After having to split their time, their screens, and their attention between a loaded NXT show featuring a half-dozen main roster WWE stars and a strong AEW card featuring a commercial-free match between Bryan Danielson and Swerve Strickland, a promo segment with MJF, and the in-ring debut of the “Rated-R Superstar” Adam Copeland, fans waited with bated breath to see which promotion would win the ratings battle.

Well, as it turns out, fans didn't have to wait long, as, according to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, NXT came out on top, securing a clean and decisive win over AEW's A show, albeit on another night, by a margin of 921,000 to 609,000.

With fans all over the place in the comments section, with some taking victory laps and others fielding conspiracy theories, Meltzer provided some much-needed context on the number, even if it did little to squash the opinions around the wrestling world.

“Great number for NXT,” Dave Meltzer wrote on social media. “Really the most impressive number they ever did, but it should have been because they never had a show with anywhere near the star power. But they had great numbers with strong opposition.”

Adding additional context to the story, Meltzer noted that, despite having playoff baseball and the opening night of the NHL season as competition, NXT and AEW still finished out the night second and third on cable, which is good news for the potency of professional wrestling in 2023.

Eric Bischoff explains why WWE really stacked NXT's card.

After watching AEW and NXT load up their respective cards in order to produce one of the best single nights of professional wrestling television fans have been afforded in some time, fans wondered if WWE was worried about losing out to Tony Khan's company and, as a result, had to pull out all of the stops to secure a win.

While that is likely at least part of the case, as securing a win over AEW was clearly an internal priority, in the opinion of Eric Bischoff, a man very familiar with going to war with WWE, this wasn't all about bragging rights. No, as he noted on his 83 Weeks podcast, this was all about getting a bigger television rights contract in 2024 for NXT, with the promotion consistently turning more and more main roster attention to developmental in that pursuit.

“People need to pull their head out of their a**, or Dave Meltzer’s a**, or the dirt sheet’s a** and be honest and objective. Look at the fact that they’ve been stacking NXT now for several weeks, and the numbers have been coming up for several weeks. And they’re not doing it because they’re afraid of AEW, or the genius creative of Tony Khan, which is non-existent,” Eric Bischoff said via TJR.

“They’re doing it because they’re in the middle of a negotiation, or they’re entering into negotiations, and they want the most money they can get for that show. Well, gee, how do you do that? Well, let’s put some of our A-listers on our C show. Because, as much as you know, the hardcore, and I’m talking about the internet wrestling fans, not the general wrestling fan with reference to AEW.

“When you’re honest about it. AEW, if Dynamite is their A show, NXT is their C show, it’s a developmental property. It’s not apples to apples, it’s apples and cucumbers. Now we’re getting a little sample of a few, and in this case, coming up tomorrow night, a few more.

“You’re getting a few A-listers on what is your C show, and everybody’s going, ‘Oh my God they are afraid of AEW.’ Grow the f*ck up. Just pull your head out of the dirt sheets. Look at things objectively go back and look at what’s been going on in the last several weeks.

“And allow yourself to recognize that there is actually the business to the wrestling business. And WWE is doing exactly what they should do and have been doing for a couple of weeks. And I don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow night. I don’t necessarily want to get into too, too much of a prediction other than I think it’s going to be a f**king bloodbath.”

Does a 312,000-viewer win constitute a “f**king bloodbath?” Yeah, that more or less hits that mark, but hey, as Bischoff noted, this wasn't really about beating AEW and making Khan feel foolish but instead to show television executives that they could be a great get in 2024 and beyond. That mission, too, was a resounding success.