Origins
2000s–2010s: Post-Monday Night War
After the "Monday Night War", with the bankruptcy and subsequent acquisitions of both World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), WWE became the dominant professional wrestling company in the United States. In 2008, WWE began to take a family-oriented approach, in which all of its programming received a rating of TV-PG.[3]
In 2010, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), which targets an adult audience, moved their flagship, weekly series, Impact!, to Monday nights on Spike TV opposite Raw from January to May 2010.[4] Impact! suffered from low ratings and ultimately returned to their regular Thursday night timeslot on May 13, 2010.[5][6]
The move itself was panned by critics and viewers. In the tenth anniversary reprint of R.D. Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez's Death of WCW, the authors compared the move to the original Monday Night War, writing that TNA did not have the audience that WCW did, pointing out that WCW Saturday Night typically did better than WWE shows did in the weekend timeslots. Reynolds and Alvarez also wrote that TNA did not have the financial resources that WCW did.[7]
2012: NXT's revamp
In 2012, WWE NXT was revamped to focus exclusively on its developmental talent, with FCW (WWE's former developmental territory) being relaunched under the NXT brand.[8][9][10] NXT became a webcast on WWE's official website, before later airing on Hulu [11] and the WWE Network. [12] During this period Triple H took charge of NXT.[13]
On January 10, 2018, Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks, members of the stable known as The Elite, announced an independent event called All In, which was scheduled for September 1 of that year at the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.[19] Tickets for the event went on sale on May 13, and sold out in less than 30 minutes.[20] The event was attended by 11,263 people, making it the first event in North America not held by WWE or WCW to sell 10,000 tickets or more since 1993. Four months after All In, Cody, The Young Bucks, and “Hangman” Adam Page left New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Ring of Honor and announced plans to start a new wrestling promotion.[21][22] The promotion, which became known as All Elite Wrestling (AEW), began operations on January 1, 2019, and announced that its first event, Double or Nothing, would be held on May 25 of that year.[23]
2019: NXT's move to USA Network
In August 2019, it was announced that NXT would be moving to USA Network, marking the show's first broadcast on USA Network since December 20, 2017, and expanding the program to a live, two-hour format.[25] Critics felt that the move was an attempt to counterprogram Dynamite, which would premiere two weeks later. NXT premiered on USA Network on September 18, 2019.[26][27] However, due to scheduling overlap with the final episodes of original series Suits, only the first hour of NXT was broadcast on USA Network for its first two weeks while the second hour was shown on WWE Network.[28] In its first two weeks, NXT drew 1.179 and 1.006[29][30]
2000s–2010s: Post-Monday Night War
After the "Monday Night War", with the bankruptcy and subsequent acquisitions of both World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), WWE became the dominant professional wrestling company in the United States. In 2008, WWE began to take a family-oriented approach, in which all of its programming received a rating of TV-PG.[3]
In 2010, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), which targets an adult audience, moved their flagship, weekly series, Impact!, to Monday nights on Spike TV opposite Raw from January to May 2010.[4] Impact! suffered from low ratings and ultimately returned to their regular Thursday night timeslot on May 13, 2010.[5]
2012: NXT's revamp
In 2012, WWE NXT was revamped to focus exclusively on its developmental talent, with FCW (WWE's former developmental territory) being relaunched under the NXT brand.[8][9][10] NXT became a webcast on WWE's official website, before later airing on Hulu [11] and the WWE Network. [12] During this period Triple H took charge of NXT.[13]
On January 10, 2018, Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks, members of the stable known as The Elite, announced an independent event called All In, which was scheduled for September 1 of that year at the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.[19] Tickets for the event went on sale on May 13, and sold out in less than 30 minutes.[20] The event was attended by 11,263 people, making it the first event in North America not held by WWE or WCW to sell 10,000 tickets or more since 1993. Four months after All In, Cody, The Young Bucks, and “Hangman” Adam Page left New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Ring of Honor and announced plans to start a new wrestling promotion.[21][22] The promotion, which became known as All Elite Wrestling (AEW), began operations on January 1, 2019, and announced that its first event, Double or Nothing, would be held on May 25 of that year.[23]
2019: NXT's move to USA Network
In August 2019, it was announced that NXT would be moving to USA Network, marking the show's first broadcast on USA Network since December 20, 2017, and expanding the program to a live, two-hour format.[25] Critics felt that the move was an attempt to counterprogram Dynamite, which would premiere two weeks later. NXT premiered on USA Network on September 18, 2019.[26][27] However, due to scheduling overlap with the final episodes of original series Suits, only the first hour of NXT was broadcast on USA Network for its first two weeks while the second hour was shown on WWE Network.[28] In its first two weeks, NXT drew 1.179 and 1.006[29][30]
Wednesday Night Wars
2019: The debut of Dynamite
On October 2, 2019, Dynamite debuted on TNT, which averaged 1.409 million viewers and approximately 878,000 viewers in 18-49. This number was touted by TNT as the most successful premiere show in over 5 years for TNT. According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the first 15 minutes of Dynamite was watched by a whopping 1.625 million viewers and 1.015 million in 18-49. NXT made their full two-hour debut on USA Network on the same night, which averaged 891,000 viewers and 415,000 in 18-49.[31] Dynamite beat NXT in the ratings among both viewers in the 18–49 range and total viewers for its first seven episodes. NXT began to gain ground when WWE announced that the brand's wrestlers would compete at that year's Survivor Series, officially endorsing NXT as WWE's "third brand".[32] Competitors from the NXT brand went on to win three of the five triple-threat matches at the pay-per-view, which saw NXT Women's Champion Shayna Baszler defeat Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch and SmackDown Women's Champion Bayley in the main event.[33]
2019: The debut of Dynamite
On October 2, 2019, Dynamite debuted on TNT, which averaged 1.409 million viewers and approximately 878,000 viewers in 18-49. This number was touted by TNT as the most successful premiere show in over 5 years for TNT. According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the first 15 minutes of Dynamite was watched by a whopping 1.625 million viewers and 1.015 million in 18-49. NXT made their full two-hour debut on USA Network on the same night, which averaged 891,000 viewers and 415,000 in 18-49.[31] Dynamite beat NXT in the ratings among both viewers in the 18–49 range and total viewers for its first seven episodes. NXT began to gain ground when WWE announced that the brand's wrestlers would compete at that year's Survivor Series, officially endorsing NXT as WWE's "third brand".[32] Competitors from the NXT brand went on to win three of the five triple-threat matches at the pay-per-view, which saw NXT Women's Champion Shayna Baszler defeat Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch and SmackDown Women's Champion Bayley in the main event.[33][34]
2020: Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
Both NXT and Dynamite began broadcasting empty arena shows in March 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Both shows stopped touring and started broadcasting from fixed venues. NXT was broadcast initially from Full Sail University and later, from October 2020, the WWE Performance Center. Dynamite was initially held at Daily's Place, an amphitheater adjacent to TIAA Bank Field. AEW later taped shows at the Nightmare Factory training facility in Norcross, Georgia, in late March and early April, taping up to six weeks of episodes preparing for that year's Double or Nothing pay-per-view. As live sports were allowed to resume in the Jacksonville area by early May, AEW returned to Daily's Place, which became AEW's home base for over a year.[37] For the 18 months head to head Dynamite would be beat NXT in mostly every Demographic except people over the age of 50 which NXT had a wider margin over Dynamite and helped score a handful of wins in Total Viewers. During the latter half of 2020 NXT’s P18-49 (Which Networks and Advertisers prioritise) began to weaken while Dynamite’s was only increasing. Which led to beginning talks about NXT possibly moving to a different night.
2021: NXT moves to Tuesday and end of the Wednesday Night Wars
On March 30, 2021, it was reported that NXT would move to Tuesday nights on April 13, 2021. In January, USA Network's parent company, NBCUniversal, announced it would shut down NBCSN by the end of the year, with certain sport programming rights moving to USA and streaming service Peacock.[38][39] WWE confirmed the move to Tuesdays as part of a multi-year renewal agreement.[40] The move to Tuesday nights brought an end to the Wednesday Night Wars.
Following the end of the Wednesday Night Wars, both programs benefitted in the Nielsen ratings without the direct competition. NXT's April 13 episode averaged 805,000 viewers with a 0.22 rating in the 18-49 demographic. This viewership number was an increase from the 768,000 viewers who tuned into night one of the NXT special NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver the previous Wednesday.[41]
