Reason for Blackouts During The Rock’s Promo on Friday’s SmackDown Show
Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Glendale, Arizona featured a very lengthy opening promo segment involving The Bloodline and The Rock that went almost 40 minutes in length. This segment was notable for The Rock’s portion of the promo segment dealing with consistent blacked out screens and muting censorship on FOX.
PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that the reason for the multiple blackouts during The Rock’s promo was due FOX officials not being happy over a “Die Rocky Die” sign that was visible in the crowd. FOX officials reported wanted that sign to be censored whenever it was shown on camera.
More on NXT Viewership for February 27, 2024
The February 27th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT suffer a large decline in overall viewership, a small decline in key demographic rankings, and a slight decline in key demographic ratings.
NXT drew 570,000 viewers and a 0.16 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking was 10th 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 key demographic viewership group, which was down 9.5% compared to last week’s show. Meltzer reported that NXT’s overall viewership was its lowest since the July 4, 2023 show and their key demographic viewership was its lowest since the August 29, 2023 show.
In terms of notable head-to-head competition, the NBA game of Philadelphia 76ers vs. Boston Celtics drew 1,179,000 viewers on TNT, the College basketball game of Kentucky vs. Mississippi State drew 934,000 viewers on ESPN, the College basketball game of Texas vs. Texas Tech drew 479,000 viewers on ESPN, the College basketball game of Cincinnati vs. Houston drew 252,000 viewers on ESPN2, Vanderpump Rules drew 930,000 viewers on BRAVO, Watch What Happens Live drew 506,000 viewers on BRAVO, Curse of Oak Island drew 2,446,000 viewers on History Channel, and Love & Hip Hop Atlanta drew 338,000 viewers on MTV.
In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 214,000 viewers. Meltzer reported that NXT’s male/female viewership split 63.6% in favor of males.
In terms of peak viewership, NXT’s peak overall viewership and key demographic viewership were not given by Meltzer. NXT’s eightth quarter reportedly drew 543,000 overall viewers and 203,000 key demo viewers for the NXT Heritage Cup Championship match of Charlie Dempsey vs. Noam Dar (c). Meltzer reported that this week’s NXT show had the rare occurrence where their overrun lost viewers instead of gaining viewers. NXT’s overrun reportedly drew 524,000 overall viewers and 192,000 key demo viewers for the Ilja Dragunov, Carmelo Hayes, & Tony D’Angelo sit-down promo segment.
In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was up 2.7% in overall viewership and up 21.6% in key demographic viewership.
WWE News & Notes
Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that Jason Jordan was the backstage producer for the very lengthy The Bloodline and The Rock promo segment at Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Glendale, Arizona. It was also reported that The Rock’s promo portion went way over the allocated time given which led to WWE officials needing to adjusting the times for other stuff on the show as a result.
WWE held one dark match prior to the start of Friday’s SmackDown show in Glendale. This was a tag team match of Ashante the Adonis & Cedric Alexander defeating Pretty Deadly. Following the show, WWE held two post-show dark matches. These were Damian Priest defeating The Miz in a singles match and Cody Rhodes defeating Drew McIntyre.
As noted before, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson released a lengthy promo video on social media directed towards Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins prior to the start of Friday’s WWE SmackDown show. The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported in Friday’s Daily Update that his sources stated that this was the promo in general that Johnson had wanted to do for that night’s show but was been told by WWE officials this would not be possible due to time-related issues.
Cody Rhodes recently responded on Twitter to The Rock’s lengthy promo video prior to the start of this Friday’s SmackDown show. Rhodes stated “I ain’t watching all that. I happy for u tho. or sorry that happened.”
As noted before, Tama Tonga is currently expected to be joining WWE following his contract with New Japan Pro Wrestling expiring this past January and finished up his commitments this past February. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that WWE officials have held talks regarding the idea of Tonga joining The Bloodline in some form for their current plans for him in the company.
Dave Meltzer reported in a recent episode of the Wrestling Observer Radio that his sources stated that USA Network officials plans as of last month was for SmackDown to remain on Fridays once it officially moves back to the network this October.
WWE filed a trademark for “Saquon Shugars” on February 28th for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
2K Games recently released a new video for their upcoming WWE 2K24 video game focusing on this year’s MyRISE mode.
As noted before, WWE commentator Kevin Patrick was released from WWE this past January following him being dropped as the lead commentator for their SmackDown brand. In a recent interview with 700WLW Weekends, Patrick gave his thoughts about his time in WWE and release from the company. Patrick stated “Absolutely loved my time with WWE. Nothing but love for everybody there. I’ll look back on my time there brilliantly, and I know I’ll go visit friends when WWE is in town, I’ll go say hi to everybody. I left very amicably with everybody there.” (Transcript h/t: CagesideSeats.com)
WWE recently announced one match for the card of next week’s SmackDown show on March 8th in Dallas, Texas:
- Bobby Lashley vs. Karrion Kross
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