-- AEW Dynamite scored it’s second straight comfortable victory over NXT on USA in the live plus same-night-DVR viewership numbers last night, as measured by the Nielsen Company that samples viewership in thousands of homes around the country to estimate total viewership. AEW drew 940,000 viewers (down from 947,000 last week) and NXT drew 700,000 (down from 721,000 last week). The lead grew to 240,000, up from 226,000 last week.
The AEW cable rating of 0.68 compared to the NXT cable rating of 0.55.
In the key demo rating of 18-49 ratings, AEW outdrew NXT by a 0.38 to 0.21 margin, better than last week’s 0.36 to 0.26 margin. Among the male 18-49 demo, AEW doubled NXT’s rating – 0.51 to 0.26. Among the young male demo, AEW nearly doubled NXT – 0.29 to 0.16 margin.
Besides the strong demo numbers for AEW relative to NXT, the big reason for AEW and TNT to celebrate is they finished in the top five of all cable shows on Wednesday night the key 18-49 demo, including beating the early NBA game they went head to head with on ESPN (Philadelphia 76ers vs. Brooklyn Nets). The NBA game rounded to a 0.3 demo rating, below AEW’s rounded number o.4. AEW also outdrew the NBA game in total viewers by a slim margin of 940,000 to 934,000. The second NBA game on ESPN finished no. 1 in the 18-49 demo rankings.
If not for Rachel Maddow’s big interview with Lev Parnas on MSNBC last night, AEW would have finished no. 4. The Maddow show drew one of its better viewership totals of 4.469 million, good for no. 2 in the demo rankings and no. 1 in total viewership by a wide margin among all cable shows.
Regarding last week’s viewership (1/8), after tallying three additional days of delayed viewers, AEW drew 1,170,000 (up from 947,000) while NXT drew 899,000 (up from 721,000). AEW added 223,000 viewers; NXT added 188,000 viewers.
Two weeks ago (1/1), taking into account a full seven additional days of delayed viewers, NXT ended up with 688,000 viewers, up from 548,000 live viewers. AEW ended up with 1,228,000 viewers, up from 967,000. That was the third-best +7 day viewership Dynamite has drawn, and the best since Oct. 16. The best viewership total was for its premiere episode on Oct. 2 that drew 1.741 in the 7+ day tally.
-- For the first time since 2009, KENTA is returning to Ring of Honor.
KENTA
will be in action at Supercard of Honor XIV in Lakeland, Florida on Saturday, April 4. He's the third Bullet Club member and fourth NJPW wrestler announced for the show. It will also feature Jay White, El Phantasmo, and Will Ospreay.
Villain Enterprises (ROH World Champion PCO, Marty Scurll, Brody King & Flip Gordon), La Faccion Ingobernable (Rush, ROH Television Champion Dragon Lee, Kenny King & Amy Rose), Slex, Session Moth Martina, Jeff Cobb, and ROH Tag Team Champion Jay Lethal are also advertised for Supercard of Honor XIV.
KENTA will challenge Tetsuya Naito for both the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental titles in the main event of NJPW's the New Beginning in Osaka on Sunday, February 9.
Supercard of Honor XIV is taking place at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland and will go against NXT TakeOver: Tampa on April 4. Tickets for Supercard of Honor went on sale to the general public this morning.
The Bullet Club is also holding their Bullet Club Beach Party at Whiskey Joe’s in Tampa earlier in the day on April 4.
-- Pro Wrestling Sheet has learned Kalisto recently signed a new WWE contract extension.
Sources tell us the 33-year-old wrestler, who is currently part of Lucha House Party, has come to terms on a multi-year contract extension with WWE.
As you may recall, Kalisto tweeted last year making it known he had 10 months left on his contract and that he’d become a free agent in early 2020. The tweet caught the attention of his co-worker Braun Strowman who replied saying, “Adios.”
Sources tell us Kalisto decided to re-sign with WWE because the wrestler feels as though he still has a lot left to accomplish in the company.
Let the Lucha House Party commence!
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