WWE Reportedly Interested in Bringing Back EJ Nduka to the Company

Major League Wrestling talent EJ Nduka’s contract with the company reportedly is currently set to expire soon, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Dave Meltzer reported that his sources stated that MLW officials have been very pleased with Nduka’s work in the company. Besides MLW, multiple promotions reportedly are currently interested in signing Nduka once he becomes a free agent.

One of those promotions include WWE, who Meltzer reported that have recently shown interest in wanting to bring him back to the company. Nduka previously worked in WWE from August of 2019 to May of 2021 under the ring name of Ezra Judge and primarily for their NXT developmental system.

Meltzer also reported that AEW and several promotions in Japan are also currently interested in potentially signing Nduka.

---

NXT UK Talent Visas & Status Updates

As noted before, several notable talents from WWE’s former NXT UK brand have been recently absent from WWE’s NXT brand due to visa-related issues.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that many of the visa issues affecting NXT UK talent are currently in the process of being cleared up. Meltzer reported that some of the NXT UK talent that had appeared for a few weeks on NXT following the closure of WWE’s NXT UK brand are currently expected to return once their new visas are finalized.

Meltzer reported that it is very possible that WWE officials could hold back on the return of several former NXT UK talents in order to use them instead as the cornerstone stars for the launch of their upcoming new NXT Europe brand.

---

More on NXT Week 169 Viewership – Jan. 3, 2023

The January 3rd episode of WWE NXT saw NXT gain a large increase in overall viewership and a small increase in key demographic ratings but also suffered a small decline in key demographic rankings.

NXT drew 653,000 viewers and a 0.16 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking for that night was 31st place.

Detailed viewership and key demographic breakdowns were not available in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Dave Meltzer reported that the main reason for NXT’s increases this week was due to the large gains from their younger key demographic viewership, older key demographic viewership, and Over 50 demographic viewership groups, which were up 22%, 40%, and 11.8% compared to last week’s show. This reportedly offset the tougher than usual news programming competition that night and the large decline from their Teenagers demographic viewership group, which was down 28.6% compared to last week’s show.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the College basketball game of LSU vs. Kentucky drew 1,144,000 viewers on ESPN, the College basketball game of Kansas vs. Texas Tech drew 659,000 viewers on ESPN2, the NBA game of Washington Wizards vs. Milwaukee Bucks drew 320,000 viewers on NBA TV, Little People, Big World drew 1,243,000 viewers on TLC, Bering Sea Gold drew 683,000 viewers on Discovery Channel, and Curse of Oak Island drew 2,407,000 viewers on History Channel.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 202,000 viewers. Meltzer reported that the male/female viewership split was 123,000 male viewers and 79,000 female viewers for a split of 60.9% in favor of males.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was down 3.2% in overall viewership and down 1.9% in key demographic viewership. Meltzer reported that NXT’s 18-34 viewership was down 8.3% compared to the same week last year.