Triple H Gives His Honest Thoughts on AEW's Television Product

NXT and AEW Dynamite have been running head-to-head since last October and whether you're looking [...]

NXT and AEW Dynamite have been running head-to-head since last October and whether you're looking at overall viewership numbers or television ratings in the key demographics, it's clear that All Elite Wrestling has been decisively winning. It's not often that WWE officials will outright comment on what the competition is doing, but during the recent Annual Shareholder's Meeting, the subject of the Jacksonville-based promotion was brought up. Triple H, who has been overseeing NXT since its creation, gave AEW's television product a strong review.

"To me, there's a moment in time when you begin something and it's very exciting and it's fresh and there's some interest in it, certainly," Hunter said. "But it's a big world. We continue to be focused on our product, continue to be focused on the development of our stars and our performers. And as Vince said earlier, we have a very long track record of doing this incredibly successfully for many, many, many years, and we will continue to do so."

In the 42 weeks since the "Wednesday Night War" began, AEW has brought in a higher 18-49 rating 41 times and a higher viewership 33 times. NXT recently got the advantage by earning more attention for their Great American Bash event compared to AEW's Fyter Fest, but Dynamite won the past two weeks outright.

But, as Cody Rhodes explained in a recent interview with TalkSport, he doesn't get too invested in the numbers.

"I think early on we were looking at it, and there's really that specialness with X amount of wrestling fans tuning in on a Wednesday night. As a big wrestling fan, what does that mean to me etc. I think now with where we're at and as we're gearing towards our next big pay-per-view, and we're gearing towards Fight for the Fallen, we really have to put our focus on having the best show. It's really easy to get caught up in the weeds with like 'for X amount of weeks we beat WWE in the ratings' or get into this wild demo discussion – if you ever catch me tweeting about the demos, please just delete my account."

Here's what both shows have announced for this week:

  • AEW World Tag Team Championships: Kenny Omega & Hangman Page vs. Stu Grayson and Evil Uno
  • AEW TNT Championship: Cody Rhodes vs. Warhorse
  • Finn Balor vs. Dexter Lumis vs. Timothy Thatcher
  • Tornado Tag Match: Jon Moxley & Darby Allin vs. Brian Cage and Ricky Starks
  • Hikaru Shida vs. Diamante
  • The Inner Circle vs. The Best Friends, Orange Cassidy, Luchasaurus and Jungle Boy
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