WWE: Jey Uso on Getting Message from JoJo Offerman in Support of His Fireflies Entrance at Backlash 2024, More on NXT May 14, 2024 Viewership, More News

May 18, 2024

Jey Uso Comments on Message He Received from JoJo Offerman Over His Fireflies Entrance at WWE Backlash 2024

A recent episode of the Battleground Podcast featured Jey Uso as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Uso revealing that he received a message of support from Bray Wyatt’s widow JoJo Offerman following his fireflies style entrance at WWE’s Backlash 2024 event in France earlier this month.

“Man, you know, the crazy part is it was so loud in there (at WWE Backlash), you can’t hear it, if that makes sense because, man, I had no idea they would do that, and as soon as I saw it, I thought it was like how we all thought about him (Windham Rotunda). It was emotional. I was so overwhelmed by it. If I could explain it uce, it looked like a wave of stars come falling on you. It looked like it was endless. It would never be replicated like that again, or I don’t think I’ll ever feel that kind of — I wrestled in front of some big crowds, but man, this Lyon, France was probably my favorite experience in wrestling ever. This is why we wrestle right here, for moments like this that just organically happen here and I was really happy. It was just with me, and I wanna call ‘em fireflies or whatever you wanna call ‘em because that’s what they are to me. So yeah, I was really happy that it just — they just did with me.
I think the most I was validated was, I mean, his wife, JoJo (Offerman), Bray Wyatt’s wife had text me and just said how much she was emotional watching. She saw clips of it on YouTube and that let me know right there, alright, I’ma keep it. I hope it sticks with me. I never asked for it. They did it and I just wanna keep it with me now.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

More on NXT Viewership for May 14, 2024

The May 14th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT suffer a very large decline in overall viewership, a small decline in key demographic rankings, and a slight decline in key demographic ratings.

NXT drew 567,000 viewers and a 0.18 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking was 13th 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 declines from their Over 50 viewership group, which its percentage was not given, and the small decline from their overall key demographic viewership, which was down 4.4% compared to last week’s show. Meltzer reported that NXT’s viewership skew for this week’s show was one of its youngest ever in NXT history.

In terms of notable head-to-head competition, the 2024 NBA Playoffs Game 5 of Indiana Pacers vs. New York Knicks drew 4,180,000 viewers on TNT and 700,000 viewers on TruTV, the 2024 NHL Playoffs Game 5 of Boston Bruins vs. Florida Panthers drew 1,999,000 viewers on ESPN, the NHL Playoffs Game 4 of Vancouver Canucks vs. Edmonton Oilers drew 989,000 viewers on ESPN, the WNBA game of Indiana Fever vs. Connecticut Sun drew 2,120,000 viewers on ESPN2, the MLB game of New York Yankees vs. Minnesota Twins drew 308,000 viewers on TBS, Vanderpump Rules drew 1,022,000 viewers on BRAVO, The Valley drew 649,000 viewers on BRAVO, Secret Skinwalker Ranch drew 1,394,000 viewers on History Channel, and Catfish drew 274,000 viewers on MTV.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 240,000 viewers.

In terms of peak viewership, NXT’s peak overall viewership was at 627,000 viewers for the quarter hour featuring the OTM vs. Edris Enofe & Malik Blade tag team match, the Nathan Frazier, Axiom, The O.C., & Ridge Holland backstage segment, and the Ivy Nile vs. Lash Legend match. NXT’s peak key demographic viewership was at 277,000 viewers for the same quarter hour. NXT’s overrun reportedly was 490,000 overall viewers and 227,000 key demo viewers for the ending of the Heritage Cup Championship match of Tony D’Angelo vs. Charlie Dempsey and the Gallus backstage return segment. Meltzer reported that NXT’s show this week had the rare occurrence where the overrun lost viewers compared to their eighth quarter hour, which drew 508,000 overall viewers.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was up 0.5% in overall viewership and up 31.9% in key demographic viewership.

WWE News & Notes

As noted before, WWE currently has plans for Bo Dallas and the Uncle Howdy character’s return to the company. Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Jacksonville, Florida featured a new video teaser for Dallas and Uncle Howdy’s upcoming return. During the show, the screen briefly glitched again and a flashed a new QR code. When scanned, this leads to a new video featuring a photo of a kid wearing face paint. A voice can be heard repeatedly stating “He is nobody. He is all of us.” before ending with “Do you want to meet him?” and the outline of a mysterious figure being shown. Friday’s show was also notable for Corey Graves and Wade Barrett publicly acknowledging the glitch for the first time on the SmackDown brand and bringing up footage from this past Thursday’s WWE Twitch stream glitch.

Bayley recently reflected on Twitter about this year’s Queen of the Ring tournament and her belief that this is a calling for WWE to hold another all-women’s Evolution event in the future. Bayley stated “This #QueenOfTheRing tournament is calling for an Evolution 2.@WWE #Smackdown“

In a recent interview with WWE Die Woche, Lola Vice gave her thoughts about competing in the first ever Women’s NXT Underground match at NXT Spring Breakin Week 2 show this past April. Vice stated “So, that moment (women’s NXT Underground match) for me was so heartwarming because not only was it the first time the women in NXT get the opportunity to do that but, I felt like myself in the cage again and I hadn’t felt that way in almost two years after making this transition. But in that moment, my fighter came out and I felt like I was in the cage against Natalya. Natalya, she’s incredible and she brought it that day. She brought it. I can’t stand her though but, I will say it was one of the best moments in NXT I’ve had so far. I admire that woman. She’s been here for so many years and she’s seen it all and I would never be able to take away the accolades that she’s done for this company and I’m grateful to have these opportunities to compete against her and these are memories I’ll remember for the rest of my life.” Vice also gave her thoughts about her current pairing with Shayna Baszler in NXT. Vice stated “So, Shayna (Baszler) and I were training partners. We’ve been training a lot together. She’s brought back that energy I feel in a fight camp from American Top Team is what Shayna has provided for me. But I will say, she doesn’t let me be me. She doesn’t let me dance, she doesn’t let me be me and it’s annoying but I do respect her and I love training with her and I appreciate her advice.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)

In a recent interview with the Jaxxon Podcast, Rey Mysterio gave his thoughts about the success his son Dominik has found in WWE and how separating from him was the best thing to happen to Dominik’s career in the company. Mysterio stated “For my son to come in out of nowhere and not have my style, have a different build. He’s 6’1. He’s about 190 [lbs]. So it was very hard for him at the beginning to try to adapt and find his role as a wrestler. The comparisons — they were made. And of course, he couldn’t live up to them. Not until we separated and he continued on his own path without having his dad by his side. And that was the best thing that could have ever happened to him.” (Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com)

In a recent interview with The Wrestling Classic’s Casual Conversations with The Classic podcast, Natayla gave her thoughts about WWE’s recent talent releases from their NXT brand and how WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque is known for giving people second chances and hiring them back. Natayla stated “That’s the fun part about this business. It’s never-ending, it’s always evolving. It’s always growing, it’s ever-changing. The other great thing about Triple H that I love is that he gives people second chances. So yes, this week we saw a lot of people get cut from NXT. He’s been known to hire people back. Look at Tegan [Nox], look at Scarlett and Karrion [Kross]. Dakota [Kai], B-Fab. Tehuti [Miles]. He’s been known to give people second chances, and I think that’s so…people need to know that if they want this badly enough, the brick walls are there for a reason. This is a quote from a book that I love, but the brick walls are there to keep the people that don’t want it badly enough, they’re there to keep those people out.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with The Ringer’s Masked Man Show podcast, Seven Bucks Production and WWE executive Brian Gewirtz stated that WWE’s original plan for Cody Rhodes’ promo on the February 2nd SmackDown show involving him stepping aside and giving his WrestleMania 40 match against Roman Reigns to The Rock was much different on paper. Gewirtz stated “Cody is a human being who is genuine and real, and he wears his heart and emotion on his sleeve. In Alabama [February 2nd WWE SmackDown], certainly, even if you tell me, ‘that would never work, it’s stupid to propose it.’ The idea was supposed to be, it’s like the Nixon-Kenedy debate a little bit where you read the transcript, you’re like ‘Nixon kicked his ass.’ If you watch the actual footage, ‘Oh, he was a sweaty terrible mess.’ Cody, it was supposed to be, in some form, ‘Yeah, Fuckin A! Go get em Rock! You’re going to get your ass kicked, Roman! Let’s do this!’ and this uplifting promo. Instead, he looked like someone shot his dog in the face in the parking lot. Just look at his expression. By the way, someone else, even when the team wins, looks forlorn and upset and despondent. Julius Randle [laughs]. That, I don’t think, helped matters. It might not have changed or affected anything. Certainly, on paper, and I don’t blame Cody for that, he’s real and one of the realest people I’ve ever met. He said what he had to say in the promo, but you couldn’t mask what he was really feeling, and I think the fans felt that a lot. They felt like ‘he doesn’t mean a word of this. This is being forced for him to say.’ He’s despondent. He’s literally doing the Michael Cera-Arrested Development, Charlie Brown walk out of the arena when he’s supposed to be on cloud nine. I think that had a lot to do with it.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

WWE announced four matches for the card of next week’s WWE SmackDown show on May 24th in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia:

2024 King of the Ring Semifinal Round match – Randy Orton vs. Tama Tonga
2024 Queen of the Ring Semifinal Round match – Bianca Belair vs. Nia Jax
Bayley vs. Chelsea Green
The Bloodline (Solo Sikoa & Tonga Loa) vs. The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford)