Welcome to the latest edition of Who Won The Week?, the series where ComicBook.com’s team of wrestling writers come together and vote on which Wednesday night wrestling show put on a better episode — NXT or AEW Dynamite? We then tally up the score and declare the winner for the week, then check out the fan poll results. Be sure to check back every week, as we’ll be keeping score on who wins and who has the advantage in the “Wednesday Night Wars.”
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A couple things to keep in mind — these votes have nothing to do with television ratings. Just because one show had more viewers doesn’t necessarily make it the better episode. Also this isn’t to determine which one show you should watch each week. We want you to watch both of them so you can join in on the conversation!
Check out the results for Nov. 6 below!
Connor Casey: AEW Dynamite
NXT started off white hot with that O.C. invasion, but by the end of the night I had a lot of nitpicks about the show. Kai vs. Baszler was a little too short, Conti vs. Garrett was just flat-out bad, Dunne vs. Priest felt like the same 50/50 booking we decry on Raw/SmackDown and while the main event was fun the non-finish felt like it was pulled straight out of a Raw script. I’m still incredibly hyped for WarGames, but I’m starting to worry that NXT’s involvement in Survivor Series is forcing the show to juggle too many storylines at once.
Meanwhile, holy hell did Dynamite deliver a good go-home show. Between the Rhodes’ jaw-dropping promo, Jericho’s hilarious parody video package (Soul Train Jones!) and that brawl at the end, the show did a perfect job of getting people excited for Full Gear on Saturday. The episode itself wasn’t perfect (what the heck happened with that PAC vs. Trent finish?) but it did exactly what a go-home episode of television is supposed to do.
Ryan Droste: AEW Dynamite
Another week and another very tough decision. After two weeks in a row of NXT taking home the bacon, I’m gonna have to go with AEW this week.
The Dynamite crowd in Charlotte was HOT and they got a very good go-home show for this Saturday’s Full Gear PPV event in Baltimore. While both shows this week were winners, AEW had the best moment of the night with Cody Rhodes’ promo for his championship match with Chris Jericho this Saturday. If you haven’t seen it, you need to go back and watch it right now. It was a textbook example of how to sell a pro wrestling world championship match. It’s even garnered some big time praise from The Rock this morning.
The rest of AEW was highlighted by an absolutely hilarious Chris Jericho vignette and an awesome brawl to end the show. They also opened hot with a really good match between Trent and PAC. In between we had a good tag team match to determine the third participant in this Saturday’s triple threat tag team title match (hello, Private Party), as well as a good women’s tag team match. The only place the show was lacking was the Shawn Spears versus Brand Cutler match. Spears just hasn’t really connected during his AEW run to this point.
NXT had the second best moment of the week in their closing minutes when AJ Styles and Finn Balor teased a Bullet Club reunion (well, they were part of a different Bullet Club eras, but you know what I mean). In general, seeing Styles and the rest of The OC invading NXT made for a memorable show. I also enjoyed Tommaso Ciampa’s continued role as NXT’s resident Steve Austin, a very good Priest/Dunne match, Baszler/Kai having a good bout as the best women’s division in wrestling continues to shine, and of course the main event between The OC and Ciampa, Keith Lee, and Matt Riddle.
Really, you can’t go wrong this week and should probably go out of your way to watch both shows, but I’ll stick with AEW by the slimmest of margins.
Matt Aguilar: NXT
AEW put up a strong showing this week, much better than last week’s show, but this wasn’t really a contest, as NXT just had more momentum throughout the two hours. Right from the opening minutes the Survivors Series invasion angle was already being utilized in a huge way, with AJ Styles and The OC coming into NXT’s ring. While AEW kicked off with a match between PAC and Trent, it just didn’t hold a candle to the excitement of NXT’s invasion angle, which they followed up with a stellar bout between Pete Dunne and Damian Priest.
While NXT’s next match stumbled a bit, AEW would deliver one of the best parts of the show with Cody’s amazing promo on Chris Jericho, and you can’t help but give Rhodes props for such a stellar performance. Thing is, NXT had some stellar wrestling too, as Dakota Kai’s match against Shayna Baszler was a very pleasant surprise, with Kai showing an edge and grit that we definitely want to see more of. That match also ended in wonderful chaos with Mia Yim and a Kendo Stick capping off a great segment.
Both shows had killer main events, but NXT was able to continue and stoke the fires leading up to that main event in a way AEW didn’t, and because of that when chaos broke out and a flood of superstars hit the ring in the final moments, it resonated far more than Dynamite, and they did that twice throughout the episode for both divisions. NXT wins the week as a result.
The Winner: AEW Dynamite
Record: NXT 3, AEW 3
Fan Poll Results:
Do you agree with this week’s results? Sound off in the comments section and be sure to cast your vote in next week’s poll!
