SmackDown vs. Collision: WWE’s Main Roster Goes Head-to-Head With AEW For First Time Ever

Both WWE SmackDown and AEW Collision air live at 8 PM ET tonight.

November 17, 2023, 10:11am

WWE and AEW’s ratings war resumes tonight. These two wrestling giants have been duking it out since All Elite Wrestling was created in 2019, as WWE moved its developmental program, WWE NXT, from streaming to network television in the same time slot as AEW Dynamite. AEW would crush the black and gold brand on a weekly basis, beating WWE NXT in viewership 76 out of the 77 weeks that the two went head-to-head. WWE NXT has since pivoted to Tuesday nights, leaving AEW’s flagship show unopposed in its mid-week slot. That said, there are a couple of one-off occasions where the two companies air content simultaneously.

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This most recently happened on October 10th when AEW Dynamite pivoted to WWE NXT‘s Tuesday time slot due to a programming conflict with the MLB playoffs on TBS. Knowing that they would be happening at the same time, both companies supersized their programs. AEW Dynamite featured the in-ring debut of Adam Copeland while WWE NXT brought in John Cena, Cody Rhodes, and The Undertaker for cameo appearances. WWE NXT went on to win that ratings battle by over 300,000 viewers.

WWE SmackDown vs. AEW Collision Goes Down Tonight

WWE-SMACKDOWN-AEW-COLLISION-HEAD-TO-HEAD

Friday night’s alright for fighting.

With AEW Full Gear going down on Saturday, November 18th, AEW is bumping AEW Collision up one day early, airing on Friday night at 8 PM ET on TNT. That time slot is also occupied by WWE SmackDown on Fox.

This will be the first time that AEW goes head-to-head with WWE’s main roster on television for a full-length broadcast. In the past, WWE SmackDown has had a 30-minute overrun that ran simultaneously with the first half of AEW Rampage. This past August, AEW Collision aired at the same time as WWE SummerSlam on Peacock.

Both WWE SmackDown and AEW Collision are building to their own companies’ big November events. AEW Collision is the final show before AEW Full Gear while WWE SmackDown is the penultimate television broadcast ahead of WWE Survivor Series later this month.

The announced line-up for AEW Collision can be seen below…