, but he recovered and forced Riddle to pass out in order to win the match.
Also on NXT, Charlotte Flair and mystery partner Chelsea Green beat Rhea Ripley and Io Shirai in a tag team match ahead of Charlotte's NXT Women's Championship defense against Ripley and Shirai at NXT TakeOver: In Your House.
In the Triple Threat match to determine the Block A winner in the Cruiserweight Championship tournament, Drake Maverick controversially beat Kushida and Jake Atlas. The referee counted the pin for Maverick even though Atlas was tapping to Kushida. Maverick will go on to face El Hijo del Fantasma for the interim Cruiserweight title.
Elsewhere on the show, NXT champion Adam Cole vs. Velveteen Dream was made official for TakeOver: In Your House, and Tommaso Ciampa won a tune-up match in preparation for his TakeOver match against Karrion Kross.
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