Wednesday night's episode of WWE NXT on USA Network saw its viewership rise compared to last week with no competition from All Elite Wrestling.

According to Bryan Alvarez of F4WOnline.com, NXT averaged 853,000 viewers during its two-hour broadcast, which was up from last week's 619,000 viewers.

This week's viewership marked NXT's highest single-week audience since Nov. 20, 2019's show, which drew 916,000. 

There was no episode of AEW Dynamite on Wednesday because of the NBA playoffs. Instead, Dynamite will air on Saturday this week. With Dynamite off, the focus was solely on NXT and the build toward NXT TakeOver: XXX on Saturday.

The key segment on Wednesday's show was a face-to-face confrontation between former NXT champion Adam Cole and former Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee. In an effort to combat Cole and Undisputed Era, McAfee came out with some friends of his own, including former NFL defensive back Darius Butler and linebacker A.J. Hawk.

McAfee cut a scathing promo against Cole and proved he had the chops needed to be in the wrestling business in that regard. Security tried to step in at one point when it started to get heated, but Cole laid them all out.

Cole ended the segment by vowing to beat and embarrass McAfee at TakeOver: XXX in a match that should have no shortage of mainstream attention.

There were also two matches with major implications for TakeOver in the form of Johnny Gargano vs. Ridge Holland and the main event of Finn Balor vs. Velveteen Dream. The winners of those matches qualified for the North American Championship ladder match at TakeOver.

Gargano beat Holland in the first match despite getting dropped on his head as part of a scary spot, while Dream beat Balor in the main event after Timothy Thatcher showed up and took out Balor.

Dream and Gargano will join Bronson Reed, Damian Priest and Cameron Grimes in the ladder match, which is guaranteed to crown a new North American champion.

Also on the show, Dakota Kai beat Jessi Kamea and then beat down NXT women's champion Io Shirai with help from the returning Raquel Gonzalez. Legado del Fantasma beat Breezango and Isaiah "Swerve" Scott in a six-man tag team match, and the team of Rhea Ripley and Shotzi Blackheart beat Mercedes Martinez and Aliyah.

The main event of Saturday's NXT TakeOver: XXX features Keith Lee defending the NXT Championship against Karrion Kross.

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