WWE: Brian Pillman Jr. Reportedly Visited Performance Center, Cavinder Twins, More on NXT July 11, 2023 Viewership

Brian Pillman Jr. Reportedly Visited WWE’s Performance Center This Week

As noted before, Brian Pillman Jr.’s contract with AEW recently expired following AEW not offering a new deal to keep him in the company.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that Pillman Jr. was seen training at WWE’s Performance Center on Thursday, July 13th. No other details regarding Pillman Jr.’s visit was given.

Fightful Select reported that their sources confirmed Meltzer’s report and provided several additional details. Those spoken to within WWE reportedly stated that Pillman Jr. has not been signed to the company as of yet and confirmed that he was working out at the Performance Center. Those same sources reportedly also described Pillman Jr.’s visit as resembling a “get to know you” type meeting and WWE officials had immediate interest towards him once he became avaliable.

It was also reported that while Pillman Jr. was in plain sight of many others at the PC, this is usually the opposite of how WWE officials typically handle bringing in new people for tryouts and training by keeping things close to the vest instead.

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Cavinder Twins Comments on “We Have Another WWE Event We’re Going To Soon, Stay Tuned”

As noted before, the June 6th NXT show featured WWE NIL signees The Cavinder Twins, Hanna and Haley Cavinder, making a surprise appearance.

USA Today held a recent interview with the Cavinder Twins. One of the topics discussed included Hanna revealing they are currently scheduled to make another appearance in WWE soon.

“We have another event we’re going to soon, so we’re super excited about it. Yeah, stay tuned.”

Haley gave her thoughts about their current time in WWE’s Performance Center.

“It’s a lot of work. They’re in there all the time, training and trying to get their bodies right. It’s really cool to dive deep into that and see that.”

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More on NXT Week 196 Viewership – July 11, 2023

The July 11th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT gain a very large increase in overall viewership and a large increase in key demographic ratings.

NXT drew 671,000 viewers and a 0.20 key demographic rating on USA Network.

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

Dave Meltzer reported that the main reasons for NXT’s increases this week was due to the very large gains from their younger female key demographic viewership and older male key demographic viewership groups, which were up 153.3% and 111.5% compared to last week’s show. This reportedly offset the declines from their younger male key demographic viewership group, which was down 6.5% compared to last week’s show. Meltzer reported while NXT faced stiff competition from this year’s MLB All-Star game, it was still less severe compared to last week’s July 4th holiday being one of the worst nights of the year for television viewership. In a notable note, this year’s MLB All-Star game managed to draw the lowest ever viewership in MLB All-Star game history.

In terms of notable head-to-head competition, the 2023 MLB All-Star game drew 7,006,000 viewers on FOX.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 256,000 viewers. NXT’s Males 18-34 had 43,000 viewers (down 6.5%), Females 18-34 had 38,000 viewers (up 153.3%), Males 35-49 had 129,000 viewers (up 111.5%), and Females 35-49 had 49,000 viewers (up 8.1%). Meltzer reported that the male/female viewership split was 172,000 male viewers (up 60.7%) and 87,000 female viewers (up 45%) for a split of 66.8% in favor of males.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was up 15.3% in overall viewership and up 40.7% in key demographic viewership. Meltzer reported that NXT’s 18-34 viewership was down 6% compared to the same week last year.