WWE NXT destroys AEW Dynamite in this week's ratings
The ratings for this week's episodes of NXT and AEW Dynamite are in and the WWE show has convincingly beaten its rivals by a big margin.
NXT raked in 795,000 viewers while AEW Dynamite got an underwhelming 683,000 viewers.
NXT and AEW scored a tie last week with both shows drawing 778,000 viewers respectively.
This week, NXT beat AEW in the key 18-49 demographic by drawing 344,000, in comparison to AEW's 319,000 in the demo.
The Donald Trump impeachment hearing predictably hurt both shows as NXT was expected to cross 900,000 viewers this week owing to a stacked card.
It's interesting to note that NXT won in the 18-49 demographic which has always been an AEW-dominated demo.
The first quarter of NXT's final episode of the year opened with Adam Cole vs. Finn Balor which managed to get in 977,000 viewers. AEW Dynamite's first quarter featured the tag team match between Adam Page & Kenny Omega vs. Rey Fenix & Pentagon Jr. which drew 689,000 viewers.
The ending of Cole vs. Balor saw an addition of 104,000 viewers in the second quarter while AEW got in 2,000 viewers for the tag team match and the brawl.
Killian Dain vs. Damien Preist gained 84,000 viewers in the third quarter while on AEW Dynamite, The Butcher & The Blade vs. Cody & Darby Allin drew in an extra 11,000 viewers.
Both shows lost viewers in the fourth quarter as Kushida vs. Cameron Grimes saw a 25,000 drop while Miranda Alize vs. Awesome Kong saw a decline of 57,000.
The fifth quarter was where AEW gained some ground as Chris Jericho vs. Jungle Boy brought in a 135,000 bump for the show. NXT, in the meantime, lost 32,000 viewers with the start of Santana Garrett vs, Io Shirai. By the end of the fifth quarter, AEW had 780,000 viewers to NXT's 732,000.
NXT got back 34,000 viewers in the sixth quarter with Pete Dunne and Travis Banks. AEW had a few commercial breaks and interviews which led to them losing 113,000 viewers.
The seventh quarter saw NXT lose 100,000 viewers while AEW lost 29,000 with the Britt Baker vs. Kris Statlander match.
The main event of NXT that saw Rhea Ripley defeat Shayna Baszler to become the new NXT Women's Championship drew 725,000 viewers, while the AEW main event between the Young Bucks and SCU had 645,000.
Out of eight quarters, AEW just won the fifth quarter while NXT beat them in the rest.
This week's episode of NXT felt like a Takeover special and the show was always expected to draw huge numbers. AEW Dynamite also had a solid episode which was marred by a disappointing finish.
It should also be noted that this was AEW's second-lowest rating, with the lowest being 663,000 viewers that they drew on the November 27th episode.