WWE: Natalya Expiring Contract Update, Javier Bernal Suffered Broken Foot Injury, More on NXT June 4, 2024 Viewership, More News

Jun 8, 2024

Natalya’s WWE Contract Status Update

As noted before, Natalya’s contract with WWE is currently set to expire very soon.

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that Natalya has yet to sign a new potential deal as of this past Thursday. Despite the lack of a new deal, Natalya and WWE officials reportedly have still been in talks for a potentkal new deal.

Those spoken to reportedly stated that Natalya currently has outside interest for a number of roles in “addition to wrestling” and it is plausible that Natalya could assist working on this year’s upcoming Owen Hart Cup tournament in AEW. Those spoken to within AEW reportedly have not confirmed this being a potential plans for this year’s tournament.

Javier Bernal Announces He Suffered Broken Foot Injury & Surgery Being Probable

In a recent Twitch stream, NXT talent Javier Bernal announced thatb he had recently suffered a broken foot injury. Bernal also stated that he was initially expected to only be out of action for at least six weeks but an MRI test revealed that his injury was more severe and will probably need to undergo surgery that would put him out of action for at least six months instead.

“Well I found out the other day that I broke my foot in a few places so, you know, that sucks. Yeah, it’s kind of hard to say out loud but… let’s get through this. So, excuse me. A lot of you guys know me as Big Body Javi on television but, this is all I ever wanted to do man… That’s tough man, that’s tough (Bernal said as he became emotional while speaking about the injury) … So you guys probably saw a clip and I’m sure I’ll post a clip in the next few days. But, yeah, I broke my foot in a few places. It stinks, it is what it is. I found out — what is it? Two days ago that I broke it in a few places and initially I was told that I probably wasn’t going to need surgery but then, the next day, the M.R.I. was a little cloudy and they looked at it and it looks like I probably will have surgery on my foot. I was looking at six weeks with no surgery and from what I understand, it’s looking like six months.”

@CoreyBrennanFF @SeanRossSapp Javier Bernal sadly announcing that he is injured following the events of a dive on NXT LVL UP… Hes going to require surgery and miss up to 6 months of action 😔 Get well soon Javi! pic.twitter.com/y7pjXe1jBq
— Rony Mac (@TheRONYBrand) June 8, 2024

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

More on NXT Viewership for June 4, 2024

The June 4th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT gain a large increase in overall viewership and key demographic rankings but also suffered a slight decline in key demographic ratings.

NXT drew 768,000 viewers and a 0.22 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking was 1st 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 the lack of stiff sports competition form the 2024 NBA and NHL Playoffs, the current season of Vanderpump Rules being over, and the large gains from their Over 50 key demographic viewership group, which its percentage was not given. This reportedly offset the small decline from their overall key demographic viewership group, which was down 6.9% compared to last week’s show.

In terms of notable head-to-head competition, the MLB game of Minnesota Twins vs. New York Yankees drew 462,000 viewers on TBS, the Women’s soccer game of United States vs. Republic of Korea drew 462,000 viewers on TNT, The Valley drew 670,000 viewers on BRAVO, Secret Skinwalker Ranch drew 1,512,000 viewers on History Channel, Chopped drew 523,000 viewers on Food Network, and Catfish drew 411,000 viewers on MTV.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 295,000 viewers.

In terms of peak viewership, NXT’s peak overall viewership was at 786,000 viewers for the first quarter hour featuring the Ethan Page video segment, the Jordynne Grace vs. Stevie Turner match & post-match brawl with Roxanne Perez, and the Lash Legends & Trick Williams NXT parking lot segment. NXT’s peak key demographic viewership was at 321,000 viewers for the eighth quarter hour featuring the Six-Woman Tag Team match of Sol Ruca, Michin, & Jaida Parker vs. Fallon Henley, Lash Legend, & Kelani Jordan. NXT’s overrun reportedly was 807,000 overall viewers and 343,000 key demo viewers for the Ethan Page NXT contract signing segment with Ava & Trick Williams.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was up 24.9% in overall viewership and up 33.5% in key demographic viewership.

WWE News & Notes

WWE held a new taping for their WWE Speed series prior to the start of Friday’s SmackDown show in Louisville, Kentucky. This taping featured Andrade defeating Ricochet to become the new WWE Speed Champion.

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 Louisville featured a new video teaser for Dallas and Uncle Howdy’s upcoming return to WWE. During Solo Sikoa and Paul Heyman’s backstage segment, the screen briefly glitched and a flashed a new QR code. When scanned, this leads to a Notepad document containing a message of gratitude. This message states “hello. For now, I’m not speaking to them. I intend this for you. You helped him find his way and guided him back home. You found him so I could open his eyes. A new journey began. But we never know how long a journey will last. What I knew to be true was no more. Suddenly, I found myself without a path. I believed myself to be lost. I allowed myself to be blinded. I was going to let the cave win. But I did not stay that way. I found my way out of darkness. I saw what was expected of me and I accepted the cost. I admit, it wasn’t easy. I feared you had forgotten. But you remembered. You remembered who we are. You remembered who you are. Thank you. This is all because of you. We were never the chosen ones. We just wanted to belong. And now we do. I know, I can’t wait to see you t00. I appreciate your excitement. It won’t be long now. I just wanted to say thank you. We have become more than we could ever imagine. Their stories will be told. Their pain will have been worth it. And it’s all because of you. You did this. This is your fault. The blood that rains down drips from your hands. Thank you.“

In a recent episode of The Babyfaces Podcast, Cody Rhodes gave his thoughts about his assessment of his current Undisputed WWE Championship reign in WWE. Rhodes stated “A big thing for me was I wanted the matches to reflect a different time for the title, and I don’t know if the Logan (Paul) one checked that box necessarily but I can tell you the first A.J. (Styles) match certainly did, in terms of what myself as champion would look like. I think a thing to avoid, a pitfall, is to make the comparisons to what Roman (Reigns) did because it was such a unique time. Roman carrying WWE through COVID and having the titles for so many years and all that. For me, it’s all about making it my own thing and the reality is if WrestleMania 40 was the peak, then it was a really incredible peak. But, I have a good tendency to see where the puck is going in the industry and I think it only gets better from here.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)

In a recent interview with The Ringer’s Wrestling Show podcast, NXT talent Jaida Parker gave her thoughts about how she has been studying matches from Rob Van Dam and The Hardys to help prepare for her upcoming NXT Women’s North American Championship Ladder match at this Sunday’s NXT Battleground 2024 event. Parker stated “I’ve reached out to many of my coaches, those who have been in ladder matches. I wouldn’t say you can’t prepare for it, but the mental aspect of it, there’s no preparing for that, either do it or you don’t. I’m gonna do it with 110% because if I don’t, I won’t get what I want at the end of the day. The way that helped me ramp up for it, and I’m still ramping up for it, is just watching legends perform in different ladder matches and see how they do it. I was just watching RVD and [the] Hardy[s], you know what I’m saying? I had to put my mind in their position, I had to take myself out of my body and put it in their position like, what the hell are they thinking? What do I have to do to get there? They just went 110%, so if they can do it, why can’t I do it?” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

As noted before, Arn Anderson’s contract with AEW expired at the end of this past May and departed from the company. In a recent interview with the Busted Open Radio podcast, Anderson gave his thoughts about the potential of him reuniting with Cody Rhodes in WWE in the future. Anderson stated “I wonder what that was about. What was he setting me up for on that deal? (Anderson said in response to Cody Rhodes’ positive comments about him). I did, I did (hear what Rhodes said) and I was very, very humbled and appreciative and he’s right. It’s like, when I left WWE, I was prepared to be retired. Maybe do a couple of little Comic-Cons here and there. I’d had enough. Jesus Christ, 42 years in the business is enough, and guys, I was never without a job and I’m saying that positive and negative. I worked straight through 42 years. There was never a gap of a year or here or there, six months while I was out of work so, I was ready to be retired and when he called me, said, ‘Man, we got this new company and this is gonna be something cool. Why don’t you come up here and let’s talk and come to our pay-per-view and let’s talk about this’ and it was the last time that I had real fun in the business. He allowed me to have some fun on my way out, which I thought I was way past that so I was very appreciative of that.” Anderson also stated that he is currently focused on dedicating his time to helping his son Brock Anderson’s wrestling career progress. Anderson stated “In case you don’t know, I am 65 and my liver is 127. I am on short time and I don’t have a lot of time, probably on the planet, much less in the business. But, I am dedicating whatever time I have left in one way or the other to helping my son Brock (Anderson), who is breaking in, get a spot in the business with some company and get established and help him get to a position where he can make a living, he could contribute and be a valuable asset to whatever company that uses him. That’s what I wanna dedicate whatever time I have left for. If that means what we’re doing now, we’re running around, driving to some indies and people that are using us. A.M.L., thank you. Just whatever shots that are in driving range that are plausible. I don’t wanna get on a plane these days unless I just have to-to be honest with you so if I can drive it and he can drive it, let’s do it and we’ll just go around and exercise our name to help these young, independent promotions maybe draw a few more people. But, would I come back in the right situation for a short-term something with Cody? If anybody out there thinks it’s a good idea, let me know, I don’t know. That would be something because he and I never had that conversation, and after that thing blew up just a couple weeks ago or whenever it was coming off you guys’ show, that blew up and it was like, okay, ‘He’s coming back…’ And I sent him a text and his wife has been ill, asked how she was, asked how he was, ‘Everything going okay?’ And we had a couple of texts back-and-forth and it never came up. So I went, ‘Maybe that was just him testing waters himself, when he threw that out there.’ I’m not sure. I was honored and flattered of the things he said, but it’s all true and that’s the way I handle Cody. ‘Hey, you’re the star of the show. Go out there and act like one.’” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)