AEW Dynamite’s Blood & Guts special outdrew WWE NXT by 240,000 viewers on Wednesday, November 4, even though NXT’s go-home episode was loaded with appearances from John Cena, CM Punk and Cody Rhodes, according to figures reported by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer and cited by Fightful.
Dynamite’s Blood & Guts episode drew 792,000 viewers on TBS, a notable jump from the 620,000 viewers the show pulled on October 28. The November 4 audience also posted a 0.24 rating in the advertiser-friendly 18-49 demographic, according to Wrestling News. Viewership figures for AEW’s HBO Max streaming audience were not available, meaning the full scope of the show’s reach beyond linear television remains unknown.
WWE countered with a stacked NXT lineup that included Cena, Punk and Rhodes, three of the most recognizable names in the industry, in an apparent effort to draw eyes away from AEW’s signature blood-feud gimmick match. Despite that star power, NXT still finished behind Dynamite in the head-to-head ratings battle, according to ProWrestling.net’s Jason Powell, who covered the NXT rating breakdown for the November 4 show.
Blood & Guts is AEW’s answer to WarGames, a structure gimmick match built around escalating stipulations inside a double-ring, steel-caged structure, and the promotion has historically used the match as a key attraction to boost viewership during competitive windows against WWE programming. The result on November 4 suggests the match concept retained its drawing power even when pitted against a WWE roster leaning on three of its biggest stars in Cena, Punk and Rhodes.
The head-to-head numbers add another data point to the ongoing Wednesday night ratings battle between AEW and WWE’s developmental brand, a rivalry that has persisted since NXT shifted to Tuesday and then back into direct competition with Dynamite on select dates. Neither Fightful, Wrestling News nor ProWrestling.net indicated whether the specific roles played by Cena, Punk or Rhodes on the NXT broadcast were matches, segments or appearances, so further detail on their exact involvement was not confirmed in the reporting.
