AEW Dynamite Secures Ratings Battle Win over WWE NXT for 2nd Straight Week

In this week's edition of the Wednesday night wrestling war, AEW Dynamite defeated WWE NXT in the ratings for the second consecutive week. 

According to Bryan Alvarez of F4WOnline.com, All Elite Wrestling averaged 845,000 viewers during its two-hour broadcast on TNT, while WWE NXT garnered 615,000 viewers on USA Network.

In the main event of Dynamite, Chris Jericho and Jake Hager beat Luchasaurus and Jungle Boy, but that wasn't the big news. A masked wrestler arrived to help The Inner Circle after the match before removing his mask to reveal that he was Sammy Guevara.

Guevara had been suspended for a month after an inappropriate comment he made about WWE Superstar Sasha Banks several years ago was unearthed.

With Guevara back in the fold, The Inner Circle is whole again and will face the team of Luchasaurus, Jungle Boy, Best Friends and Orange Cassidy next week.

Dynamite opened with Cody's weekly defense of the TNT Championship against a mystery opponent. It was hyped ahead of time that Cody would be facing one of the biggest names on the indie scene, and that turned out to be true, as he was challenged by Eddie Kingston.

While Kingston pushed Cody to the limit and may have impressed enough to earn a contract, Cody retained the title.

Elsewhere on the show, The Young Bucks beat The Butcher and The Blade in a Falls Count Anywhere match, both MJF and Adam "Hangman" Page won enhancement matches, and Ricky Starks seemed to join forces with Brian Cage and Taz, as he helped them attack Darby Allin.

NXT was headlined by a highly anticipated match between Karrion Kross and Dominik Dijakovic following their backstage altercation last week. Kross brutalized Dijakovic, which led to NXT champion Keith Lee making his way ringside.

Dijakovic refused Lee's help, which led to Kross forcing Lee to watch as he put Dijakovic to sleep and won the match.

At the top of the show, Lee and NXT general manager William Regal made a huge announcement. Lee said he would relinquish the North American Championship in order to provide others with opportunities and focus on the NXT Championship.

As a result, Regal announced a series of Triple Threat matches, with the winners going on to compete in a ladder match for the North American title at NXT TakeOver: XXX on August 22.

In the first of those Triple Threats, Bronson Reed shockingly defeated Johnny Gargano and Roderick Strong to qualify for the ladder match and earn the biggest match of his career.

Other major happenings on NXT included Dexter Lumis beating Killian Dain, Timothy Thatcher once again defeating Oney Lorcan, and Mercedes Martinez joining the Robert Stone Brand.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).