AEW Vs. NXT Ratings Details: Highest And Lowest Rated Segments, Sting And Shaq Draw, Kenny Omega

As previously reported, AEW picked up a big ratings victory over NXT last Wednesday night. It was the second week in a row that AEW Dynamite has beaten WWE NXT in total viewers. NXT has only topped AEW in total viewers nine times this year. In the 18-49 demo, NXT has only topped AEW in the 18-49 demo once, which was last December.

Wednesday's episode of Dynamite drew 995,000 viewers (+9% from last week) on TNT, topping the 659,000 viewers (+0.15%) garnered by NXT on the USA Network by 51%. It was the biggest margin of victory for Dynamite over NXT since the March 18th episode.

AEW drew a 0.45 rating in the 18-49 demographic (+7%) while NXT drew a 0.17 (+6.3%) in the same demo this week, so Dynamite topped NXT by 165% in the demo, the widest margin in the history of the shows going head-to-head. AEW also more than doubled NXT in every key demo for the first time ever.

Dynamite had a really strong first hour, with every quarter averaging over 1 million viewers. AEW won every quarter in both total viewers and the 18-49 demo.

Sting and Shaquille O'Neal were the big draws of the night. The Sting segment was the most watched quarter of the night with both total viewers and in the 18-49 demo with 1,069,000 total viewers and 645,000 viewers in 18-49, which more than tripled the 183,000 18-49 viewers garnered by NXT in that quarter. The quarter featuring Shaq averaged 1,063,000 viewers and 618,000 in 18-49, once again tripling the number of viewers in the demo of NXT.

Despite coming off of an appearance on Impact Wrestling the night before and teasing a big announcement, the Kenny Omega segment had the second lowest total viewers of the show, and third lowest in the 18-49 demo. However, total viewers and 18-49 viewers for the segment were up from the prior quarter. The least watched quarter of the show was the sixth, which featured Eddie Kingston & The Butcher & The Blade vs. Lance Archer & The Lucha Bros. The least watched quarter for 18-49 viewers was the MJF vs. Orange Cassidy main event.

NXT started off with 782,000 viewers and 231,000 in 18-49 for the opening segment. It was the most watched segment on the show of the night, and was tied with the sixth quarter (Karrion Kross attacks Damian Priest / Killian Dain vs. Pete Dunne) for the most watched in 18-49. The low point in total viewers was the fourth quarter which featured the Tommaso Ciampa vs. Cameron Grimes match and averaged 600,000 viewers. The low in the 18-49 demo was the second quarter (Jake Atlas vs. Isaiah Scott / Grizzled Young Veterans vs. Ever-Rise vs. Imperium), which only averaged 183,000 viewers, but was head-to-head with the Sting promo.

AEW ranked #2 in the Cable Top 150 for the 18-49 demo, while NXT was #37. For total viewers, AEW was #55 while NXT came in at #75.

AEW was up 28% in total viewers from the same week last year, while NXT was down 15%. In 18-49, AEW was up 61% while NXT was down 29%.

Below are the quarter hour breakdowns from both shows, compiled by 411 Mania with data from The Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

AEW Dynamite:

Q1: The Young Bucks vs. The Hybrid 2 ? 934,000 viewers, 531,000 in 18-49
Q2: Darby Allin promo/Sting & Cody segment ? 1,069,000 viewers (up 135,000), 645,000 in 18-49 (up 114,000)
Q3: FTR vs. Varisty Blondes/Hangman Page interview ? 1,022,000 viewers (down 47,000), 593,000 in 18-49 (down 52,000)
Q4: Dustin Rhodes vs. 10/Shaq & Brandi Rhodes segment/Inner Circle Ultimatum ? 1,063,000 viewers (up 41,000), 618,000 in 18-49 (up 25,000)
Q5: End of Inner Circle segment/FTR interview/Eddie Kingston & The Butcher & The Blade vs. Lance Archer & The Lucha Bros ? 1,010,000 viewers (down 53,000), 593,000 in 18-49 (down 25,000)
Q6: End of six-man tag match ? 926,000 viewers (down 84,000), 547,000 in 18-49 (down 46,000)
Q7: Kenny Omega & Don Callis segment ? 963,000 viewers (up 37,000), 581,000 in 18-49 (up 34,000)
Q8: MJF vs. Orange Cassidy ? 971,000 viewers (up 8,000), 563,000 in 18-49 (down 18,000)

WWE NXT:

Q1: Segment ft. Finn Balor, Pete Dunne, Kyle O'Reilly, Damian Priest & Scarlett/Segment with Dunne & Killian Dain ? 782,000 viewers, 231,000 in 18-49
Q2: Jake Atlas vs. Isaiah Scott/Tommaso Ciampa promo/Grizzled Young Veterans vs. Ever-Rise vs. Imperium ? 615,000 viewers (down 167,000), 183,000 in 18-49 (down 48,000)
Q3: End of Triple Threat Tag Match/War Games video/Toni Storm & Io Shirai segment ? 654,000 viewers (up 41,000), 214,000 in 18-49 (up 31,000)
Q4: Tommaso Ciampa vs. Cameron Grimes ? 600,000 viewers (down 54,000), 206,000 in 18-49 (down 8,000)
Q5: End of Ciampa vs. Grimes/Raquel Gonzalez promo/Boa & Xia Li segment ? 638,000 viewers (up 38,000), 216,000 in 18-49 (up 10,000)
Q6: Karrion Kross attacks Damian Priest/Killian Dain vs. Pete Dunne ? 675,000 viewers (up 37,000), 231,000 in 18-49 (up 15,000)
Q7: End of Dain vs. Dunne ? 644,000 viewers (down 31,000), 224,000 in 18-49 (down 7,000)
Q8: Ember Moon vs. Raquel Gonzalez ? 665,000 viewers (up 21,000), 225,000 in 18-49 (up 1,000)