WWE: More on WWE’s Decision to Not Induct Bray Wyatt into This Year’s Hall of Fame Class, More on NXT March 19, 2024 Viewership, More News

WWE

Mar 23, 2024

WWE Hall of Fame 2024 Class Update – Reason Bray Wyatt Not Being Included in This Year’s Class

As noted before, WWE is currently expected to announce Lia Maivia as the next inductee for this year’s class of inductees for their Hall of Fame. WWE had plans art one point to potentially induct the late Bray Wyatt as a member of this year’s class but decided instead to save him for a future class.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that WWE’s upcoming new Bray Wyatt: Becoming Immortal documentary film played a key role in WWE’s decision to not induct Wyatt into their Hall of Fame for this year’s class.

WWE officials reportedly decided to honor Wyatt with this documentary film for this year and save his induction for a future WWE Hall of Fame class instead of doing both at the same time.

More on NXT Viewership for March 19, 2024

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

NXT drew 569,000 viewers and a 0.18 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking was 8th 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 mixed results this week was due to a combination of stiff sports competition from the 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament and the large declines from their Over 50 viewership and older key demographic viewership groups, which the percentages were not given. This reportedly mostly offset the large gains from their younger key demographic viewership group, which the percentage was not given.

In terms of notable head-to-head competition, the 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament game of Wagner vs. Howard drew 1,916,000 viewers on TruTV, the 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament game of Colorado State vs. Virginia drew 1,747,000 viewers on TruTV, the NBA game of Denver Nuggets vs. Minnesota Timberwolves drew 458,000 viewers on NBA TV, Vanderpump Rules drew 988,000 viewers on BRAVO, Watch What Happens Live drew 644,000 viewers on BRAVO, The Valley drew 779,000 viewers on BRAVO, Curse of Oak Island drew 2,425,000 viewers on History Channel, Love & Hip Hop Atlanta drew 400,000 viewers on MTV, and Little People Big World drew 894,000 viewers on TLC.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 228,000 viewers.

In terms of peak viewership, NXT’s peak overall viewership was not given by Meltzer but it reportedly took place during the quarter hour featuring the Sol Ruca vs. Brinley Reese match. NXT’s peak key demographic viewership reportedly was not given as well but also took place during the same quarter hour. NXT’s overrun reportedly drew 656,000 overall viewers and 293,000 key demographic viewers for the Trick Williams vs. Noam Dar & post-match brawl with Carmelo Hayes, up from their eighth quarter of 550,000 overall viewers and 231,000 key demo viewers.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was up 3.5% in overall viewership and up 46.2% in key demographic viewership. Meltzer reported that the main reason for NXT’s huge gain in key demo viewership was due to last week’s show went head-to-head against the World Baseball Classic championship game.

WWE News & Notes

WWE held a new taping for their upcoming new WWE Speed series prior to the start of Friday’s SmackDown show in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. WWE held two matches which were Cedric Alexander defeating Odyssey Jones and Tyler Bate defeating Angel.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that NXT talents Edris Enofe, Malik Blade, and Myles Borne were in attendance backstage at Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Milwaukee.

WWE recently announced that a Bray Wyatt documentary panel, a Mattel panel with CM Punk, and a second live episode of The Pat McAfee Show will be held at their WWE World at WrestleMania event on April 4-8 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Seth Rollins recently reached the milestone of 300 days on Friday for his current reign as WWE World Heavyweight Champion.

Roman Reigns recently reached the milestone of 1300 days on Friday for his Universal Championship reign as part of his current reign as Undisputed WWE Universal Champion.

NXT talent Arianna Grace recently asked NXT fans on Twitter to take a shower and with soap before they attend NXT shows due to her not wanting to be bothered with stinky crowds. Grace stated “Remember… if you’re coming to NXT Sanford tonight, please shower with soap before arriving. Thanks so much for your understanding 🥹💕 #wwenxt #nxtlive #nxtsanford” It is currently not known if Grace was just in character when she made the tweet or she really can’t stand the stink of crowds for her matches at NXT shows.

Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Milwaukee featured Dominik Mysterio making a surprise appearance and helped Santos Escobar defeat his father Rey Mysterio in a singles match at the show. Following Santos’ match, WWE held a digital exclusive backstage interview with Santos and Dominik disussing their thoughts about Santos’ victory. Santos stated “The stipulation was no LDF, and no LWO. Last time I checked, ‘Dirty Dom’ is Judgment Day. He’s not Legado Del Fantasma, he’s not LWO. But the one thing we have in common is that we both hate Rey Mysterio.” In response to backstage interviewer Byron Saxton comments about if Dominik’s interference cheapened the win, Dominik stated “First of all, Byron, a win’s a win. It doesn’t matter how it comes. A win is a win. The Judgment Day runs all. Monday Night Raw, Friday Night SmackDown, it doesn’t matter. So like I said, a win is a win.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with The Pat McAfee Show podcast, Roman Reigns gave his thoughts about Paul Heyman’s upcoming induction into WWE’s Hall of Fame. Reigns stated “Whoever does (the induction) needs to be themselves and tell the truth because Paul is an incredible man…an unbelievable man. What he’s done in this business and his personal life, which I know well because I’m friends with him and work with him…I have the utmost respect for him. No one deserves a hall of fame induction more than him … He knows what it’s like to be on the marquee. He’s worked around (the business) and in it his whole life is seems like.” Reigns also stated that working with Heyman is like a “performance enhancer” and “PED” for the impact Heyman has had on his career in WWE. (Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com)

In the same interview, Roman Reigns also gave his thoughts about the future of his wrestling career. Reigns stated “Yeah, I’m just scratching the surface. I’m still experimenting and figuring stuff out. I’m 38 years young. I’m a young man and have so much stuff to do. If we were able to do this in four years, imagine what we can conquer in another decade. The work has been put in. The skin still looks good. I don’t see it stopping anytime. We’re about to set more records WrestleMania weekend with the main events. We’re chasing landmarks and different history marks with the title reign. There is so much history left to make. I don’t see it ever ending.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with The Ringer’s Cheap Heat podcast, Becky Lynch gave her thoughts about her current working relationship with Charlotte Flair despite their past issues. Lynch stated “Yeah, I think [they’re] good. Look, I think, in writing this book, at no point and certainly not that I…I certainly did not intend to in any way be disparaging against her, and I don’t think I am. I think I’m fair in trying to give her perspective in things. Because I don’t think it’s fair to completely bury somebody in a book, especially in a world that is so subjective. Because they don’t have the opportunity to defend themselves. So I talk about our fallouts, but I at least try to paint it from her perspective as well as from my own. Working together, yeah, it was easy because I think the undercurrent of all of it, fallouts and all, is love. You get more upset by somebody hurting you if you’ve loved them, or you do love them than from somebody that you had no relationship with at all. That is the thing with Charlotte. We were best friends, we were like sisters, then we fell out, wrestling came between us. Then we came back together, then the notorious fallout with the titles, but I think throughout all of that, if she ever needed anything, I’d be there for her, and I think if I ever needed anything, she’d be there for me. I think that trumps all. I think life is too short to hold these animosities for too long. I think if you hold them too long, they weigh down on you. There’s just no point in that. We’ve lost some people in the last year, in the last few years, and it just reminds you how precious this life, and how special this thing that we’re doing is, and we can have those disagreements, we can have those conflicts, and rivalries, and we can not always see eye to eye in business, and that’s what makes business better, when people feel like it’s real. But at the end of the day, you gotta remind yourself what’s important.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

WWE recently announced four new matches for the card of their WWE Friday Night SmackDown show on March 29th in Uncasville, Connecticut:

Bianca Belair vs. Dakota Kai
WWE Tag Team Championship Six-Pack Challenge Ladder Qualifier Tournament match – Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins) vs. Grayson Waller & Austin Theory
WWE Tag Team Championship Six-Pack Challenge Ladder Qualifier Tournament match – New Catch Republic (Pete Dunne & Tyler Bate) vs. Legado del Fantasma (Berto & Angel)
Kevin Owens & Randy Orton vs. Pretty Deadly (Kit Wilson & Elton Prince)

WWE also announced three new matches for the card of their WWE RAW show on March 25th in Chicago, Illinois:

Andrade vs. Ivar
Sami Zayn vs. Bronson Reed
Jey Uso vs. Shinsuke Nakamura