AEW Dynamite's Tribute Show Honoring Brodie Lee Beats WWE NXT in Ratings Battle

AEW Dynamite scored a ratings victory over WWE NXT in the Wednesday night wrestling war this week. 

AEW's show served as a tribute to late wrestler Brodie Lee.

According to Pro Wrestling Torch, AEW averaged 977,000 viewers during its two-hour broadcast on TNT, while NXT on USA Network garnered 586,000 viewers.

Dynamite was all about Lee, who tragically died last week at the age of 41 as a result of a lung ailment. AEW honored Lee by having his wife and children in attendance and putting a card together that reflect positively on a man that so many inside and outside the wrestling business loved.

On a night that featured no shortage of emotional moments, the most emotional arguably came after the main event, which saw Cody Rhodes, Orange Cassidy and Dark Order's Ten defeat Team Taz.

Lee's oldest son, Brodie Lee Jr., placed Lee's boots in the middle of the ring and Cody then covered them with Lee's trademark scarf. Finally, Lee Jr. was presented with the TNT Championship that his father previously held and told he would be "TNT champion for life."

Another memorable moment saw Lee's longtime WWE tag team partner, Erick Rowan, make a surprise appearance by helping "Hangman" Adam Page, John Silver and Alex Reynolds beat Inner Circle members MJF, Santana and Ortiz.

Also on the show, which featured a video package memorializing Lee and a 10-bell salute, Colt Cabana and The Young Bucks beat Private Party and Matt Hardy, Evil Uno, Stu Grayson and Lance Archer defeated Eddie Kingston, The Butcher and The Blade and the team of Anna Jay and Tay Conti beat Britt Baker and Penelope Ford.

On NXT, the build toward next week's New Year's Evil show continued, and the NXT North American title was put on the line in the main event.

Johnny Gargano defeated Leon Ruff to retain the title, which suggests Ruff is about to move outside the championship scene after putting himself on the map with an upset win over Gargano several weeks ago.

Other results included Pete Dunne beating Roderick Strong, Bronson Reed defeating Isaiah "Swerve" Scott, The Grizzled Young Veterans beating Breezango, Lucha House Party defeated Legado del Fantasma and Mercedes Martinez won a squash match.