WWE: Sami Zayn on Fan Reaction at Night of Champions, Rhea Ripley, More on NXT May 30, 2023 Viewership

Jun 3, 2023

Sami Zayn on Fan Reaction to Him at WWE Night of Champions 2023

A recent episode of the WWE After The Bell with Corey Graves podcast featured Sami Zayn as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Zayn’s thoughts on getting to perform in Saudi Arabia and the overwhelming reaction he received from fans at WWE’s Night of Champions 2023 event last week in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

“It was a really, really, really kind of a heavy trip, to be honest. There was a lot that went into it. First of all, the fact that I haven’t been there in a few years, and that there’s been so much speculation as to why I’m not going and what’s the political reasoning, this and that. I won’t get into all of it, but I’ll tell you 99.9% of what you’ve read online about this subject, completely fabricated, people assuming things and then running with those assumptions and adding on to them. It’s wild. I think it’s anytime they can’t get a concrete answer, that’s kind of what tends to happen. I think that’s like human nature, almost.
It’s been years since I’ve been back to the Middle East. I think the last time I was there was 20, maybe 16, in Dubai, possibly, so it’s been a little while. Of course, as you saw on the Premium Live Event, all this to say, I’m Arabic, I’m Muslim, all this stuff, and that’s like my part of the world. I understand those people. Those are my people. When I went there, I got to go to Mecca, which was just a surreal experience. I also saw my uncles that I hadn’t seen in 25 years. I have cousins that I haven’t seen in 25 years. I met my great uncle that I didn’t even know existed. So it was pretty heavy in a lot of ways. It had a lot of weight.”

In an interesting note, Post Wrestling’s John Pollock reported that the transcript of Zayn’s interview featured comments that were edited out of the podcast episode that was released by WWE. Pollock stated that this edit involved everything between Zayn’s comments of “First of all, the fact that I haven’t been there in a few years” to “I think the last time I was there was 20, maybe 16, in Dubai, possibly, so it’s been a little while” being removed from the episode before its release.

Transcript h/t: WrestlingNews.co

Rhea Ripley Comments on Potential Future Matches with Bianca Belair & Lita

A recent episode of the Mark Andrews: My Love Letter to Wrestling podcast featured Rhea Ripley as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Ripley’s thoughts about her recent face-to-face in-ring moment with Bianca Belair when both held up their RAW and SmackDown Women’s Championships to each other and wanting to have a feud with Belair in the future.

“I wanna have a massive story and build with Bianca (Belair). There’s something so special there that could be done so I want something to happen with Bianca and I and then also, I wanna tag with Raquel Rodriguez on TV.”

Ripley also gave her thoughts about wanting to have a match with Lita in the future.

“I wanna get the chance to wrestle Lita. I think that would be incredible. I think it’d be a lot of fun and she’s just someone that always puts me over on social media and all her podcasts and stuff and I really do appreciate it and I love what she does, I love who she is so I would love to step in the ring with her.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

More on NXT Week 190 Viewership – May 30, 2023

The May 30th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT gain a small increase in overall viewership and a slight increase in key demographic ratings.

NXT drew 607,000 viewers and a 0.17 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking for that night is currently not known.

Detailed viewership and key demographic breakdowns were not available in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter. The main reason was due to ratings delay issues from Nielsen affecting this week’s ratings releases and charts.

Dave Meltzer reported that the main reason for NXT’s increases this week was due to the large gains from their female key demographic viewership group, which was up 51.7% compared to last week’s show. This reportedly offset the small decline from their male key demographic viewership, which was down 2.7% compared to last week’s show.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 224,000 viewers. NXT’s Males 18-34 had 58,000 viewers, Females 18-34 had 36,000 viewers, Males 35-49 had 87,000 viewers, and Females 35-49 had 43,000 viewers. Meltzer reported that the male/female viewership split was 145,000 male viewers (down 2.7%) and 79,000 female viewers (up 51.7%) for a split of 64.7% in favor of males.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was up 12.6% in overall viewership and up 42.7% in key demographic viewership. Meltzer reported that NXT’s 18-34 viewership was up 100% compared to the same week last year.