AEW and NXT Wednesday Night Wars: 3 winners of night #3

After another night of exhilarating pro wrestling courtesy of AEW and NXT, it’s time to once again look at who stood out the most.

With week three of NXT and All Elite Wrestling (AEW): Dynamite in the books, it’s time once again to reflect on the best that both shows offered fan this past Wednesday. And by “reflect”, I mean pick three wrestlers/teams/factions/announcers/referees/vendors/whomever and give them some love for their efforts in the ring or on the mic.

Much like Seth Rollins literally did to Bray Wyatt’s house on last Monday’s RAW (shouldn’t he be arrested for arson and attempted murder?), these individuals figuratively burned the house down and set themselves apart from the everyone else, which isn’t easy considering the quality of both shows.

I’ll get to those lucky folks in a moment, but first, here are some honorable mentions:

Chris Jericho: Jericho’s promo announcing Santana & Ortiz’s match against The Young Bucks at Full Gear was more of the high-quality stick work fans have grown accustomed to. Then, he and Darby Allin put together a pretty good AEW Championship main event that ended with a Jake Hager distraction and a submission victory via The Walls of Jericho.

Kenny Omega: Omega spent his birthday week doing what he does best: wrestling. “The Best Bout Machine” followed up his entertaining Unsanctioned Match with Joey Janela with a tremendous tag team encounter, where he teamed with “Hangman” Adam Page to beat John Moxley and PAC.

Shayna Baszler: Baszler’s title reign is as stale as month-old bread, but her promo on the returning Tegan Nox — who beat Taynara Conti before Baszler made her entrance — showed everyone why she’s still one of the best heels in the industry. It was more of the same bullying tactics, but the line where Baszler told Nox that she’s “running out of limbs to rehab” put it over the top.

Io Shirai: As I’ve said before, every day this woman isn’t NXT Women’s Champion is a day wasted. Following another impressive showcase win, Shirai staked her claim to a title shot, which drew out Rhea Ripley and got fans and yours truly excited about a singles match between these two. Also, it’s a small thing, by the NXT writers should avoid having white wrestlers talk about putting their black or non-white contemporaries “in their place” as Ripley did when discussing Bianca Belair in her promo.