WWE: Hikuleo Reportedly Signs with WWE, Jinder Mahal on Being Open to Potential Future WWE Return, More on NXT July 16, 2024 Viewership

Hikuleo Reportedly Signed WWE Deal

As noted before, Hikuleo’s contract with New Japan Pro Wrestling expired this past June and he is currently expected to be joining WWE.

Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported that his sources confirmed that Hikuleo recently signed an official contract with WWE.

Sapp reported that WWE’s plans for Hikuleo’s debut in the company are currently not known.

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Jinder Mahal Comments on Being Open to Potential WWE Return in Future But Under Certain Conditions

A recent episode of the Busted Open Radio podcast featured Raj Dhesi, former Jinder Mahal in WWE, as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Mahal’s thoughts about him being open to the idea of making a potential return to WWE in the future but under certain conditions.

“Yeah, definitely. On my end, yeah (the door is open to returning to WWE). Again, creative, if they got something, great, but I don’t wanna go just to sit at home and get a text every week saying, ‘Hey, you’re not needed for TV. Don’t bother flying out’ because that’s the worst feeling. But yeah, definitely. I don’t have any hard feelings and I don’t think that I really did anything to kind of blackball myself or anything. I was very respectful. I always did what was asked of me, I never caused problems or tried my best not to. Whatever was asked of me, for my job that night, I did to the best of my ability (in) my entire career…”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

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More on NXT Viewership for July 16, 2024

The July 16th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT suffer a large decline in overall viewership, a small decline in key demographic ratings, and a slight decline in key demographic rankings.

NXT drew 610,000 viewers and a 0.20 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking was #4 for the night.

Detailed key demographic viewership 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 a combination of stiff competition from news coverage of the 2024 Republican National convention and stiff sports competition from the MLB All-Star game and the large decline in their overall key demographic viewership group, which was down 16.4% compared to last week’s show.

In terms of notable head-to-head competition, the 2024 Republican National Convention drew 5,155,000 viewers (1st hour) and 5,496,000 viewers (2nd hour) on FOX News, 677,000 viewers (1st hour) and 996,000 viewers (2nd hour) on CNN, and 645,000 viewers (1st hour) and 883,000 viewers (2nd hour) on MSNBC, the 2024 MLB All-Star game drew 7,443,000 viewers on FOX, the Women’s soccer game of United States vs. Costa Rica drew 475,000 viewers on TNT, Secret of Skinwalker Ranch drew 1,143,000 viewers on History Channel, Chopped drew 512,000 viewers on Food Network, Catfish drew 432,000 viewers on MTV, and Real Housewives of Dubai drew 312,000 viewers on BRAVO.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 260,000 viewers. Meltzer reported that NXT’s males/female viewership split was 69.2% in favor of males.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was down 18.2% in overall viewership and down 6.8% in key demographic viewership.