Jon Moxley

In the fourth week of head-to-head competition between All Elite Wrestling Dynamite on TNT and WWE NXT on USA Network, AEW once again prevailed in the ratings battle.

Both shows were down facing heavy competition from the start of the NBA regular season and Game 2 of the World Series between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros. 

After bringing in 1.014 million viewers last week, AEW's viewership fell to 963,000 this week, per Showbuzz Daily (h/t Wrestle Zone's Tyler Treese). That marks the third straight week AEW's numbers dropped since debuting with 1.4 million and also its first time under the 1 million mark. 

Meanwhile, NXT averaged 698,000 viewers this week, which is a decrease from the 712,000 it reached last week. NXT viewership has dropped in each of the past three weeks since the Wednesday Night War began and each of the past five weeks overall since it began airing on USA two weeks before AEW Dynamite debuted on TNT.

On Wednesday's episode of Dynamite, Jon Moxley and Pac fought to a time-limit draw in the main event. The show also featured a pair of Tag Team Championship tournament semifinal matches pitting Lucha Bros against Private Party and SCU against Dark Order as well as Kenny Omega vs. Joey Janela and Britt Baker vs. Jamie Hayter.

The highlight of the show was arguably a promo segment that resulted in Cody, Dustin Rhodes, MJF and Diamond Dallas Page brawling with Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, Santana and Ortiz of the Inner Circle.

On NXT, Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley clashed in an NXT Women's Championship No. 1 contender match, Matt Riddle faced Cameron Grimes, and the team of Tegan Nox and Dakota Kai beat Marina Shafir and Jessamyn Duke to earn a WWE Women's Tag Team Championship match against Asuka and Kairi Sane next week.

The main event saw Roderick Strong successfully defend the NXT North American Championship in a Triple Threat match against Keith Lee and Dominik Dijakovic.

Undisputed Era cleaned house after the match, resulting in Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano and Finn Balor entering the ring. In one of the most shocking swerves of the year, Balor turned heel by attacking Gargano as Undisputed Era laid waste to Ciampa.

While the ratings gap between AEW Dynamite and NXT is likely still too wide for NXT to take the lead next week, the hook of seeing why Balor turned heel and went after Johnny Wrestling could help NXT significantly in the ratings.

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

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe. 

Battle Royal, U.S. Title Match Announced for Crown Jewel

On Wednesday's episode of WWE's The Bump, it was announced that a 20-man battle royal will be held at WWE Crown Jewel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Oct. 31 to determine the No. 1 contender for the United States Championship.

The winner of the battle royal will go on to face AJ Styles for the title later in the show.

Battle royals have become commonplace on WWE's Saudi Arabia cards. The first major Saudi Arabia show was the Greatest Royal Rumble, and it featured a 50-man Royal Rumble match won by Braun Strowman. At WWE Super ShowDown earlier this year, Saudi Arabia native Mansoor won a 51-man battle royal.

Strowman is scheduled to face Tyson Fury at Crown Jewel, while Mansoor will take on Cesaro, which suggests neither of them will be part of the battle royal.

Based on the fact that Kevin Owens helped The Street Profits on Monday's episode of Raw by attacking Styles during a tag team match between The Street Profits and the team of Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, KO is a strong candidate to win the battle royal.

Cedric Alexander is another option since he has a longstanding rivalry with The Phenomenal One that hasn't yet been fully resolved.

"Stone Cold Podcast" Reportedly Returning to WWE Network

After a lengthy hiatus, the Stone Cold Podcast is reportedly set to return to the WWE Network in the near future.

According to WrestleVotes, WWE is planning to bring back the Steve Austin interview special during the first quarter of 2020 or sooner under a new name.

The Stone Cold Podcast first aired on WWE Network in 2014, and it saw Austin interview many of the biggest current and former Superstars in WWE. Some of the more notable interview subjects included Vince McMahon, Paul Heyman, Brock Lesnar, Triple H and Dean Ambrose.

The interview with Ambrose, who now goes by the name Jon Moxley in AEW, is somewhat infamous since it featured some uncomfortable moments, such as Austin asking him about his childhood and suggesting that he had become complacent in WWE.

That turned out to be the final episode of the Stone Cold Podcast's initial run, but with more episodes reportedly forthcoming, there will be no shortage of options at WWE's disposal.

From current stars like Becky Lynch, Roman Reigns, Charlotte Flair, Seth Rollins and Sasha Banks to legends like Hulk Hogan, Sting and Goldberg, WWE and Austin have a chance to create some compelling content for the Network.

Rumors on How WWE Backstage Operates

The WWE Backstage show that is set to begin airing weekly on Fox on Nov. 5 is reportedly almost entirely in Fox's hands.

According to Fightful Select (h/t H Jenkins of Ringside News), Fox is making the decisions regarding who appears on the show, and WWE "doesn't have much input" into the show as a whole.

WWE Backstage, which is hosted by Renee Young and Booker T, debuted a preview episode recently that featured Christian and Paige as guests. Triple H also appeared on the show in an interview segment.

It looks as though WWE Backstage will feature some interviews, roundtable segments regarding current happenings in WWE and looks at past and present highlights.

The establishment of WWE Backstage comes in lockstep with WWE moving SmackDown from USA Network on Tuesday nights to Fox on Friday nights.

Since WWE is essentially Fox's answer to UFC after losing the UFC rights to ESPN, WWE Backstage will serve as the replacement for UFC Tonight in terms of drumming up interest for Friday Night SmackDown and other WWE events.

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

If fans didn't know any better, they might think WWE—not AEW—is the new company in this so-called wrestling war. 

But the war has been a bit lopsided to start. It is WWE, not All Elite Wrestling, making downright awful decisions, squashing beloved characters, overextending in an effort to create notable waves, taking losses in ratings and downright getting booed out of their own shows. 

AEW, not so much. The company's inaugural show, Dynamite, crushed WWE's NXT not only in the overall ratings but in key demographics as well. And while both lost ratings to MLB in Week 2 of the Wednesday night war, AEW came out ahead again, both in overall and notable younger demographics. 

It isn't hard to figure out why. 

AEW has put on a traditional wrestling show with an "anything can happen" vibe while treating fans with respect. That might smack of bias or as downright silly, but sometimes the truth just plays out in such a manner. 

Over two weeks of Dynamite, Chris Jericho has established a fun new stable, Jon Moxley has wreaked havoc, The Young Bucks have fallen victim to a massive upset in a tag team title tournament, a women's title match stole a show outright, a commentary spot for PAC was brilliant, rehashes from elsewhere such as Jake Hager have managed to seem like massive ordeals and former unknowns like Darby Allin are now must-see material on a broad scale. 

And while it hasn't all been perfect, that's just to name a few of the memorable moments over two weeks. Remember, in the background of all this, AEW has managed to nail the basics without having fans think about it—they've transitioned to a weekly show without issue, nailed the presentation under the weight of massive hype and had few issues with continuity, giving fans a reason to anticipate the next episode. 

Juxtaposed next to WWE's issues lately, it's hard to tell which company is the new kid on the block. 

Where to even start? In what was the biggest week in wrestling history, WWE's Raw on September 30 ended with Lana and Bobby Lashley revealing they've been having an affair, much to the chagrin of Rusev. NXT had the Finn Balor surprise but got walloped in the ratings. The first-ever SmackDown on Fox saw fan favorite Kofi Kingston lose his title in a matter of seconds to Brock Lesnar, all so Lesnar could get in a feud with Cain Velasquez. 

Then...Hell in a Cell. Good show for the most part until one of the worst main events in modern wrestling history. We took a deep dive on the matter, but long story short, the match between Bray Wyatt's The Fiend and Seth Rollins was so unbelievably putrid that fans at the show itself started chanting things like "refund," and "restart the match," among other pleasantries. Oh, and they chanted AEW. 

Let's not forget whispers of false advertising, with The Undertaker, who was used in advertisements and teasing an appearance, publicly noted he was told he wasn't needed for the blue brand's big debut on Fox. 

That rough run of a week for what was supposed to be a historic stretch didn't get much better, not with Raw this week hardly even bothering to mention the terrible Hell in a Cell main event and ending the show focusing on Braun Strowman's match with the heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury. The second episode of SmackDown on Fox featured the fun draft—but only about half the roster was eligible for selection, the rest happening on a different episode of Raw. 

It is all exhausting, really. There are many weird, inexcusable problems there. Some of it felt like overcompensation for the newfound competition. Other parts of it—the Kingston loss especially—were easy to see coming. The how it happened was a slap in the face to fans, though. It didn't need to be that way, but the company sought it out for one reason or another. 

This isn't railing against WWE to just rail against WWE. But the problems are easy to see. The company is comfortable and isn't in any real danger thanks to its embedded infrastructure and lucrative television and Saudi Arabia deals. 

But the long-term strategy of thinking hardcore fans will always watch no matter what is failing now that true competition has emerged. Treating beloved characters poorly for the sake of reaction, giving the same part-timers shine and sacrificing characters and continuity is now finally starting to backfire. 

This is a long, long dance set to unfold between AEW and WWE. But WWE's almost comical performance when it would seem to matter most is staggering, especially with the recent hype about Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff breathing new life into Raw and SmackDown, respectively. 

Fortunately for WWE, it isn't the new company and there is plenty of time to correct the wrongs. But if it didn't have its game face on to combat the arrival of legitimate competition in the industry, it's hard to feel encouraged about things turning for the better. 

While early, at this stage, all AEW has to do is keep being itself and the success will follow. Provided it never falls into the habit of taking its audience for granted, the passionate support AEW has seen out of the gates is not only what a veteran company should have built for a long time, but it won't be in danger of fading.