WWE: More on Piper Niven’s RAW Debut, Tryouts Planned for Las Vegas, Updated SD Ratings

More on Piper Niven’s RAW Debut

Monday’s episode of WWE RAW featured the main roster debut of NXT UK talent Piper Niven. Niven made her debut alongside Eva Marie, who also made her on-screen return to the company since being released in August of 2017.

Fightful Select reported that Niven almost did not make her main roster debut this week due to WWE officials had scrapped their plans for her over this past weekend at one point. Those plans reportedly were reinstated prior to this week’s RAW show.

In an interesting note, Niven’s debut included RAW’s commentary team acting as if they had no clue who she was nor was her NXT UK ring name and past work in the brand ever brought up. The reason for this could be due to WWE officials reportedly are currently considering giving Niven a new ring name. One name being considered at the moment reportedly is “Doudrop.”

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WWE to Hold New Talent Tryouts in Las Vegas for SummerSlam Weekend

WWE announced that they will be holding a new set of tryouts for their Performance Center in Las Vegas, Nevada during this year’s SummerSlam week festivities.

Official press release:

WWE to hold talent tryouts during SummerSlam Week in Las Vegas

WWE today announced that it will search for the next generation of Superstars and host a multi-day talent tryout in Las Vegas as part of SummerSlam Week.

The tryouts will give elite male and female athletes and performers the opportunity to showcase their abilities with the goal of being selected to begin training at the state-of-the-art WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Fla.

“Talent is the lifeblood of our industry, and these tryouts coupled with SummerSlam, one of our premier events, will help us discover world-class athletes that will serve as the next wave of Superstars,” said Paul “Triple H” Levesque, WWE Executive Vice President, Global Talent Strategy & Development.

To register for an opportunity to be part of the talent tryouts, click here. The site includes step-by-step instructions on how to register, an overview of the many resources available to WWE Performance Center recruits, photos of the entire Performance Center roster, biographies of the industry-leading coaching staff, testimonials from Raw and SmackDown Superstars and videos from past tryouts.

SummerSlam takes place Saturday, Aug. 21, from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, marking the first time the annual event has been held at an NFL stadium. SummerSlam will be one of the first sporting events held at full capacity at Allegiant Stadium with tickets on sale this Friday, June 18. The event will stream live exclusively on Peacock in the United States and on WWE Network everywhere else.

Additional information on the talent tryouts, including the location, will be announced in the near future on WWE.com

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Updated WWE Friday Night SmackDown Ratings

This past Friday’s episode of WWE Friday Night SmackDown drew a final viewership of 1,944,000 on FOX, according to Wrestlenomics. This was up compared to the initial overnight number of 1,853,000 viewers on the network.