Penta Comments on His WWE RAW Debut Being “A Turning Point in My Career”

A recent episode of the Busted Open Radio podcast featured Penta as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Penta’s thoughts about how his WWE RAW debut this past January was a turning point moment in his wrestling career.

“Oh, man, actually, I had mixed feelings and emotions. When I heard the ‘one, two, three,’ I turned around my head to the crowd, I see my daughter crying. I feel so proud about me, and next I feel so proud about my family. In my mind, it’s, ‘I did this because this is my dream.’ My family is here, the big place, California. California represents something special for me in my career because I started in LA. What a [special] night for me. Chad Gable, this match with Chad Gable, turning point in my career because Chad Gable is one of the beat wrestlers in the world. Very professional, very…he have something like me, the passion for this business. I said after my match, ‘Thank you, Chad because you is the person [in] the turning point of my career.’ Now, after the match, I take my family with Rey Mysterio, drink in cheers with something in my room, I take dinner with my family, talking about it after the match. I asked my daughter, ‘How you feel?’ My daughter said, ‘I don’t know, sad and happy.’ I understand why, because it’s 20 years, work every day for this dream. This is my feeling now.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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More on NXT Jan. 28, 2025 Viewership

The January 28th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT gain a small increase in overall viewership but suffered a small in key demographic ratings.

NXT drew 827,000 viewers and a 0.19 key demographic rating on The CW.

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 increase from their Over 50 viewership group, which its percentage was not given. This reportedly mostly offset the large decline from their overall key demographic viewership group, which was down 13% compared to last week’s show. Of the key demographic viewership decline, NXT’s younger key demographic viewership group was down 35.7% compared to last week’s show.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the NBA game of Los Angeles Lakers vs. Philadelphia 76ers drew 884,000 viewers on TNT, the College basketball game of Kentucky vs. Tennessee drew 1,365,000 viewers on ESPN, the College basketball game of North Carolina vs. Pittsburgh drew 826,000 viewers on ESPN, Love & Hip Hop Atlanta drew 373,000 viewers on MTV, 7 Little Johnstons drew 548,000 viewers on TLC, Curse of Oak Island drew 1,666,000 viewers on History Channel, Moonshiners drew 792,000 viewers on Discovery Channel, Real Housewives of New York City drew 516,000 viewers on BRAVO, and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills drew 867,000 viewers on BRAVO.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 254,000 viewers. Meltzer reported that NXT’s male/female viewership skew was 65.8% in favor of males.

In terms of peak viewership, NXT’s peak overall viewership was 871,000 viewers for the first quarter featuring the Giulia & Bayley vs. Roxanne Perez & Cora Jade tag team match. NXT’s peak key demographic viewership was 271,000 viewers for the second quarter hour featuring the same tag team match.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was up 27.6% in overall viewership and up 7.2% in key demographic viewership.

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WWE News & Notes

Deadline reported that Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins recently signed deals with management company Adventure Media to represent them in the entertainment industry. It was also reported that Lynch is confirmed to be among the cast for the upcoming new Happy Gilmore 2 film.

Netflix Games recently announced that a new WWE 2K mobile game will be released exclusively on their mobile platform this Fall.

Cody Rhodes surpassed 300 days as current Undisputed WWE Champion as of Friday.

CM Punk and Bianca Belair were among the guests at Netflix’s 2025 preview event this past Thursday in Los Angeles, California. Punk and Belair represented WWE for the promotion event.

As noted before, WWE is currently considering plans to hold a WWE NXT show at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York this March. Fightful Select’s Corey Brennan reported that his sources confirmed that WWE officials currently have scheduled for this upcoming show to take place on March 11th at the venue.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Apollo Crews had suffered an injury last week but no other details regarding the nature nor serveity are currently known.

WWE recently released four new videos on their WWE Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video was a “Rey, Eddie & The Rumble – WWE Untold” full documentary. The second new video was the full 1990 Royal Rumble match from WWE Royal Rumble 1990. The third new video was a “Royal Rumble footage we found in the WWE Vault.” The fourth new video was the full 1989 Royal Rumble match from WWE Royal Rumble 1989.

WWE also recently released three new videos on their NXT Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video was the full April 3, 2013 episode of WWE NXT. The second new video was the full April 10, 2013 episode of WWE NXT. The third new video was the full April 17, 2013 episode of WWE NXT

In a recent interview with The Pat McAfee Show, CM Punk gave his thoughts about his plans to write a book about his wrestling career in the future. Punk stated “I’m going to write a book someday. I don’t know when. I’m just going to tell the story. In 93, I started rolling around in backyards with my friends.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with the Sports Media with Richard Deitsch podcast, Paul Heyman gave his thoughts about how it is like working in creative under WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque and how much creative freedom he has in WWE. Heyman stated “With the same amount of freedom, if not more encouragement to teach others how to ingratiate themselves into the mix to the point where they are trusted enough to get some of those same freedoms. Paul Levesque is a very interesting Chief Content Officer. I’ve worked with many different CCOs and executive producers and showrunners and story creators. He is, by far, the most collaborative. He understands, there is no doubt he understands that the buck stops with him and he has to make a decision. He doesn’t waver from that at all, but at the same time, he’s very open to starting on a different page than he originally envisioned. For a long time, in this industry, and then it was taken to a far different level by Vincent Kennedy McMahon, but for a long time the head writer, the ‘booker’ starts with a blank piece of paper. From that blank piece of paper comes the vision of what the storylines are going to be that lead to the payoff at the show in the big arena or pay-per-view or Network special. The word of the head writer was final. There was no appeal unless you went to the owner of the territory or the company and you challenged the booker, in which case you were challenging the booker for the role of the booker. With Vincent Kennedy McMahon, it became quite the micromanaged creative process in which Vince had a vision and the people around him were to embellish, exaggerate, enhance, elevate, upgrade the vision Vince had from the blank piece of paper. Paul Levesque can walk into a room with a blank piece of paper and say, ‘Where are we headed? Let me have some opinions. Pitch me. Seduce me. Inspire me. Motivate me. Hook me on something.’ He may say, ‘I’m seeing Mr. ABC vs. Dr. LMNOP, that’s the main event next year. How do we get there? What are the interweaving stories that are told? What are the spinoffs from this story? The main theme for WWE next year will be the build for Mr. A vs. Dr. LMNOP.’ There are many different ways Paul Levesque approaches the collaborative process. They are all open to everyone’s ideas. Then he, like a great editor, will narrow it down and narrow it down even further.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)