Chris Jericho Expects AEW to Start Beating Raw in Ratings Soon, Discusses Dynamite Beating NXT

– During a recent edition of Busted Open Radio, AEW’s Chris Jericho spoke about the Wednesday Night Wars between AEW Dynamite and WWE NXT TV, and his expectations for the future of AEW Dynamite’s ratings against WWE. Below are some highlights and a clip of Jericho on Busted Open:

Chris Jericho on AEW beating NXT in the ratings and NXT moving to Tuesdays: “Well, I mean obviously, it’s a victory, and it’s a huge victory. The difference is that we weren’t obsessed with winning, losing, whatever it was. What we were obsessed about was putting on the best show we could, and we couldn’t worry if WWE was gonna put NXT on or if NBC was going to resurrect The Beatles. Or like, whatever you’re going to do, we can’t focus on that. We can’t worry about it because we’re too busy worrying about our own show. We’re too busy worrying about putting on great stories and great matches in the middle of a frickin’ pandemic, so when, you know, we won the war and won handily, of course it was the end of NXT because that was kind of the whole idea was put them against us, build them as a huge third brand, and then move on.”

On his belief that AEW will soon start beating Raw in the ratings: “And when we, you know, ‘beat’ them, that’s the word that you used, and now they’re kind of rebranding and reconfiguring because what else can they do? They’re No. 2 when it comes to what we’re — they were trying to do in this battle. But here’s the best part: We were never worried about NXT and never really paid attention to what they were doing. We were looking at what Raw is doing and what Smackdown is doing. If you want to talk about a war, that’s the real war. If this was Game of Thrones, NXT was the first wave that we blew through. We’re storming the castle. We’re storming the fortress. And I think that’s one of the things that’s going on now too when you see, oh this week AEW beat Smackdown and in the 18-49 demo or 18-34 demos. Even just winning one or two of those demos, that’s a big deal. Sooner or later, we’re going to start beating Raw.”

On his expectations for the ratings: “It’s not going to be every week, but I bet you over the next two to four months, maybe four to six, we’re going to start beating Raw, and that’s my prediction that I’m saying to you guys right here. And the reason for that is because, we keep talking about the cool factor, but it’s the storytelling and it’s that we don’t panic. We’re in no rush. We live in our own world, our AEW world. We book accordingly. We book smartly. If you watch our show, it’s like watching the first three Star Wars episodes. One thing always leads to the next, and sometimes you’ll see something where the seeds were planted months earlier, but we all know what we want to do and where we want to go.”

Chris Jericho on AEW’s focus on long-term storytelling: “Once again, when I talked about a year-long storyline with MJF and Jericho, The Inner Circle, and The Pinnacle, did we start out thinking it was going to go a year? No. Did we start out thinking it was going to go about six months? Absolutely, right from day one. There’s things that are happening in this story that we discussed, you know, eight months ago. So that helps because you could really keep people’s attention with well-crafted and smart storylines. We don’t rip up shows an hour before we go on the air. We don’t. We know what we’re doing next week every single week. And that’s why we basically tell you on Wednesday what you’re going to see next Wednesday. Except for now, we’re also going to tell you what you’re going to see on Friday. And this week, we’re telling you what you’re see on Sunday too. So, it’s very organized and planned out, and people can see that and they’re responding to it.”

"Sooner or later, we're gonna start beating RAW." 👀@IAmJericho discusses how he believes the REAL war between @AEW & #WWE wasn't just about #WWENXT … @davidlagreca1 @TheMarkHenry #AEWAllOut #AEWRampage #AEWDynamite pic.twitter.com/rQ7HiPPrNg

— SiriusXM Busted Open (@BustedOpenRadio) September 3, 2021

If using the above quotes, please credit Busted Open Radio, with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.