WWE: Endeavor Expected to Remove Vince McMahon Associates, Shawn Michaels on LA Night, More on NXT Jan. 23, 2024 Viewership

Endeavor Reportedly Expected to Remove Associates of Vince McMahon from WWE

As noted before, a lawsuit was filed this past Thursday by former WWE employee Janel Grant against TKO Group Executive Chairman Vince McMahon accusing McMahon of committing sex trafficking and sexual abuse towards Grant during her time in the company. McMahon announced on Friday evening that he officially resigned from TKO Group and WWE.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that the current belief within WWE is that Endeavor may sweep out anyone who was close to McMahon and his remaining team in the company in order to have a complete fresh start of the company going forward.

Johnson reported that there were WWE employees who left the company when Vince initially resigned in 2022 who returned back after McMahon had forced his way back onto WWE’s Board of Directors in January of 2023. Those spoken to reportedly stated that they currently believe anyone with a connection to McMahon who have remained in the company post-Endeavor purchase may have that be viewed as a major negative going forward for their status and future in the company.

---

Shawn Michaels Comments on LA Knight’s Name Being on WWE’s Cut List Several Times in NXT & Fighting to Prevent Him Being Released

ESPN held a recent interview with WWE NXT head booker Shawn Michaels. One of the topics discussed included Michaels thoughts about his belief that Knight was “the guy” for WWE and never cared about his older age for someone who could be a future top star in the company.

“I would tell them all the time that there is this guy (L.A. Knight). When people say a WWE guy or a Vince (McMahon) guy, he was f—ing it. I was trying to tell (them), lose the three-eight. He never looked to me like he had any mileage on him… To me, he was still brand fricking new.

Michaels also stated that WWE officials had considered releasing LA Knight several times during Knight’s tenure in their NXT brand. Michaels stated that he would tell WWE officials that Knight could not be released due to him being needed for storylines as a way to save Knight’s job and give him more time to prove his capability as a big star.

“I never lied, I did always have him in stuff. But there were a couple of people that I knew from this mythical age thing, wasn’t fitting their qualifications, but I always kept them in storylines. And so my excuse was, we can’t get rid of him now.”

Michaels also gave his thoughts about how he tried to finesse a “certain someone” but all that would happen was them focusing more on Knight’s older age leading to him getting into a big argument with this person.

“They never f—ing paid attention to us. I was trying to finesse a certain someone, but all he would see is the one number, the three-eight. Someone who’s damn near my age, and I’m having an argument with them. Were you old when you were 38?”

---

More on NXT Viewership for January 23, 2024

The January 23rd episode of WWE NXT saw NXT suffer a large decline in overall viewership and a slight decline in key demographic ranking.

NXT drew 642,000 viewers and a 0.19 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking was 11th place.

Detailed key demographic viewership 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 Over 50 viewership group, which its percentage was not given, and other key demographic viewership groups, which the percentage(s) were also not given.

In terms of notable head-to-head competition, the 2024 United States Presidential New Hampshire Primary drew 1,308,000 viewers on ABC, 1,977,000 viewers on MSNBC, and 1,251,000 viewers on CNN, the 2024 Australian Open drew 523,000 viewers on ESPN, the NBA game of New York Knicks vs. Brooklyn Nets drew 989,000 viewers on TNT, the College basketball game of Texas vs. Oklahoma drew 456,000 viewers on ESPN, Real Housewives of Salt Lake City drew 741,000 viewers on BRAVO, Moonshiners drew 798,000 viewers on Discovery Channel, Curse of Oak Island drew 2,329,000 viewers on History Channel, 1000-LB Sisters drew 1,285,000 viewers on TLC, and Love & Hip Hop Atlanta drew 386,000 viewers on MTV.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 255,000 viewers.

In terms of peak viewership, NXT’s peak overall viewership reportedly was at 700,000 viewers during the quarter hour featuring the 2024 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Semifinal Round match of Bron Breakker & Baron Corbin vs. Axiom & Nathan Frazer, the Trick Williams, Josh Briggs, & Ilja Dragunov backstage segment, and William Regal & Ava backstage segment. NXT peak key demographic viewership reportedly was at 294,000 viewers for the same quarter hour. NXT’s overrun reportedly drew 549,000 overall viewers and 204,000 key demographic viewers. Meltzer reported that this week’s overrun for NXT had the rare occurrence of dropping in viewership with a decline of 40,000 in both overall viewers and key demographic viewers compared to the eighth quarter.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was up 5.8% in overall viewership and up 57.4% in key demographic viewership.