AEW Dynamite Beats NXT for Jan. 22 Viewership Despite Being Taped

Even though AEW Dynamite wasn’t live this week, the show still managed to bring in a higher viewership and rating than NXT for Jan. 22. The show saw a slight dip from last week going from 940,000 to 871,000 (and a .35 rating), but it still outperformed NXT’s 769,000 viewers (and 0.24 rating). Unlike a typical arena, the show took place on the “Chris Jericho Rock ‘N’ Wrestling Rager at Sea: Part Deux” wrestling cruise, and the new environment played a role throughout the episode. The show saw a title change hands for the first time in company history when Kenny Omega & Hangman Page beat SCU for the AEW World Tag Team Championships, and solidified a future AEW World Championship match between Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley when the latter beat PAC in the main event.

Meanwhile over on NXT Keith Lee finally brought the Undisputed Prophecy to an end when he beat Roderick Strong to become the new NXT North American Champion. But the Undisputed Era’s woes didn’t stop there, as a distraction by Imperium helped the Grizzled Young Veterans beat Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish, eliminating them from the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic.

Here’s what the two shows have booked for next week:

• Chris Jericho, Santana & Ortiz vs. Darby Allin and Private Party
• Cody Rhodes vs. Kip Sabian
• The Young Bucks vs. The Butcher & The Blade
• Broserweights (Matt Riddle & Pete Dunne) vs. Grizzled Young Veterans (Zack Gibson & James Drake) — Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Finals
• Tegan Nox vs. Dakota Kai

WWE’s NXT and NXT UK brands will go head-to-head this Saturday night at Houston’s Toyota Center with the Worlds Collide event. Check out the card for that below:

• Imperium vs. The Undisputed Era
• NXT (Women’s) Championship: Rhea Ripley vs. Toni Storm
• NXT Cruiserweight Championship: Angel Garza vs. Isaiah Scott vs. Jordan Devlin vs. Travis Banks
• DIY vs. Moustache Mountain
• Finn Balor vs. Ilja Dragunov
• Kay Lee Ray vs. Mia Ym

The following night will see the 33rd annual Royal Rumble take place at Minute Maid Park. Here’s the card (so far) for that:

• WWE Universal Championship: Bray Wyatt vs. Daniel Bryan (Strap Match)
• Raw Women’s Championship: Becky Lynch vs. Asuka
• United States Championship: Andrade vs. Humberto Carrollo
• SmackDown Women’s Championship: Bayley vs. Lacey Evans
• Roman Reigns vs. King Corbin (Falls Count Anywhere)
• Shorty G vs. Sheamus
• Men’s Royal Rumble (Roman Reigns, Brock Lesnar, AJ Styles, Erick Rowan, Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio, Ricochet, Drew McIntyre, Elias, King Corbin, Dolph Ziggler, Otis, Tucker, Rusev, Bobby Lashley, Aleister Black, Buddy Murphy, Braun Strowman, Shinsuke Nakamura, Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe, Kofi Kingston, Big E, R-Truth, TBA
• Women’s Royal Rumble (Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, Nikki Cross, Sarah Logan, Natalya, TBA)