Any “victory” in the Wednesday Night Wars was hollow at best
Ever since the Monday Night Wars between WWE and WCW, pro wrestling has been trying to recapture the energy of those days gone by.
The most recent attempt was the Wednesday Night Wars which pitted WWE’s NXT against AEW’s flagship series Dynamite. And AEW even recently declared victory in the battle as NXT vacated their Wednesday time slot for a new one on Tuesdays.
But victory in the Wednesday Night Wars looks a lot different than it did in the Monday Night Wars. In reality, calling it a “victory” is a marketing gimmick and a functionally pointless one by anyone’s standards.
The Monday Night Wars
For a lot of wrestling fans, the battle for supremacy between WWE and WCW was the best time in wrestling. The phrase “Monday Night Wars” refers specifically to their respective flagships television shows, WWE Raw and WCW Nitro, which aired opposite each other on Mondays.
Their battle for ratings was fueled by a multi-year game of one-upmanship between the two companies. This era saw multiple wrestlers switching sides as well as producers, writers and other staff behind the scenes. It was an interesting era, to say the least.
Related Story. Orange Cassidy is the AEW Double or Nothing MVP. light
WCW dominated the WWE for 83 weeks in the ratings, largely thanks to their incredibly popular nWo faction and storylines. WWE answered back by launching an Attitude Era, which featured the rise of superstars like Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, The Undertaker, and Chris Jericho.
The whole thing came to an end when WCW had deep internal problems, which WWE took advantage of. The end result was WWE buying out WCW, taking hold of all of their assets for a surprisingly small amount of money.
The Wednesday Night Wars
On the other hand, the Wednesday Night Wars were far less dramatic. While NXT has grown over the years, it is still perceived as WWE’s developmental brand. It’s where most new superstars build their names and reputations in WWE before jumping to the main roster.
AEW was a much different situation. In an attempt to offer fans an option to WWE, AEW launched it’s debut TV program in 2019. Making a bold statement, Dynamite popped up on TNT on Wednesday evening, in direct opposition to NXT.
In response, WWE extended NXT from one hour to two and moved it from the WWE Network to the USA Network. The intention was to make it a bigger and better show, which was true to an extent. That being said, it took NXT a while to find its footing and return to form.
In the ratings, AEW definitely got the better of the Wednesday Night Wars, though not by much some weeks. The confrontation came to an end in April 2021 when WWE moved NXT to Tuesday nights immediately after WrestleMania 37.
Nowhere near as entertaining
Simply put, the so-called Wednesday Night Wars will not be remembered as being as impactful an era on pro wrestling as the Monday Night Wars were. No matter what some fans think, NXT and Dynamite in their time were not operating on the level of Raw and Nitro in that time.
More than that, the Monday Night Wars were a natural evolution of a long-standing intercompany rivalry. The Wednesday Night Wars felt more like a forced marketing gimmick designed to hype fans in an era when wrestling gets a lot lower ratings than it used to.
AEW honestly didn’t do itself any favors by picking a fight with NXT right off the bat. They certainly won the ratings war, but doing so also hit them. Once their competition moved nights, AEW’s ratings jumped quite dramatically. AEW cost themselves numbers by chasing cheap heat.
Next. WWE: 5 NXT/NXT UK acts for Raw and Smackdown. dark
NXT has unquestionably been more on their game since moving nights. And AEW has been doing better business since then, as well. The Wednesday Night Wars will be remembered as nothing more than a bad marketing gimmick that distracted everyone from good wrestling.