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 Oct. 30 below!
Connor Casey: NXT
I’ve got to go with the Black and Gold brand this week. Dynamite was far from a bad episode, but it’s highlights were all things that took place in-between matches rather than what took place in the ring. The Moxley promo, the contract signing, Justin Roiland’s voice showing up, Ortiz and Santana jumping the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express, Kenny’s Undertale entrance, all of that stuff was great. But the matches themselves felt like filler, which is a surprise given how next week is the go-home show for Full Gear. The one exception is the main event, which I had absolutely zero problems with. The ending came as a surprise, and it made sense given how SCU’s road to the championship told a complete story throughout the tournament.
Meanwhile there was very little I didn’t like about NXT. Io vs. Candice delivered once again, we finally got a solid match involving the women’s tag titles, Bate vs. Grimes felt like we’re leading to something involving British Strong Style and the tag match at the end was a ton of fun. Plus, after weeks of asking for it, the show finally advanced the plot towards TakeOver: WarGames with two WarGames matches being announced.
Ryan Droste: NXT
AEW, while still a good show, I thought was their weakest offering since starting on TNT. As Connor said, most of the good stuff was between matches. I found my mind wandering for the first time during a Dynamite broadcast at times. I thought the main event was good, but the finish came out of nowhere and left the crowd a little flat. It felt like they realized they were almost out of television time and just “went home” with little psychology or reason. I’m fine with SCU as the choice, they’ve told a good story throughout, though the Lucha Brothers are the more over team at the moment. Other highlights this week were Moxley and Omega’s stellar entrance.
Another strong outing for WWE NXT this week. The show started with a bang as Io Shirai’s entrance with Poppy was phenomenal, and the match with Candice LeRae was very good. In fact, I really felt the women carried this edition of NXT as the Women’s Tag Team Championship match later in the show was also excellent. One week after a great main event match, we got another pretty good one this week with Matt Riddle and Keith Lee really standing out. The only thing on this show that left me wanting more was Finn Balor’s promo. If you read last week’s column, you know I was super high on his turn, nudging me toward giving the NXT the victory last week in what was a very close week between the two companies. However, I felt Balor’s promo left a little to be desired and was just “okay.” We’ll see what they do next week.
For the time being, though, NXT pulled out their second victory in a row over AEW in the Wednesday Night War, in my opinion.
Matt Aguilar: NXT
This one’s not even close, and it’s NXT all the way. NXT set the pace early with a great match between Io Shirai and Candice LeRae, followed by another surprising match between Bronson Reed and Shane Thorne. The pace stayed upbeat thanks to a fantastic match between Tegan Nox and Dakota Kai vs the Kabuki Warriors, and that’s a matchup I’d watch again in a heartbeat.
Having that already stellar match feed right into a big announcement for WarGames was a perfect move, and this quickly becomes one of the most anticipated matches on the card. They brought things to an impactful end with Matt Riddle and Keith Lee vs Undisputed ERA, and when you factor in Finn Balor’s stellar promo this was just too good a show to fall to AEW this week.
AEW wasn’t a bad show by any means to be fair, but whether it was Adam Page vs Sammy Guevara or Shida Hikaru vs Shanna or Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks vs Jack Evans, Angelico and Kip Sabian, no match rose above what NXT Had to offer. The promos were fine, but nothing spectacular either, and overall this was just a solid but not spectacular episode.
The Winner: NXT
Record: NXT 3, AEW 2
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!
