Hall of Famer plays down WWE's ratings victory over AEW
This week, WWE NXT and AEW Dynamite hit the television screens the same night, Tuesday, October 10, 2023. The companies did not shy away from showing their intentions of getting a win over the competition.
AEW produced a pay-per-view-like special show named Dynamite: Title Tuesday, where multiple championships were defended. World Wrestling Entertainment brought in John Cena, Cody Rhodes, LA Knight, and The Undertaker to the development brand and held an NXT Title match on the show. The Stamford-based company won the ratings war by garnering 921,000 viewers compared to AEW's viewership of 609,000.
However, Hall of Famer Bully Ray did not seem impressed by NXT's victory. Speaking on Busted Open, the 52-year-old veteran said he did not believe anyone won the ratings competition as WWE loaded the show with as much star power as they could.
"I do not believe either one of the companies won. Obviously, the rating, the hard number [921,000] to [609,000] dictates that ‘NXT’ won. But when I sit back and I really think about these numbers without trying to dive too deep into all the minutia of it, I say to myself this, WWE loaded up this show on their own night with some of the heaviest firepower they possibly could not named The Rock or ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin. They loaded it," Bully Ray said. [H/T: ITR Wrestling]
Bully Ray also noted that NXT's viewership for a show a few weeks back was 850,000, and it featured stars like Becky Lynch, Rhea Ripley, and Dominik Mysterio. The Veteran added that this time, they brought in the Legends and had an increase of just 71,000 viewers, which is not much.
Tony Khan took shots at WWE Legends after Dynamite lost to NXT
Despite loading the Title Tuesday's card with some of the biggest stars in AEW and two title changes, the Jacksonville-based company failed to win the viewership battle.
CEO Tony Khan took shots at John Cena and The Undertaker for not being able to help the developmental brand cross the 1 million mark.
"This week, 2 active decades-long ratings streaks from 2 great legends were ended. With all due respect, until this week's head-to-head AEW on TBS vs WWE on USA, neither John Cena nor Undertaker had ever been on a WWE show with under 1 million total viewers + under 400k in the demo," Tony Khan wrote on Twitter.
Do you think NXT was a better show compared to Dynamite? Tell us in the comments section below.