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AEW, Mike Tyson Beat NXT in TV Ratings in 1st Week Since NXT Moved to Tuesday
April 15, 2021
In the first week of WWE NXT airing on Tuesdays while AEW Dynamite remains on Wednesdays, it was Dynamite that prevailed in the television ratings battle.
According to F4WOnline's Bryan Alvarez, Dynamite averaged 1.219 million viewers during its two-hour broadcast on TNT. Meanwhile, NXT brought in 805,000 viewers for its two-hour show on USA Network.
AEW brought boxing legend Mike Tyson back in for Wednesday's show, and he served as a special enforcer for the match between Inner Circle member Chris Jericho and Pinnacle member Dax Harwood.
There was no shortage of chaos outside the ring during the match, including Tyson punching out Dash Wilder that allowed Jericho to win. After the match, Jericho announced that Tyson is officially a member of The Inner Circle.
The main event of Dynamite was a Falls Count Anywhere match for the TNT Championship between Darby Allin and Matt Hardy. The match featured a ton of interference from Private Party, The Butcher, The Blade, Sting, Lance Archer, Ethan Page and Scorpio Sky, but Allin managed to focus enough to win the match and retain the title.
Also on Dynamite, Christian declined an invitation to join Team Taz, which resulted in Powerhouse Hobbs attacking him; The Young Bucks defeated Fenix and Pac to retain the AEW World Tag Team Championships; Jade Cargill beat Red Velvet; and Kris Statlander defeated Amber Nova.
NXT featured fallout from the NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver event, including an eight-person tag team main event with Johnny Gargano, Candice LeRae, Indi Hartwell and Austin Theory of The Way facing Bronson Reed, Shotzi Blackheart, Ember Moon and Dexter Lumis.
At one point, Hartwell feigned being knocked out so that Lumis would carry her away. Then, Theory ate an Eclipse from Moon and a big splash off the ropes from Reed as the babyface team prevailed.
NXT also saw an unexpected title change take place. After Santos Escobar beat Jordan Devlin in a ladder match at TakeOver to become the undisputed cruiserweight champion, he laid down an open challenge on NXT.
Kushida answered the challenge and shockingly defeated Escobar with a unique pinning combination to become the new champ.
Also, Franky Monet made her NXT debut by interrupting a promo from new NXT women's champion Raquel Gonzalez. After that, new Raw women's champion Rhea Ripley and new SmackDown women's champion Bianca Belair showed up and embraced Gonzalez, showcasing the future of women's wrestling in WWE.
Other key moments on NXT included MSK beating Killian Dain and Drake Maverick to retain the NXT Tag Team Championship, Mercedes Martinez defeating Jessi Kamea, and Isaiah "Swerve" Scott beating Leon Ruff.
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