By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Wednesday’s NXT television show produced 795,000 viewers for USA Network, according to Showbuzzdaily.com. The number was up from the 778,000 viewers who watched last week’s show.
Powell’s POV: AEW finished the night with 683,000 viewers, so this was a decisive win for NXT. The NXT show finished tied for 26th in the 18-49 demographic, while AEW finished 28th in the same category. The impeachment hearings airing on various cable news networks worked against both shows.
Good for NXT.
NXT ends the year on a high note.
Both shows are great and I am trying to find time for each. I do wonder what the cable channels expect for viewership. I would hate to lose the only real North American alternative to WWE.
AEW is terrible. The entire tag and women’s divisions are garbage. They’re building no characters. They’ve gotten almost nobody over. Their viewership is half of what it was at the start and it’s nobody’s fault but their own. The product is bad and we’ll be better off with it either undergoing a major overhaul (along with most of the roster being dumped) or just going away.
How can you say the entire tag division is garbage? Compare their division to any other company right now, and it’s better by miles.
The women’s division could use some work, but Baker hasn’t taken off like they thought she would, I think. I don’t know if they thought she’d just be this uber babyface, and they’d just need to build up heel challengers there, or what? They’re starting to pivot, though. They should give Bea more of a push.
To say most of the roster should be dumped is a ridiculous statement however. I feel like if you owned a wrestling company, everyone would be 6’8″ tall, or more because you seem to dislike regular sized humans.
Their tag division sucks out loud. There’s a reason why Jericho had to pull the Lucha Bums to the side and blast them for not doing basic things like actually tagging. Add in that every match is just a thousand different spots that mean nothing and it’s all garbage.
Baker is terrible. She’s not good enough for developmental, much less actual TV appearances for NXT. There’s nothing she does that’s remotely believable.
Thankfully, fangirls like you are the last holdouts and this company is already dying. Once the cost of getting suckered into buying merch for the company that just had its little boy owner hit a stunner on Shawn Spears wears off, you’ll jump ship as well.
In a world where Raw and Smackdown are historically bad, AEW is still the worst “wrestling” show on TV by a country mile.
Jump ship? Lmao! No, because I genuinely like the product for the most part. Could I make a few nitpicks? Sure. Does it in any way alter my enjoyment? No.
Your “hot takes” show your bias though. I realize you’re not saying Smackdown or RAW are great, but AEW is way better than either show right now. RAW is improving, but NXT is the only WWE show to this point worth watching. Smackdown is a disaster.
One thing too, about the Lucha Bros- in Lucha wrestling they don’t really tag like they do in other styles. It’s a stylistic thing.
I must be the only one to like Britt Baker. I don’t get the criticism about her.
She’s a jobber in a good women’s division. She’s not the athlete than many women are today and she’s really bad at making anything look like she’s really trying to hurt someone. She’s not Kelly Kelly bad, but she’s way too close for someone who’s been in the business for 4+ years.
From my viewpoint, her push just doesn’t match her talent level yet. She can get there, but it needs to be organic. Bea, right now, is more talented. Rhio, right now, same thing. Kong, ditto. Penelope, same thing. Allie, too.
Britt needs something more. She’s a dentist, which is great. That’s not enough to make me want to pull for her, however.