Wednesday Night War Week 6 Review
Welcome to the first ever Wednesday Night War review. This will cover both AEW and NXT each week as they go head to head. Both shows will be compared and the winner of the week will be decided. The shows will be broken down in different segments, starting with the opener, followed by the women’s division segments, then the tag division segments, into the men’s division segments, and ending with the show’s closer. Overall impact of the show will also be considered. Let’s get started with week 6 of the Wednesday Night War.
Show Opener
AEW
This week’s episode of AEW Dynamite opened with a match between PAC and Trent. This match was a weird choice to start the show. Last week we saw the show open when “Hangman” Adam Page fought Sammy Guevara to start the show and then cut a promo on PAC afterwards. This week PAC fought Trent to start the show and then cut a promo on Page afterwards. It was basically the opposite of last week’s start. This was a solid match but proves again that AEW has a hard time finding something good to start their show with.
NXT
Of course NXT is the king of starting shows. They always try to start with a bang to kick off the show and they did not fail this week. The show began with The OC doing their own invasion on Full Sail. AJ got in the ring with Gallows and Anderson and cut a promo talking about how it was his first time in NXT(neither Styles, Gallows or Anderson went to NXT when they signed with WWE). Ciampa then came out and had a war of words with Styles. After this battle on the mic, Keith Lee and Matt Riddle entered to set up for a big 6-man tag match to end the show. This was a fantastic way to start off the show. It drew people in and made them want to watch all two hours.
Winner: NXT
Women’s Division
AEW
If you read my weekly AEW reviews, you’ll know I really am not a fan of their women’s division. Tonight added to that. The only women’s match was a tag team match: Sakura and Hayter vs Shanna and Riho. This match can be described in one word: long. I was completely lost by the end. All sense of caring went out after about ten minutes. Of course all four women in this match are amazing wrestlers and very talented. This is simply a problem with how the women are being booked. Now onto a women’s division I really enjoy.
NXT
After going off on how bad the AEW women’s division is, let me discuss how great the NXT women are. Although Taynara vs Santana wasn’t that amazing, Kai vs Shayna was another good match to add to Shayna’s reign. Afterwards was where the best of the segment came. As the Horsewomen began to beat up Kai, team Ripley came out to help her. Team Baszler was soon to follow as they quickly turned the tide and had control on team Ripley. Mia Yim then made her entrance and beat Io senseless with a kendo stick, becoming the final member of team Ripley. Yeah, that’s better than AEW.
Winner: NXT
Tag Division
AEW
This will be short and simple. Private Party will get a shot at the AEW tag championship. That’s all.
NXT
The only tag match tonight was the 6-man tag match between the OC and Ciampa, Riddle and Lee. This match will be discussed more when I compare the ending of the shows. Although good, the majority of its best parts came after the match.
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Winner: AEW
Men’s Division
AEW
There weren’t many singles matches tonight. The ones that there were did not impress me. The one thing that did impress me, however, was Cody’s promo. I’ll leave a link at the end of the paragraph to this fantastic promo. This was easily promo of the year. That’s all I’m going to say about it. Just watch the thing.
NXT
NXT had a plethora of singles matches tonight for the men. The first was a hard hitting match between Dunne and Priest, with Dain attacking afterwards. We saw a number one contenders match for the NXT Cruiserweight Championship when Angel Garza defeated former champ Tony Nese. There was also Dominik Dijakovic defeating Isiah “Swerve” Scott. These were all very good matches. BUT, they were normal NXT matches. Yes NXT had much better matches than AEW tonight. Match talent isn’t always the winning factor.
Winner: Cod- I mean AEW
Shows Closer
AEW
Dynamite ended with a tag match as Kenny Omega and “Hangman” Adam Page took on Le Champion Chris Jericho and The Spanish God Sammy Guevara. Who cares about the match let’s skip to the finish. This finish was insane. It first started with PAC attacking Page while the ref couldn’t see, allowing for Jericho to get the pin. Jericho, Guevara and Hager then beat up Page before Cody came out to help.
As Jericho and Hager were backing up on the ramp, MJF attacked them both with a chair. Cody then hit Jericho with a Cross Rhodes in the ring. Moxley then made his way to the ring with a barb wire laced bat. Him and Kenny stared each other down with Mox holding his bat and the Cleaner holding his broom. Santana and Ortiz were beating up both Mox and Omega when the Young Bucks entered. It was basically an all out brawl to end the show setting up for Full Gear this Saturday.
NXT
Similar to AEW, the gold brand ended their show with a tag match as the OC took on Ciampa, Riddle and Lee. As I said when discussing AEW, let’s get to the ending. It began with Styles setting up for the Phenomonal Forearm. Lee then interfered and sent Styles crashing into the referee. Ciampa then grabbed Styles for the Fairy Tale Ending when Finn Balor made his entrance. Balor hit Riddle with a DDT at ringside and Styles with a Styles Clash on Ciampa in the ring. Adam Cole then came out from the crowd and superkicked Styles into oblivion.
The show ended with Cole staring down Finn Balor. This was different than AEW’s huge brawl ending. There’s still two more episodes to go until Wargames and Survivor Series so this was storytelling instead of guys just beating the crap out of each other. This also left me wanting more. Is Balor part of the OC? Will the OC be in Wargames? Who is the fourth member of Ciampa’s Wargames team? I just care more about this ending.