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. 13 below!
Connor Casey: AEW
Full disclosure — I was at the show live so my outlook is a little biased. But that being said there was a ton to like about Dynamite this week. Moxley moving on from Omega right into a feud Darby Allin is brilliant (it cannot be understated how big of a star that guy will be), Jericho’s promo with MJF and Wardlow’s debut was a great way to move Cody’s storyline forward and that tag match at the end turned Scorpio Sky from being just a tag team wrestler to a legitimate title contender. It had a few weak spots and more squash matches than the typical episode brings, but overall it was solid.
Meanwhile NXT still feels like it’s being pulled in too many directions, and the closing moments were the perfect example. Io Shirai getting the win for her team while simultaneously adding Kay Lee Ray to the mix is great, but all of that had to be grinded to a halt so Bayley could get a little screen time and remind people about the Survivor Series match. Meanwhile the Rush vs. Garza match was fun and Swerve continues to prove he’s an outright steal for WWE, but it once again felt like the show had to spin its wheels regarding the men’s WarGames match with yet another brawl between Undisputed Era and Ciampa’s crew.
Ryan Droste: NXT
I felt that NXT won by a comfortable margin this week. Both broadcasts had some great stuff, but NXT was the more consistent show for me with the better in-ring action.
AEW got off to a bit of a slow start, with essentially three of the first four matches being non-competitive or squash matches. Moxley did have a great promo in there, though. Then, the momentum shifted with the Chris Jericho and MJF segment, which was easily the highlight of the night and so, so good. Then, the second hour of Dynamite was very good with a pretty decent PAC vs. Hangman Page match, a great brawl with the Young Bucks and Santana and Ortiz, and a good tag team championship main event. Earlier, it was great to see Luchasaurus back ahead of schedule.
NXT is benefiting from the invasion storyline going on right now with RAW and SmackDown, to an extent. I would agree with Connor that things have become a little convoluted there, though it still brings a different level of excitement to the show when you never know who is going to show up. It will be interesting to see how the NXT brand is booked (strength-wise) when it comes to the results at Survivor Series.
The Lio Rush vs. Angel Garza match that opened NXT was the best match all night between both shows by leaps and bounds and will probably be the best television match of the week all around. Just tremendous stuff. The Matt Riddle and Finn Balor brawl kept me intrigued for their match next weekend, and Keith Lee vs. Roddy Strong probably could have been better but it served as the backdrop to continue the storyline heading into War Games which is logical.
Lastly, Damien Priest is going to be a big time star if they book him right. He’s impressed me a lot ever since his days in ROH as Punishment Martinez. I loved the brawl at the end of the show after he interrupted the Pete Dunne vs. Killian Dain match (which never got started). The triple threat match between these guys at NXT TakeOver is going to be must-see.
Matt Aguilar: NXT
This was a pretty solid victory by NXT, as it built momentum from the very first match and managed to keep most of it by the end of the show. AEW had the bigger star out front in Moxley, but that match was over so quickly it barely registered, while Angel Garza and Lio Rush put on a show. Both AEW and NXT put on relatively mundane matches up next, though Xia Li vs Aliyah gets the nod here for not being the entirely too long Dark Order vs Jungle Express match (good lord).
That said, it was cool to see Luchasaurus back in action.
While Darby Allin is always a joy to watch in the ring (he’s a star folks), the match overall just wasn’t that entertaining, and it couldn’t hold a candle to Finn Balor’s promo and subsequent fight with Matt Riddle, which then featured involvement from Undisputed ERA, Keith Lee, and Tommaso Ciampa. Then we got a stellar match between Keith Lee and Roderick Strong. Following that was a fun match between Isaiah Swerve Scott and Bronson Reed.
Despite a dud from Damian Priest, Pete Dunne, and Killian Dain (sorry just can’t get into this feud), things picked up again with the crazy Ladder Match between Io Shirai and Mia Yim. While the MJF Jericho promo duel was great, the main event was just okay, and once you throw in Bayley’s ending chair shot it was just too much for AEW to overcome this week.
The Winner: NXT
Record: NXT 4, AEW 3
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!
