Yesterday saw the much anticipated NBA debut of Zion Williamson for the New Orleans Pelicans in a 121–117 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on ESPN. The game had 2,357,000 average viewers and peaked at 2,777,000. This was up 88% versus last year’s comparable game and undoubtedly affected the ratings for both Dynamite and NXT.
Dynamite was taped in advance on Chris Jericho’s cruise and featured Hangman Page and Kenny Omega winning the tag titles from SCU, and Jon Moxley defeating PAC to become the #1 contender for Chris Jericho’s AEW Championship.
NXT had the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic semifinals, Toni Storm vs. Io Shirai in a no contest, Finn Balor defeating Joaquin Wilder, and Keith Lee winning the NXT North American Title from Roderick Strong.
The final ratings saw Dynamite having 871,000 average viewers down 7.3% from last week, with NXT having 769,000 average viewers, which was up 9.9%.
So while it was another victory for AEW and took the score to 14-3-1 in AEW’s favor, they will be disappointed to have decreased, although being taped and with spoilers readily available in was perhaps to be expected.
