WWE: Major Plans Changes Made to Fri’s SmackDown Show, Becky Lynch, More on NXT June 20, 2023 Viewership

Jun 24, 2023

Vince McMahon Reportedly Made Major Changes to Original Plans for Friday’s SmackDown Show

Vince McMahon reportedly made several major changes to the original plans for last night’s WWE SmackDown show in Lafayette, Louisiana, according to Fightful Select.

It was reported that their sources stated that McMahon had made late changes to most of the original plans for the show. These changes reportedly included the originally scheduled Triple Threat match of LA Knight vs. Santos Escobar vs. Butch being changed to a singles match of LA Knight vs. Rey Mysterio instead. Another notable change included the previously scheduled Bayley vs. Shotzi match for Bayley’s spot in the Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder match being scrapped for a singles match between Charlotte Flair and Lacey Evans instead.

It was reported that several talents were frustrated backstage over the late changes made to the show with one talent going as far as to say “Did the show get Vinced?” in reaction to the changes.

Becky Lynch Comments on Her Struggles with Post-Weaning Depression

A recent episode of the WWE After The Bell podcast featured Becky Lynch as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Lynch revealing that she had suffered from post-weaning depression following the birth of her first child this past December.

“I suppose the biggest challenge was one that kind of came up recently, which I didn’t realize could happen, was, you know, people talk about postpartum depression, and I thought that’s what happens instantly. So I’d kind of scaled past it and been like, ‘Oh, I’m great. I’m fine. I survived it.’ I came back to work relatively, not too quickly, but relatively quickly, and put everything into that. So I kind of felt like I’d escaped it. Then I weaned her in January, and I didn’t realize that when you’re done nursing, that you can get kind of a postpartum depression then. So we’re over two years later, and so at first I didn’t realize what was happening. I didn’t realize why I was so on edge, and then it kind of got really, really dark for a few months, and I was in a really bad spot. It was kind of one of those things where you’re trying to pull yourself out of because I would know mentally, god I’ve got a great life. I’ve got a great life. I’ve got a great husband, I’ve got a great baby. I’m doing this thing at the highest level that I love. But no reasoning with yourself was able to overcome just that level of depression, and so thankfully, somebody that we all know, I won’t put her on the spot, but she told me what was happening because it had happened to her, and she had gone through that. She gave me some help, and she gave me some tips, and I kind of just kept thinking it was gonna pass, and then it really wasn’t passing.”

Lynch also gave her thoughts about how her foot injury she suffered at this past April’s WrestleMania 39 ended up being a blessing since her time away from the road ended up allowing her to focus on resolving her mental health struggles.

“It was right after WrestleMania, just there, right after Trish turned on me and I hurt my foot in that match, I hurt it in the beginning, and it was like a precursor to a stress fracture, so they took me off for four weeks. It was such a blessing because I kind of really had to face everything that I was going through. When you’re go, go, go, you can be so distracted, but you realize that you’re getting quite explosive, but you just kind of get on with it. You’re just our, ‘Let me get on with it.’ So I really had to face it and learn how to deal with it, and a lot of it was meditation and that really didn’t, it made me understand my thoughts a bit better. So I was able to figure them out and stop them when they were getting too dark, and then just a crazy supplement routine, and then acupuncture really kind of balanced everything, and then I was like, ‘Oh, god, okay. Now I can appreciate everything again and get back to feeling like me.’ It lasted way longer than I thought it would, and I thought it was going to pass. So that was probably the biggest obstacle that I faced because I feel like, it’s kind of like the oxygen mask. When you don’t have your oxygen mask on, you can’t help anybody else, and I felt like that too. I felt like I didn’t want to be around people. I could feel this bad energy that I had bringing other people down. So now I’ve gotten back to feeling like myself and bring excited for everything. That was the biggest hurdle I had to overcome.
I didn’t know you could get post-weaning depression. So not even knowing that that was a thing, I think also hurt me because ‘why am I feeling like this? Why am I acting like this,’ and not realizing that this is actually a common thing just happens, and there are ways that you can treat it. Once you figure out the cause of all of that, then you’re off to the races, and then you’re back, and then you can appreciate everything. But yeah, for a few months there, it was rough.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

More on NXT Week 193 Viewership – June 20, 2023

The June 20th episode of WWE NXT saw gain a very large increase in overall viewership and a large increase in key demographic ratings and key demographic rankings. This week’s show was notable for being the Gold Rush Week 1 special.

NXT drew 773,000 viewers and a 0.23 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking for that night was 2nd place.

Detailed viewership and key demographic breakdowns were not available in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Dave Meltzer reported that the main reasons for NXT’s increases this week was due to the very large increases in all of NXT’s demographic viewership groups with Teenagers up 75%, younger key demographic viewership up 142.9%, older key demographic viewership up 18.7%, and Over 50 viewership up 23.3% compared to last week’s show. Meltzer reported that NXT’s #2 key demographic ranking was both the first time ever and highest ever for a NXT show on USA Network in NXT history. Meltzer also reported that NXT’s overall viewership was the largest since their April 20, 2021 show and their key demographic viewership was the largest since their October 28, 2020 show.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the College World Series game of LSU vs. Tennessee drew 1,798,000 viewers on ESPN, the MLB game of Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Los Angeles Angels drew 415,000 viewers on TBS, the MLB game of Atlanta Braves vs. Philadelphia Phillies drew 359,000 viewers on TBS, Love & Hip Hop Atlanta drew 450,000 viewers on MTV, 7 Little Johnstons drew 706,000 viewers on TLC, Secret Skinwalker Ranch drew 1,750,000 viewers on History Channel, Deadliest Catch drew 840,000 viewers on Discovery Channel, and Chopped drew 563,000 viewers on Food Network.

In regards to quarter hours viewership, Meltzer reported that the first 10 minutes of NXT’s show during the first quarter drew 861,000 viewers and a 0.27 key demographic rating while NXT’s overrun featuring the last six minutes of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match of Bron Breakker vs. Seth Rollins & post-match attack by Finn Balor drew 950,000 viewers and a 0.29 key demographic rating.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 304,000 viewers. Meltzer reported that the male/female viewership split was 213,000 male viewers (up 52.1%) and 91,000 female viewers (up 42.2%) for a split of 70.1% in favor of males.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was up 22.5% in overall viewership and up 27.7% in key demographic viewership. Meltzer reported that NXT’s 18-34 viewership was up 70% compared to the same week last year.