LA Knight Comments on “Sometimes I Get Myself In Trouble Because I Work Off The Cuff, Sometimes WWE Likes A Little Structure”
SPORTbible held a recent interview with LA Knight. One of the topics discussed included Knight’s thoughts about him being authentic with his promos and how sometimes it gets himself in trouble in WWE because he works off the cuff.
“Sometimes I get myself in trouble because I like to work a little more off the cuff and sometimes they [WWE management] like a little structure. I try to meet them in the middle on that and for me, I want to listen and react instead of thinking of all this prefab. It didn’t feel right to me. If I want to be as authentic as I can be and connect with everybody out there, I need to listen. Instead of going out there pre-planned, just being able to be authentically me has been a godsend. Sometimes I have to meet them in the middle but for the most part, they’re like, ‘We’ll let you do your thing but just don’t push it.”
More on NXT Nov. 12, 2024 Viewership
The November 12th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT gain a small increase in overall viewership but suffered a slight decline in key demographic ratings. This week’s show was notable for NXT returning to its normal Tuesday night timeslot following the prior week’s show being preempted to a Wednesday’s night timeslot due to The CW’s 2024 Presidential Election news coverage and going head-to-head with AEW’s Dynamite show.
NXT drew 631,000 viewers and a 0.16 key demographic rating on The CW.
Detailed key demographic viewership breakdowns were not available in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the main reasons for NXT’s mixed results this week was due to the large gain from their younger key demographic viewership group, which was up 10% compared to last week’s show, and the small increase from their Over 50 demographic viewership group, which its percentage was not given. This reportedly mostly offset the large decline from their older key demographic viewership group, which its percentage was not given. Meltzer reported that another reason for NXT’s mixed results was due to the show peaked with its first quarter and then went downwards throughout the show in terms of overall viewership for quarters.
In terms of head-to-head competition, the NBA game of New York Knicks vs. Philadelphia 76ers drew 1,714,000 viewers on ESPN, the College basketball game of Duke vs. Kentucky drew 1,836,000 viewers on ESPN, the College basketball game of Michigan State vs. Kansas drew 1,411,000 viewers on ESPN, the College football game of Western Michigan vs. Bowling Green drew 269,000 viewers on ESPN2, 1000-LB Sisters drew 773,000 viewers on TLC, Curse of Oak Island drew 1,444,000 viewers on History Channel, Moonshiners drew 615,000 viewers on Discovery Channel, and Real Housewives of New York City drew 359,000 viewers on BRAVO.
In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 214,000 viewers. Meltzer reported that NXT’s male/female viewership skew was 65.6% in favor of males.
In terms of peak viewership, NXT’s peak overall viewership was at 741,000 viewers for the first quarter featuring the Giulia & Stephanie Vaquer vs. Meta-Four tag team match. NXT’s peak key demographic viewership was 250,000 viewers for the quarter hour featuring the Trick Williams, Andre Chase, & Ridge Holland in-ring promo segment. NXT’s eighth quarter drew 575,000 viewers and 185,000 key demographic viewers for the NXT Women’s North American Championship match of Kelani Jordan vs. Fallon Henley (c) and the NXT tag teams mass brawl.
In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was down 10.2% in overall viewership and down 23.8% in key demographic viewership. Meltzer reported that NXT’s 18-34 key demographic viewership was down 35.3% compared to the same week last year.
WWE News & Notes
Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Milwaukee, Wisconsin featured RAW brand talents Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez making a surprise appearance. During the WWE Women’s Championship match between Naomi and Nia Jax, WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Bianca Belair & Jade Cargill were seen backstage being attacked by Morgan & Rodriguez.
Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Milwaukee also featured another tease of a potential split involving DIY’s Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano. During the WWE Tag Team Championship match between Street Profits and Motor City Machine Guns, Ciampa ran out to the ring and attacked Chris Sabin, Angelo Dawkins, and Montez Ford resulting in the referee calling for the bell. This led to Gargano coming out to confront Ciampa over his actions only for Ciampa to shove Gargano to the mat and angrily yelled at him before leaving.
Dave Meltzer announced in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Roman Reigns and former WWE wrestler Paul Orndorff were among the inductees for this year’s class for the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame. In regards to Reigns, Meltzer reported that Reigns received 66.7% votes and above the 60% vote threshold needed for induction. Reigns reportedly also received the highest vote total percentage out of the 9 inductees for this year’s class.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Blake Howard is the identity of the new NXT backstage interviewer who appeared at this past Tuesday’s NXT show. Meltzer reported that Howard currently works as the announcer for WWE’s NXT LVL Up show. Meltzer also reported that Howard will be filling in for Kelly Kincaid, who is on maternity leave from WWE.
As noted before, WWE is currently believed to be working on plans to hold a second Saturday Night’s Main Event show the week before next year’s Royal Rumble event on January 25, 2025. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources confirmed that WWE officials currently have plans to hold another SNME show in January of 2025. Meltzer reported that those spoken to stated that WWE officials are currently considering the idea of holding this planned show in San Antonio, Texas.
WWE recently released two new videos to their WWE Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video was a “‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage Mix Tape: Full Matches, Iconic Promos and Unseen Footage.” The second new video was a WWF Championship match of The Undertaker vs. Hulk Hogan (c) from WWE Survivor Series 1991.
In a recent interview with the Gabby AF podcast, WWE interviewer, correspondent, and show host Jackie Redmond gave her thoughts about the future of her broadcast wrestling career. Redmond stated “And then for wrestling, like I said, I didn’t seek it out and I don’t mean that as a negative thing. I wasn’t looking for it. It kind of found me and I think the universe works in mysterious ways and I think I needed it. I needed that sort of spark and so now I’m kind of like, well what can I do in WWE? I’m doing the Countdown shows which I love, the sit-down interviews which I love. But I do think there’s probably room to grow and push myself to do more and so I’m trying to figure out what that is. But I’m very happy with where I’m at. But I hope, I hope I can stick around in WWE for a little bit longer. Hopefully. If the fans will have me.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
In a recent interview with 8 News Now, Bayley gave her thoughts about her heel turn in July of 2022 and heel run with Damage CTRL. Bayley stated “I don’t know. Sometimes I think about where I would be with the fans because when I became a bad guy, I felt like I lost a genuine connection with fans where it was like, oh, they don’t know how they feel about me or whether they still wanna like me or what it was. It was a genuine disconnection. So sometimes I still think about, man, I wonder if I never would’ve done that, where I would be? Or if I’d be better or if I’d be off worse but then, I think about times like during the pandemic, I don’t know if that character would have been able to last through the pandemic and have the type of success that I did then, you know? So, I always credit them allowing me to have that moment and them allowing me to explore my world. Because I didn’t feel that what I was doing at the time was gonna extend my career any longer so I knew I needed to turn that page and just make something different happen. As a fan, I wanted to do everything. I wanna be the bad guy, I wanna be the good guy, I wanna get married on WWE. I wanna have all the crazy storylines so, that was the first taste of doing something different for myself. I cater to a lot of fans coming in, but that was something I felt I needed for my career so, I don’t regret that at all.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
In a recent separate interview with FOX 2 Detroit, Bayley gave her thoughts about WWE recently debuting a new Women’s United States Championship in the company. Bayley stated “I don’t know if everybody has seen it but we have a new U.S. Women’s Championship that just got introduced last week so that just means more opportunity for the women and it’s a really exciting time.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)
WWE recently announced one new match for their WWE Live Event show on December 26th at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York:
- Steel Cage match – Seth Rollins vs. Bronson Reed
[Spoiler] New WWE Speed Champion Crowned at Friday’s SmackDown Tapings
WWE held a new taping for their WWE Speed series prior to the start of Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
This taping featured Dragon Lee defeating Andrade to become the new WWE Speed Champion.
And new!!!!! Dragon Lee is the new WWE Speed Champion after defeating Andrade. This match was amazing!!! #SmackDown #wwemilwaukee pic.twitter.com/ndKMFD7uDm
— Steven Radmer (@Steven_R) November 16, 2024
AEW Rampage Results – Nov. 15, 2024 – Ricochet vs. Dante Martin
AEW: Jake Hager Confirms His AEW Contract Expired This Past June, Kris Statlander on Reason for Her Split from Stokely Hathaway, MVP on Wrestling Career Future
NJPW Announces New Match for Wrestle Kingdom 19 & Two New Matches for NJPW x AEW Wrestle Dynasty,
