The Wednesday Night War Report: March 2020By Matthew Martin| March 29, 2020 AEW, Wrestling There hasn’t been a month like this in this history of weekly wrestling television. Would it even be fair to list out winners and losers this month? March featured both shows starting out one way and ending the month in a totally different atmosphere. What should have been NXT’s big push toward WrestleMania weekend and AEW’s soft reset after their recent PPV instead came to be about the COVID-19 pandemic that’s taken over the whole world. Both shows had four episodes in March, two of which were business as usual, and two featuring both companies getting their feet wet with whatever format they’re going to employ for the foreseeable future… PRESENTATION WINNER: advantage AEW Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content Both shows looked par the course on March 4th and 11th but when the decision was made to run without live audiences, NXT/WWE struggled to adapt whereas AEW knew exactly what to do. For the longest time, NXT’s biggest presentation advantage over AEW was in how well-oiled the WWE machine is when it comes to audio and video. While AEW had microphone issues and crowd volume struggles early on, NXT continued to hum along with no problems at all. After the virus threw a wrench in everything, the “formula” came back to bite NXT (and WWE in general). The same old camera angles, promos, even match layouts that worked with a live crowd failed to translate to empty arenas. AEW knew well enough to point the hard camera at the screen, feature promos that acknowledged the ongoing crisis and basically stripped their whole show down to its essential elements. NXT struggled initially to figure things out but they seem to have found a groove now, meaning April should be much more competitive. CROWD WINNER: advantage AEW We’re only judging things on the first two weeks, obviously, but despite AEW resetting their table after a great PPV, and despite NXT ramping up the hype for Takeover/Mania, it was AEW that had the hotter crowd. Hangman Page alone had the crowd reacting to him like he was Stone Cold circa 1999 (skip to 4:25)… Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content AEW gave fans plenty more reasons to cheer this month, but I’ll save that for the surprises section. CARD WINNER: advantage NXT Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content Both brands took a step back in the second half of the month but even in the first half, it was clear NXT was going to push the limits of their roster. Cage matches dominated NXT’s early part of the month, and some fun empty arena matches carried the day after that. AEW mostly went with tag matches, choosing to handle the change in format with more promos and vignettes compared to NXT. By default the yellow show wins, but who knows what would’ve happened had none of this COVID-19 outbreak happened: AEW was building up to a WARGAMES (Blood and Guts) match which almost certainly would have won them this category too. SURPRISES WINNER: advantage AEW Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content Oh boy does AEW win it this month. Jake Roberts made an electrifying return to start the month. A week later he brought out Lance Archer as his new client. It didn’t stop there, despite the change in format. Being forced to run two shows without an audience meant being deprived of what would have been two of the biggest reactions in Dynamite history: The debuts of Brodie Lee and Matt Hardy. The former was the payoff to a months-long storyline, and the latter unveiled one of the most anticipated signings of year. Both guys, plus the combo of Archer/Roberts, are great additions to the company, and were a clear signal that there will be no “soft” reset after the last PPV; they’re going 100mph all the way. Or at least…they would be if not for, ya know…everything that’s happening. WINNER OF THE MONTH: AEW Next month looks like it will be more of the same, though now both companies know they will have to plan for a handful of shows (at least) without crowds. Maybe we’ll get something fresh, unique, and creative to take advantage of the situation. In the meantime, AEW won the month. Here’s to April and, hopefully, a return to good health and normalcy for all.
