WWE: WWE Announces “Old School” Presentation Arena Setup for 12/14 Saturday Night Main Event Return Show, More on NXT Nov. 6, 2024 Viewership, More News

Nov 9, 2024

WWE Announced Old School Look & Arena Setup for This December’s Saturday Night Main Event Show

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that WWE sent an email on Friday to fans and potential ticket purchasers stating that they have released additional tickets for sale for their upcoming Saturday Night’s Main Event show on December 14th at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, Long Island.

Johnson reported that the email also stated that WWE will be bringing an “old school look and feel to Nassau Coliseum on De‍cember 14 for the return of Satu‍rday Night’s Main Event!”

Johnson reported that his sources stated that WWE officials will indeed be going old school for their upcoming event both in terms of broadcast presentation and stage setup. Johnson reported that WWE’s plans includes full arena seating for the show due to a smaller stage setup that will be used compared to them usually closing off a portion of a venue for shows due to their Titantron staging usually used for RAW and SmackDown shows.

More on NXT Nov. 6, 2024 Viewership

The November 6th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT gain a small increase in overall viewership and key demographic ratings. This week’s show was notable for NXT being preempted to a Wednesday night time slot due to The CW’s 2024 Presidential Elections news coverage on the network and for also going head-to-head with AEW’s Dynamite show that night.

NXT drew 619,000 viewers and a 0.17 key demographic rating on The CW.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the main reasons for NXT’s increases this week was due to the large increases from their Over 50 demographic viewership group, which its percentage was not given, and overall key demographic viewership group, which was up 25% compared to last week’s show. This reportedly offset the combo of NXT’s show being preempted outside of its normal night and going head-to-head against AEW’s Dynamite show, as well as the stiff sports competition and news coverage of the 2024 Presidential Election. Meltzer reported that in regards to cable television, all of the top 25 shows for that night were either NBA or news related programs.

In terms of head-to-head competition, AEW Dynamite drew 523,000 viewers on TBS, the NBA game of Golden State Warriors vs. Boston Celtics drew 2,140,000 viewers on ESPN, the NHL game of Detroit Red Wings vs. Chicago Blackhawks drew 327,000 viewers on TNT, the College football game of Northern Illinois vs. Western Michigan drew 442,000 viewers on ESPN2, Survivor drew 4,664,000 viewers on CBS, The Challenge drew 424,000 viewers on MTV, Expedition Unknown drew 816,000 viewers on Discovery Channel, Sistas Series drew 708,000 viewers on BET, and Real Housewives of Salt Lake City drew 354,000 viewers on BRAVO.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 235,000 viewers. Meltzer reported that NXT’s Males 18-49 had 158,000 viewers and Females 18-49 had 77,000 viewers. Meltzer reported that NXT’s male/female viewership skew was 67.2% in favor of males.

In an interesting note, Meltzer reported that NXT topped AEW in six out of the eight quarters for key demographic viewership and all except one quarter for overall viewership.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was down 22% in overall viewership and down 32.3% in key demographic viewership. Meltzer reported that NXT’s 18-34 key demographic viewership was down 54.5% compared to the same week last year.

WWE NXT quarter hour viewership breakdowns were:

1Q – 665,000 overall viewers and 222,000 key demo viewers (ECW style intro video and the bulk of the Special Guest Referee Hardcore match of Lola Vice vs. Jaida Parker)
2Q – 674,000 overall viewers and 261,000 key demo viewers (Ending of the Special Guest Referee Hardcore match, the Ethan Page & Ridge Holland promo video segment, and the Kelani Jordan & Rob Van Dam backstage segment & Wes Lee attack on RVD)
3Q – 653,000 overall viewers and 269,000 key demo viewers (The D’Angelo Family, Shawn Spears, & Nunzio video segment, the Wes Lee vs. Je’Von Evans match, and the Ava & Eddy Thorpe backstage segment)
4Q – 596,000 overall viewers and 248,000 key demo viewers (Ava, Stevie Turner, & Mr. Stone promo segment & Rhyno’s attack on Stone and the Zaria, Jordyne Grace, Stephanie Vaquer, Giulia, Kelania Jordan, & Meta-Four backstage segment)
5Q – 588,000 overall viewers and 233,000 key demo viewers (“All Ego” Ethan Page & Ridge Holland vs. Bubba Ray Dudley & Trick Williams tag team match)
6Q – 563,000 overall viewers and 209,000 key demo viewers (Page & Holland vs. Dudley & Williams post-match brawl with Devon Dudley, the Dion Lennox, Ashante “Thee” Adonis, & Karmen Petrovic backstage segment, the Fatal Influence, Cora Jade, & Roxanne Perez backstage promo segment, the NXT North American Championship match of Nunzio vs. Tony D’Angelo (c), the Shawn Spears & Brooks Jensen backstage segment, and the William Regal, Lexis King, & No Quarter Catch Crew backstage segment)
7Q – 590,000 overall viewers and 210,000 key demo viewers (Nikkita Lyons promo video segment and the Ava, Stevie Turner, Mr. Stone, Nathan Frazer, & Axiom backstage segment
8Q – 625,000 overall viewers and 224,000 key demo viewers (10-Women Tag Team match of Fatal Influence, Cora Jade, & Roxanne Perez vs. Zaria, Stephanie Vaquer, Kelani Jordan, Giulia, & Jordynne Grace)

WWE News & Notes

Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Buffalo, New York featured the official debut of a new WWE Women’s United States Championship for WWE’s RAW and SmackDown’s Women’s divisions. WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque reflected on Twitter about WWE’s new mid-card championship for their main roster Women’s divisions. Levesque stated “The women of WWE continue to show that they are the very best in the business. The Women’s United States Championship will showcase their continued effort. So, who’s going to step up and take it?“

As noted before, WWE recently launched a new indie wrestler development program called WWE ID and have affiliated with several wrestling schools to develop indie wrestlers for potential careers in the company. Post Wrestling’s John Pollock reported that his and Brandon Thurston’s sources stated that there are currently no restrictions when it comes to talent signed under WWE ID deals doing jobs on shows or taking bookings. Pollock reported that this included WWE ID talent being allowed to take bookings with AEW despite it being a rival of the company. Pollock also reported that it is currently not known if medical expenses are covered by WWE for talent under these deals if they suffer an injury.

As noted before, WWE producer Michael Hayes is currently on a leave of absence from WWE due to personal-related issues. Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that WWE producer Jamie Noble has been handling the producing duties for The Bloodline segments on WWE shows during Hayes’ absence.

As noted before, Pro Wrestling NOAH talent Yoshiki Inamura recently joined WWE’s Performance Center and will be working for WWE’s NXT brand as part of WWE’s current working partnership with NOAH. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources confirmed that Inamura going to WWE is not a Giulia-like situation of him leaving Japan for a new career in the company and instead is an excursion type deal.

WWE recently released three new videos to their WWE Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video was a “UNSEEN: Bret Hart and Hakushi clash in Steel Cage Dark Match.” The second new video was a Six-Man Tag Team match of The Shield (Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, & Roman Reigns) vs. New Day (Xavier Woods, Kofi Kingston, & Big E) from WWE Survivor Series 2017. The third new match was a Survivor Series match of Team Miz (Dolph Ziggler, Drew McIntyre, Jack Swagger, The Miz, & Sheamus) vs. Team Morrison (Evan Bourne, Finlay, John Morrison, Matt Hardy, & Shelton Benjamin) from WWE Survivor Series 2009.

Great Lakes Championship Wrestling recently announced that Braun Strowman will be making an appearance for the company at their Blizzard Brawl 2024 event on December 7th in Waukesha, Wisconsin. It was announced that Strowman will be the special guest referee for the tag team match of Santino Marella & Damien Sandow vs. The Newest Rockers (Kal Herro & Al Snow) at the event.

In a recent virtual fan signing event for Signed By Superstars, WWE Hall of Famer Bubba Ray Dudley, also known as Bully Ray outside of WWE, confirmed that he is currently under a Legends contract with WWE. Ray stated “Yes, I do have a (WWE) Legends deal. Yes.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)

This past Wednesday’s WWE NXT show at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania featured Je’Von Evans defeating Wes Lee in a singles match. This match was notable for Evans performing an RVD-inspired Five Star Frog Splash from one end of the ring to the other. Evans recently reflected on Twitter about his Frog Splash on the show was one of the three hardest things he has ever done in his wrestling career. Evans stated “Ain’t Gon Lie, A Frog Splash Across A 20 Foot Ring Is Probably Top 3 Hardest Things I’ve Ever Done…Ong😂💯 #TheYoungOG # NXTYoungBlood #WWENXT“

In a recent episode of the Hall of Fame with Booker T & Brad Gilmore podcast, WWE Hall of Famer and Booker T gave his thoughts about Montez Ford’s recent comments about his frustration over the direction of his career in WWE. Booker T stated “Well, get rid of that damn cup. That might help him. Montez is one of my guys, man. I like him. He’s an extraordinary talent. But you gotta know how to break out. You gotta know how to make your own breaks. I was with my brother in a tag team for nine years. Was I thinking about making a break and doing things on my own? Was l capable of doing that? Yeah, yeah, I could do that. But I was happy where I was, and I wanted to make that the best until there was nothing left to do there. But I think ‘Tez is in a great spot to where, when he finally does go singles, he’ll still have a lot of bumps left on his bump card if he does this thing right.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

WWE announced one new match and one new segment for the card of next week’s WWE RAW show on November 11th in Grand Rapids, Michigan:

WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship – Judgement Day (Raquel Rodriguez & Liv Morgan) vs. Bianca Belair & Jade Cargill
Damian Priest and Gunther face-to-face confrontation