Jon Moxley

Former WWE champion and current Executive Vice President of Global Talent Strategy & Development Paul "Triple H" Levesque knows a thing or two about wrestling ratings wars, having been through the then-WWF's ultimate Monday night victory with Raw over WCW and its Nitro program in the mid-to-late 1990s.

Two decades later, Triple H is in a ratings war of a different kind, as NXT faces off against AEW on Wednesday nights. 

AEW has won in the ratings for 14 straight weeks, but Triple H told Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated that he's most concerned about the quality of the NXT product and the "long-term game":

"I'm a believer in the long-term game. You create the right product, and over time, people will find it. I think back to Monday nights years ago, and it looks different now, but there were periods of time when WWE was putting on much better shows and the content was much better, but we were still getting beat. We were not winning 'the war,' but we stayed true to who we were.

"If it's a flash and it's exciting at first but you can't maintain it, then it loses that pizzazz. It's long-term duration, for me, that's how you win. I've been saying it since the beginning—I'm not concerned about those numbers week-to-week. It's about trying to put out the best show you can every week."

WCW beat WWF for 84 straight weeks in 1996 and 1997, but the Attitude Era proved to be a game-changer and launched the now-WWE into the No. 1 spot for wrestling entertainment. The WWE eventually bought WCW in 2001.

Both NXT and AEW are long on talent and intriguing storylines.

AEW has some of the WWE's most popular stars from previous years, most notably Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley (formerly Dean Ambrose) and a solid group of young, rising talent. They've also put on some epic matches and told layered stories through them during their pay-per-views, with AEW: Full Gear in November standing out.

On the flip side, NXT is the wrestling equivalent of a loaded farm system in Major League Baseball, with its women's division standing out as particularly strong. Barrasso wrote the following:

"The women's division in NXT features some of the most talented rising stars in wrestling and offers remarkable depth. Wednesday's ladder match includes Chelsea Green, Tegan Nox, Candice LeRae, Mia Yim, Dakota Kai and Io Shirai, a collection of wrestlers who would star—and, in some cases, already have—for any promotion in the world."

NXT has also produced Keith Lee and a heated rivalry between Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano, with Killer Kross waiting in the wings.

While it's unclear who ends up winning the Wednesday Night Wars, the winner right now is the fan as both promotions try to provide the best possible product every week.

AEW Dynamite continued its stronghold in the Wednesday night wrestling ratings battle this week, as All Elite Wrestling scored another victory over WWE NXT. 

According to Wrestling Inc., Dynamite on TNT averaged 685,000 viewers during its two-hour show, while NXT on USA Network drew 590,000 viewers.

In the main event of Dynamite, Sammy Guevara and Shawn Spears beat Cody and Darby Allin in a tag team match. It was a preview of first-round singles bouts in the TNT Championship tournament, as Cody will face Spears and Allin will face Guevara.

Also, Kenny Omega beat Trent in the opening match, Lance Archer defeated Marko Stunt in his in-ring debut, and Chris Jericho had another run-in with Matt Hardy's Vanguard 1.

A huge announcement was made as well in the form of Jon Moxley defending the AEW World Championship against Jake Hager on April 15 in a No Holds Barred match.

In the main event of NXT, Keith Lee successfully defended the North American Championship in a hard-fought Triple Threat match against Dominik Dijakovic and Damian Priest.

Another major match saw Dakota Kai outlast Shotzi Blackheart, Deonna Purrazzo, Aliyah, Xia Li and Kayden Carter in a gauntlet match to earn the sixth and final spot in next week's ladder match that will determine the No. 1 contender for the NXT Women's Championship.

Additionally, Velveteen Dream beat Undisputed Era member Bobby Fish and called out NXT champion Adam Cole. Kushida picked up a win over Joaquin Wilde, who was later abducted in the parking lot.

While NXT TakeOver: Tampa Bay is no longer happening due to the COVID-19 pandemic, WWE set the stage for a huge episode of NXT next week that will feature two matches that were originally supposed to occur at TakeOver.

In addition to the women's ladder match, Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa are set to settle the score once and for all.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).

You never know what you're going to get when you unleash a professional wrestler's creative energy—mostly because it's rarely been tried. For years wrestling has been an industry of copycats, artists doing "Let me tell you something, brother" promos and formulaic cookie-cutter matches because once, sometimes before they were born, someone else had made those things work.

Any ideas that deviated from the norm were quickly, often brutally, squashed.

If you watched Matt Hardy teleport to the ring to confront Chris Jericho Wednesday night on Dynamite, you probably have a pretty good idea that AEW is not that kind of professional wrestling promotion. Under the leadership of owner Tony Khan, it's an organization that encourages flights of fancy. AEW asks the talent not to slavishly recite a script they can barely tolerate but instead to create something compelling that reflects the person they look at each time they stare into a mirror.

It's how you end up with a Jon Moxley, free from a character he despised playing in WWE, as a tough, eyepatch-wearing champion. It's how Brodie Lee can go from a bit player in one cult to a leader in a very different one in the blink of an eye. And it's how Matt Hardy, the former teen heartthrob tag team innovator, can find himself standing in the ring across from the most compelling star in the sport calling him "the hole of an ass" while the wrestling universe wonders just what in the world it's watching.

Whatever Hardy vs. Jericho was, it was compelling above all else, from Jericho's initial confrontation with a flying drone to his extended argument with Hardy, to the way the promotion seamlessly reconnected the wackiness to the existing Elite vs. Inner Circle storyline. Love it or hate it, you can't help but admire the way the talent of AEW is empowered to own the material it performs.

The wrestlers who have left WWE for this new upstart rival have unburdened themselves from both the expectations that come with being a WWE Superstar and the strict hierarchy where most were firmly slotted in the corporate structure with little hope of ever advancing beyond their perceived place in the world. In this brave new world, you can stake a claim, whether you're Darby Allin, fresh from the independent scene, or Dustin Rhodes, reinventing yourself after years underneath a layer of gold paint.

It's an atmosphere that breeds enthusiasm, first in the wrestlers and then in the fans they are cultivating. It's so much fun to watch a wrestling show created by people who are passionate about every aspect of the performance, who are having fun, not battling backstage forces in a fight no one ever seems to win.

When Hardy tried to explain to Jericho that Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida, wasn't actually empty, that it contained the essence of thousands of fans, I understood exactly what he meant. Fans weren't physically present in the arena—but we've left our hearts there, even as our vessels are safe at home. That's the kind of feeling this freedom has inspired, the wrestler's joy giving rise to a fandom as positive as any I've ever seen in pro wrestling.

I'm fully aware that many people rushed to their computers to decry the Hardy-Jericho confrontation. It was, above all else, profoundly weird, especially if you've never been exposed to this bizarre character that Hardy began in Impact Wrestling with little more than a riding lawn mower, a dilapidated boat and a dream.

It's that dream, and others like it, that make this show special, whether you loved it or not. The freedom to take chances, to bet on yourself, to fully occupy a character of your own choosing—that's a dream for many former WWE talent, especially those who have felt trapped in a very regimented system.

Eventually, one of these ex-WWE stars is going to come in with a vision or a concept and will fall directly on their face. That's the potential cost of freedom, the risk that comes with taking chances.

It's a risk that, so far, is paying off for AEW and all the wrestlers who call it home.

Jonathan Snowden covers Combat Sports for Bleacher Report.

Newly signed AEW star Matt Hardy appeared on Chris Jericho's Talk Is Jericho podcast Friday to discuss what led him to leave WWE.

Hardy made a surprising return to WWE alongside his brother, Jeff, at WrestleMania 33 three years ago, but that was essentially the high point of Matt's stint since he wasn't given a long-term opportunity to run with his "broken" character.

Hardy told Jericho (h/t WrestlingInc.com's Jason Ounpraseuth) that WWE's unwillingness to work with him creatively was what made him depart:

"I pitched idea after idea after idea to WWE, and I never got any feedback. I would hear a little chatter here, a little chatter there, but there was never anything that like stuck or like, you know, anything that ever like sparked any kind of like creative fire in Vince's mind. That just became frustrating, and then later they were just trying to re-sign me just to have me under contract so that I was a WWE employee, and I kept turning down money, which was good money. But like I wanted to be in a prominent role in television, and I don't think Vince saw that for me."

Hardy theorized that his age (45) played a role in Chairman Vince McMahon not wanting to put him in any big spots.

Additionally, Hardy discussed the day he told everyone that he wasn't re-signing with WWE and noted that the outcome may have been different had Triple H been the one in charge rather than McMahon:

"What a weird day, and it was like, I'm very honest and open with everyone. I told everyone from Vince all the way down what I wanted and what I expected if I was going to stay around. Once we were on the same page, and I said, 'OK, well, thank you guys very much. I'll just go my own way.' And even days after I left, I talked to to Triple H. It's just like he was cool, and I feel like if Triple H would have been the guy that was solely in power, I would have probably had a much better opportunity of kind of getting to do what I wanted creatively, but it is what it is."

While Hardy was a multi-time tag team champion during his most recent stint in WWE, he was primarily used as enhancement talent over his final year. That included taking beatings from Randy Orton during his final two appearances on Raw.

In stark contrast, Hardy made his surprise AEW debut on Wednesday's episode of Dynamite and was announced by Matt Jackson as the replacement for Nick Jackson on The Elite's team for Blood and Guts against The Inner Circle.

Hardy was in full "broken" garb, which suggests he will be given a long creative leash and have the opportunity to take his character and run with it, much like he did in Impact Wrestling before returning to WWE.

In many ways, Hardy's issues with McMahon and WWE echoed sentiments expressed by Jon Moxley during an interview with Jericho after he left WWE and joined AEW.

Although AEW is occurring on a smaller scale than WWE, it is undoubtedly gaining momentum and has already firmly established itself as the No. 2 wrestling company in the United States.

It is possible that Hardy won't make as much money and won't be known to as wide an audience as he would have been in WWE, but if creative freedom was his biggest want, then it is difficult to argue with his decision to jump ship.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).

The post-Revolution edition of AEW Dynamite on TNT once again beat out WWE NXT on USA Network in the viewership battle Wednesday night.

According to Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer, AEW Dynamite averaged 906,000 viewers during Wednesday's two-hour show, while WWE NXT averaged 718,000.

Dynamite represented the first night of the Jon Moxley era in AEW after he beat Chris Jericho in the main event of Revolution to win the AEW World Championship.

Jericho and the Inner Circle vowed to wreak havoc Wednesday, and they did precisely that. Prior to the main event tag team match pitting Jericho and Sammy Guevara against Mox and Darby Allin, the trio of Santana, Ortiz and Jake Hager took out Moxley.

Allin fought valiantly, but Jericho and Guevara won the two-on-one situation. Moxley tried to clean house after the match, however, The Inner Circle powerbombed him through a table and flipped him off.

In other major Dynamite happenings, Colt Cabana made his AEW in-ring debut alongside SCU in a winning effort against Dark Order, plus Pac and The Lucha Bros. took out Best Friends and Orange Cassidy and formed a new stable called Death Triangle.

Also, Adam "Hangman" Page furthered his feud with The Young Bucks and WWE Hall of Famer Jake "The Snake" Roberts made a shocking debut by interrupting Cody to say he has someone arriving in AEW who will knock Cody from his perch.

NXT was bookended by two big steel cage matches. The first opened the show and saw Dakota Kai beat Tegan Nox thanks to help from Raquel Gonzalez. The finish was quite creative, as Gonzalez pushed the door open and pinned Nox against the side of the cage so that she couldn't reach the floor.

In the main event, Velveteen Dream and Roderick Strong battled inside the cage, but it was interrupted by Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish of Undisputed Era. When Cole ended up inside the ring, Dream pushed Strong out the cage door and purposely took the loss.

Dream's feud with Strong was apparently all a ploy to get to Cole and the NXT Championship, as he took out Undisputed era with a kendo stick and steel chair before holding up the title.

Additionally, Johnny Gargano got heated during a sit-down interview with Mauro Ranallo and still refused to give a clear answer on why he turned on Tommaso Ciampa at NXT TakeOver: Portland, although he set up a confrontation between them for next week.

Other segments included Austin Theory beating Isaiah "Swerve" Scott in a highly entertaining match, Chelsea Green beating Shotzi Blackheart to qualify for the NXT Women's Championship No. 1 contender ladder match at NXT TakeOver: Tampa Bay and North American champion Keith Lee agreeing to a title match against Cameron Grimes for next week.

Next week's NXT will feature the continuation of the build toward next month's NXT TakeOver: Tampa Bay, while the fallout from Revolution will likely continue on Dynamite.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).