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Chris Jericho Says AEW Made NXT Go 'Screaming and Yelling Away from Wednesdays'

Paul Kasabian

AEW wrestler Chris Jericho spoke with Alfred Konuwa of Forbes about a number of topics in an interview published Wednesday morning, including the Wednesday Night Wars between AEW Dynamite and WWE NXT.

Those ratings battles are now over with WWE NXT moving to Tuesday nights. Per Konuwa, AEW secured more overall viewers 63 times to WWE NXT's 10 since the two began going head-to-head in October 2019.

Jericho provided some thoughts on the competition, including noting that AEW "wanted to drive [WWE NXT] screaming and yelling away from Wednesdays and we did that."

“I know WWE NXT was watching our stuff during their show, but this was not a war that we were ever asking for, we were kind of thrust into it by proxy. The reason why we won it and won it so handily, is we never worried about what anybody else was doing, we just worried about our own show.”

“I think the best thing about being unopposed, is now people don’t have to decide. There’s been a lot of shows that we’ve done with some great segments and some great moments that might have been missed because people were switching back and forth.”

He added: "Of course we’re competitive. Yes, we wanted to beat NXT. Yes, we wanted to drive them screaming and yelling away from Wednesdays and we did that."

Per Pro Wrestling News Hub, AEW defeated WWE in viewership each week from Nov. 4, 2020, until last Wednesday.

WWE NXT ran on Tuesdays for nine years before moving to Wednesdays in 2019. The program began going head-to-head with AEW: Dynamite on Oct. 2, 2019.

However, that Wednesday stint ended on April 7 with the first night of NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver. WWE NXT won the ratings battle that night before moving to Tuesdays this week.

The initial move to Tuesdays has been positive for NXT, with 805,000 viewers tuning in after the shift back, per Bryan Alvarez of Figure Four Online/Wrestling Observer. That marks the highest viewership for the program since Oct. 28, 2020.

   

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