WWE: Roxanne Perez Update, Andre the Giant Battle Royal Announced, More on NXT Mar. 21, 2023 Viewership

Roxanne Perez Undisclosed Medical Issue Update

As noted before, Roxanne Perez has been out of action for WWE since the March 7th NXT Roadblock special due to her suffering an undisclosed non-wrestling-related medical issue.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that Perez recently recovered from her unknown medical issue and is currently feeling fine. Perez reportedly is currently expected to return to NXT programming once NXT officials have creative plans in place for her.

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Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal Match Announced for Next Week’s SmackDown Show

During Friday’s SmackDown show in Las Vegas, Nevada, WWE announced that this year’s Andre The Giant Battle Royal match will be taking place at the March 31st SmackDown show in Los Angeles, California.

André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal returns next week on #SmackDown! pic.twitter.com/nyqp89rQ7J

— WWE on FOX (@WWEonFOX) March 25, 2023

In an interesting note, Bobby Lashley was revealed to be among those competing in the match. Prior to the announcement, Lashley had been planned to face off against Bray Wyatt in a singles match at WrestleMania 39. This match has been in doubt since Wyatt’s recent absence due to a “physical illness” and appears to have been officially dropped.

This will also be the third year in a row that the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal will be taking place on a SmackDown show and not on a WrestleMania event.

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More on NXT Week 180 Viewership – March 21, 2023

The March 21st episode of WWE NXT saw NXT suffer a large decline in overall viewership and key demographic rankings and a small decline in key demographic ratings.

NXT drew 540,000 viewers and a 0.12 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking for that night was 29th 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 declines this week was due to stiff sports competition from the World Baseball Classic 2023 Championship game, which drew the largest ever combined viewership for a WBC game in WBC history. Another reason reportedly was due to the large decline from their female key demographic viewership group, which was down 36.1% compared to last week’s show.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the World Baseball Classic 2023 Finals game of United States vs. Japan drew a combined 4.972,000 viewers on F21 and FOX Deportes, the NBA game of Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Brooklyn Nets drew 289,000 viewers on NBA TV, the 2023 NIT Basketball Tournament game of North Texas vs. Oklahoma State drew 611,000 viewers on ESPN, the 2023 NIT Basketball Tournament game of Wisconsin vs. Oregon drew 791,000 viewers on ESPN, Curse of Oak Island drew 1,295,000 viewers on History Channel, 1000-lb Sisters drew 1,474,000 viewers on TLC, and Real Housewives of New Jersey drew 867,000 viewers on Bravo.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 156,000 viewers. Meltzer reported that the male/female viewership split was 110,000 male viewers (down 6%) and 46,000 female viewers (down 36.1%) for a split of 70.5% in favor of males.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was down 12.4% in overall viewership and down 15.2% in key demographic viewership. Meltzer reported that NXT’s 18-34 viewership was equal compared to the same week last year.