The Wednesday Night War continues, though the tide has turned in recent weeks with NXT finally beating All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite. Thus far, there's no way of knowing what's changed, though the absence of Jon Moxley due to COVID-19 could be a contributing factor, as is the rise of Keith Lee in WWE.
The NXT North American Champion became NXT Champion last Wednesday when he defeated Adam Cole, and even though the result was leaked in advance, NXT still received more overall viewers that AEW (though not in those all-important key demographics).
Now, Lee has weighed in on that, and despite his well-deserved win being a bid to counter-program AEW, he admits that it's not something he thinks about.
"Honestly? I don’t even really think about that. It’s nice to have competition in general, but I’m always competing with myself," he explains. "So it isn’t really about anyone else. It’s for Keith Lee to go out and do the best that Keith Lee can and if Keith Lee did good, how much better can Keith Lee do the next time? That’s literally my own mantra. There’s always competing with yourself. I love competition, but 99.9 percent it’s against myself. I do believe competition is good for everybody, but for me specifically, it’s good for myself [laughs]."
That's fair, and it's likely just those working behind the scenes who really stress about ratings. However, for AEW's stars, they no doubt want to put on the best show possible to secure that big viewership win and establish the company as an alternative to WWE.
What do you guys think?