By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite television show produced 1.409 million viewers for the premiere episode on TNT, according to Showbuzzdaily.com.
Powell’s POV: The AEW number was higher than 891,000 viewers drawn by the NXT on USA Network television show. AEW won the night one battle by 518,000 viewers. AEW finished second in the cable ratings in the 18-49 demographic behind only an MLB Wild Card game.
Kudos for AEW for the viewership. I was impressed by the overall production of the product as well as the announcing. In fact, the announcers on both shows are a real delight. I thought that the wrestling was better with NXT this week, but the production and atmosphere from AEW was superior. Overall though, this is great news for AEW as hopefully both products continue to grow and attempt to one up each other. Fans debating as to which show is better is long overdue as competition is good for all of the wrestlers and the fans.
NXT getting crushed in the 18-49 demographic really illustrates just how poor a job WWE has done creating new fans. Their audience is old and getting older.
AEW getting crushed in the 18-49 by an MLB wild card game between two of the least popular teams in a league with a much older age demographic just shows how much of a niche product the spot monkey express VIP club really is.