WWE: LA Knight Tested Positive for COVID, More on Matt Riddle’s Release, More on NXT Sept. 19, 2023 Viewership

WWE

Sep 23, 2023

LA Knight Tested Positive for COVID-19 & Pulled from Friday’s SmackDown Show

LA Knight reportedly was pulled from Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Glendale, Arizona due to him testing positive for COVID-19, according to Fightful.

Sapp reported that those spoken to initially stated that Knight had been pulled from the show due to a medical-related issue causing some of WWE’s plans for the show to be changed as a result. WWE officials reportedly had originally planned for Knight to be involved in the match contract signing segment that closed out the show. Knight reportedly was meant to come out as a surprise to save John Cena during his beatdown at the hands of the Bloodline and be revealed as Cena’s new tag team partner for his match against The Bloodline at Fastlane 2023.

In a follow-up report, Sapp reported that his sources confirmed that Knight had tested positive for COVID-19 shortly before the start of the show and had to leave the venue as a result for health safety reasons.

More on Matt Riddle’s Release from WWE

As noted before, Matt Riddle was released by WWE on Friday as part of a larger batch of recent talent releases.

Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp reported that his sources stated that the recent reports of Riddle had been scheduled to return to WWE from his illness at this past Monday’s RAW show was not true. Instead, those spoken to reportedly stated that WWE officials never had any actual plans for Riddle to be at the show nor had been factored into the creative plans for the show.

It was reported that following Riddle’s incident at the JFK airport earlier this month that triggered an investigation by the Port Authority over his claims of being sexually harassed by a Port Authority officer, WWE officials never had any plans for him to return to the company. One high level WWE official spoken to reportedly stated that the reason was due to Riddle “burned through too many chances while in WWE.”

More on NXT Viewership for September 19, 2023

The September 19th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT suffer a small decline in overall viewership and a slight decline in key demographic ratings but also gained a slight increase in key demographic rankings.

NXT drew 824,000 viewers and a 0.24 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking for that night was 1st place.

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 declines this week was due to the large decline from their older male key demographic viewership group, which was down 20.2% compared to last week’s show. Another reason reportedly was due to the large declines from their younger male key demographic viewership and older female key demographic viewership groups, which were down 11.2% and 9.6% respectively compared to last week’s show. This reportedly offset the large gains from their younger female key demographic viewership group, which was up 56.8% compared to last week’s show.

In terms of notable head-to-head competition, the MLB game of Philadelphia Phillies vs. Atlanta Braves drew 363,000 viewers on TBS, the 2023 WNBA Playoffs Game 2 of New York Liberty vs. Washington Mystics drew 501,000 viewers on ESPN, the 2023 WNBA Playoffs Game 2 of Dallas Wings vs. Atlanta Dream drew 456,000 viewers on ESPN, My Big Fat Fabulous Lie drew 741,000 viewers on TLC, and Deadliest Catch drew 874,000 viewers on Discovery Channel.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 316,000 viewers. NXT’s Males 18-34 had 79,000 viewers (down 11.2%), Females 18-34 had 69,000 viewers (up 56.8%), Males 35-49 had 103,000 viewers (down 20.2%), and Females 35-49 had 66,000 viewers (down 9.6%). Meltzer reported that the male/female viewership split was 182,000 male viewers and 135,000 female viewers for a split of 57.6% in favor of males.

In terms of peak viewership, NXT’s peak for overall viewership was at 912,000 viewers during the quarter hour featuring the Dominik Mysterio vs. Carmelo Hayes match. NXT’s peak for key demographic viewership was at 346,000 viewers during this same quarter hour.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was up 19.8% in overall viewership and up 62.1% in key demographic viewership. Meltzer reported that NXT’s 18-34 viewership was up 164.3% compared to the same week last year.