AEW Beats NXT in Ratings with Christian Cage's Dynamite Debut and Arcade Anarchy
April 1, 2021
In the second-to-last head-to-head battle of the Wednesday night wrestling war before NXT moves to Tuesdays, AEW Dynamite beat WWE NXT in the ratings this week.
According to Showbuzz Daily, Dynamite averaged 700,000 viewers during its two-hour broadcast on TNT, while NXT garnered 654,000 viewers during its two-hour show on USA Network.
The main event of Dynamite was an Arcade Anarchy match pitting Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor against Miro and Kip Sabian.
The anything-goes match was already wild to begin with, but it got even more frenzied when Kris Statlander made her return by attacking Penelope Ford after missing several months with a torn ACL followed by Trent returning after missing some time because of injury.
Ultimately, Taylor slammed Sabian through some tables to pick up the victory for his team.
AEW also saw Christian Cage beat Frankie Kazarian in his in-ring debut for the company in addition to Kenny Omega and The Good Brothers beating Rey Fenix, Penta and Laredo Kid in a six-man tag team match.
Additionally, The Inner Circle returned to attack The Pinnacle, and QT Marshall and his Nightmare Family students turned on the rest of the Nightmare Family, including Cody Rhodes, Dustin Rhodes and Arn Anderson.
NXT was headlined by an 11-man battle royal with the top six finishers moving on to a gauntlet match at Night 1 of NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver next week. The winner of the gauntlet will then challenge Johnny Gargano for the North American Championship on Night 2.
The final six competitors remaining were Leon Ruff, Isaiah "Swerve" Scott, Bronson Reed, Cameron Grimes, Dexter Lumis and LA Knight. Lumis was last eliminated by Knight, meaning Knight will have the advantage of being the final entrant.
NXT also continued the build for next week's NXT Women's Championship match between Io Shirai and Raquel Gonzalez. They attacked each other throughout the night, and the show closed with Shirai wiping Gonzalez out with a moonsault.
Also, Tian Sha made her in-ring debut in a winning effort alongside Xia Li against Kayden Carter and Kacy Catanzaro, while Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell were granted an NXT Women's Tag Team Championship match against Shotzi Blackheart and Ember Moon at TakeOver.
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