WWE: The Rock on WM 39 Match with Roman Reigns was “Locked In”, The Dyad Update, More on NXT Sept. 12, 2023 Viewership

Sep 16, 2023

The Rock Comments on WrestleMania 39 Match with Roman Reigns was “Locked In” & Interest for Match at WrestleMania 40

A recent episode of The Pat McAfee Show featured Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Johnson revealing that WWE had “locked in” plans for a match between him and Roman Reigns for WrestleMania 39 at one point.

“The Rock headlining WrestleMania with Roman Reigns, SoFi Stadium, that was locked. We were doing it. But let me just tell you, so about, in the beginning of 2022, Nick Khan, very good friend, he’s the man, he was very instrumental in bringing Vince and I together. We all flew to LA, we met, we sat. This was the beginning of 2022. We broke out the Teremana, we toasted life, we toasted the business we love, and about an hour later, we started talking about the potential of what this match could be between myself and Roman Reigns headlining WrestleMania at SoFi. We shook hands and we hugged right there, all three of us at the table, and said, ‘Let’s do this.’ So then we had a year to really think about this. So the north star thought was, ‘Okay, let’s not do something good. Let’s not do something great. Let’s do something unprecedented.’ It was in, what can we create for the fans that has never been done before? A match, great. Roman, incredible athlete. He’s gonna be on Mount Rushmore. Super handsome, good dude, my cousin, family. Amazing. We can have the match. But the bigger thought was, what can do for the fans and the business that love, where WrestleMania isn’t the end of something, it’s actually the beginning of something bigger.”

Johnson also stated that he is currently open to the idea of a match with Reigns at next year’s WrestleMania 40 event.

“So we got really, really close, but we couldn’t actually nail what that thing was. So we decided to put our pencils down. We agreed, hey, listen, there’s a merger coming up, eventually that will happen. There’s WrestleMania in Philadelphia. [Raises his eyebrow] I’m saying that’s a potential too. I’m open. I’m open. But again let’s figure out what that is because the fans deserve something just incredible and unprecedented. Not only that but I also want to deliver to the locker room and the boys and the girls back there who are working their asses off. What can we do to put them in a position where they’re part of something that is a new change, an era, in this world of pro wrestling. Vince is a big picture thinker, as you know. This is why we’ve gotten along for years, just trying to think big picture. So we’ll see.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

The Dyad’s WWE Contracts Status Update

As noted before, The Dyad’s Jagger Reid and Rip Fowler are expected to leave WWE once their current contracts expire this October.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that The Dyad’s contracts with WWE had expired this week and they are currently believed to have left the company. Meltzer reported that WWE has yet to confirm that The Dyad are gone but they have not been around in the company of late.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that the Meltzer’s report is not entirely accurate and instead The Dyad are still currently under contract until October 14th. Those spoken to reportedly stated that WWE officials are currently under the belief that The Dyad will be leaving the company once their contracts expire unless they decide to change their minds.

This past Tuesday’s NXT show featured The Schism’s Joe Gacy and Ava talking about how they were all alone and the other guys were gone which Meltzer reported is believed to have been WWE’s way of writing out The Dyad from the company.

More on NXT Viewership for September 12, 2023

The September 12th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT gain a very large increase in overall viewership, a large increase in key demographic ratings, and a small increase in key demographic rankings.

NXT drew 850,000 viewers and a 0.26 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 gains from their male key demographic viewership and younger key demographic viewership groups, the latter which was up 41.5% compared to last week’s show. Another reason reportedly was due to the very stronger than usual viewership for NXT’s eighth quarter and overrun. NXT’s eighth quarter reportedly drew 927,000 overall viewers and 364,000 key demographic viewers while their overrun drew 1,061,000 overall viewers and 403,000 key demographic viewers. Meltzer reported that NXT’s overall viewership was its highest since the October 28, 2020 episode and their key demographic viewership was its highest since the September 1, 2020 episode.

In terms of notable head-to-head competition, the MLB game of New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox drew 430,000 viewers on TBS, the 2023 MTV Music Awards drew 913,000 viewers on MTV, My Big Fat Fabulous Lie drew 828,000 viewers on TLC, and Deadliest Catch drew 849,000 viewers on Discovery Channel.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 335,000 viewers. NXT’s Males 18-34 had 89,000 viewers (up 56.1%), Females 18-34 had 44,000 viewers (up 18.9%%), Males 35-49 had 129,000 viewers (up 55.4%), and Females 35-49 had 73,000 viewers (up 43.1%). Meltzer reported that the male/female viewership split was 218,000 male viewers and 117,000 female viewers for a split of 65.1% in favor of males.

In an interesting note, Meltzer reported that NXT’s show managed to top AEW’s Dynamite show this week in Over 50 viewership and Female 35-49 key demographic viewership but failed to top AEW in overall 18-34 viewership with 133,000 viewers compared to 162,000 for AEW. This reportedly has been one of the main reasons for why WWE has been having main roster talent appear on NXT shows in recent months.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was up 16.8% in overall viewership and up 71.8% in key demographic viewership. Meltzer reported that NXT’s 18-34 viewership was up 90% compared to the same week last year.