WWE: New Match Announced for Fastlane 2023, Liv Morgan Injury Update, More on NXT Sept. 26, 2023 Viewership

Sep 30, 2023

LWO vs. Bobby Lashley & Street Profits Announced for WWE Fastlane 2023, Updated Card

Saturday’s episode of WWE SmackDown LowDown featured one new match officially announced for the card of WWE Fastlane 2023, which takes place on October 7th in Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana.

This new match announced is a Six-Man Tag Team match of The LWO (Santos Escobar, Rey Mysterio, & mystery partner) vs. Bobby Lashley & The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford).

This match was setup following Friday’s SmackDown show in Sacramento, California involving Lashley and the Street Profits attacking Mysterio and Escobar after they had wrestled against each other in a United States Championship match. In a follow-up segment, Mysterio had challenged Lashley and the Street Profits to a match at next Saturday’s Fastlane 2023 event.

Updated card for WWE Fastlane 2023:

WWE World Heavyweight Championship Last Man Standing match – Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Seth Rollins (c)
John Cena & LA Knight vs. The Bloodline (Jimmy Uso & Solo Sikoa)
WWE Women’s Championship Triple Threat match – Charlotte Flair vs. Asuka vs. IYO SKY (c)
The LWO (Santos Escobar, Rey Mysterio, & mystery partner) vs. Bobby Lashley & The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford)

Liv Morgan Injury Status Update

As noted before, Liv Morgan has been out of action for WWE since this past July due to a right shoulder injury.

Muscle and Health magazine held a recent interview with Morgan. One of the topics discussed included Morgan confirming that she is currently dealing with a shoulder injury and provided an update on the status of her rehab from injury.

“I’m actually out injured right now and aside from healing up, my focus has been on my nutrition, so it’s been really exciting honing in on that. I want to come back in the very best shape of my life, so right now, I am eating clean, tons of fresh fruits and veggies. I’m basing my carb intake on the amount of physicality and energy I expend each day. I do believe life is about balance, though, so I still order a cheeky little dessert with dinner sometimes.”

More on NXT Viewership for September 26, 2023

The September 26th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT suffer a very large decline in overall viewership, a large decline in key demographic ratings, and a slight decline in key demographic rankings.

NXT drew 636,000 viewers and a 0.18 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking for that night was 3rd 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 declines this week was due to the large declines from their younger key demographic viewership and older female key demographic viewership groups, which were down 33.1% and 50% compared to last week’s show. Another reason reportedly was due to the lack of Becky Lynch and her star power for the show compared to the prior two weeks.

In terms of notable head-to-head competition, the 2023 WNBA Playoffs Game 2 of New York Liberty vs. Connecticut Sun drew 563,000 viewers on ESPN, the MLB game of Chicago Cubs vs. Atlanta Braves drew 345,000 viewers on TBS, Love & Hip Hop Atlanta drew 475,000 viewers on MTV, My Big Fat Fabulous Lie drew 631,000 viewers on TLC, and Deadliest Catch drew 788,000 viewers on Discovery Channel.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 235,000 viewers. NXT’s Males 18-34 had 62,000 viewers (down 21.5%), Females 18-34 had 37,000 viewers (down 46.3%), Males 35-49 had 103,000 viewers (equal), and Females 35-49 had 33,000 viewers (down 50%). Meltzer reported that the male/female viewership split was 165,000 male viewers and 70,000 female viewers for a split of 70.2% in favor of males.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was down 3.6% in overall viewership but up 16.3% in key demographic viewership. Meltzer reported that NXT’s 18-34 viewership was up 41.4% compared to the same week last year.