This past week, and for the first time since the Wednesday Night Wars began, WWE's NXT has beaten AEW's Dynamite in the TV ratings in a key demographic, the 18-49 demo.

This week's NXT saw NXT Champion Adam Cole retain his title over Finn Balor in a commercial-free match to open the show. 

NXT's main event saw Rhea Ripley defeat Shayna Baszler to become the new NXT Women's Champion.

These matches and more on NXT were enough to see the WWE brand defeat AEW in the 18-49 demo for the first time since the Wednesday Night Wars began at the start of October.

According to Showbuzz Daily, via Wrestling Inc, Wednesday's NXT drew 795,000 viewers on the USA Network, enough to beat the 683,000 viewers who tuned in to AEW Dynamite on TNT by 16%.

NXT beat AEW in the prime 18-49 demo for the first time ever by 8%, drawing a 0.27 rating in the demo compared to AEW's 0.25 rating. AEW's 18-49 demo rating this week was the lowest rating for Dynamite since the show began.

According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, via NoDQ, the quarter-hour splits for each show are as follows:

Adam Cole vs. Finn Balor, which opened NXT, drew the strongest number of the night with 977,000 viewers vs. the 689,000 viewers for Lucha Brothers vs. Kenny Omega and Adam Page on AEW.

The only quarter-hour that AEW won was Chris Jericho vs. Jungleboy with 780,000 viewers up against Io Shirai vs. Santana Garrett and Pete Dunne vs. Travis Banks, which drew 732,000 viewers.

Shayna Baszler vs. Rhea Ripley then drew 725,000 viewers against AEW and then added an additional 145,000 viewers for the overrun.

During an interview with talkSPORT this week, AEW's Cody Rhodes gave his thoughts on the TV ratings and how much they matter to the promotion.

He said: "Obviously the rating, they almost matter more to the respective brands individually.

"Warner Media and TNT, they're looking at the ratings and the demographic, that P1 demo and how you're doing there, and then I'm assuming USA are doing the same for NXT. It's more of the fans that put them in contrast to each other. 'Well they did this and they did this'."

While AEW's drop in rating compared to their rivals in NXT is a concern, there is the possibly the show is still meeting the expectations that TNT has set out for them.

In truth, AEW may still be on target in TNT's eyes, and as Cody says, the ratings concern is just something conjured up by the fans.