WWE NXT Drops In The Ratings With Becky Lynch Absent From No Mercy Go-Home Show
This week's episode of "WWE NXT" was watched by an average of 636,000 viewers on the USA Network, according to "Wrestlenomics." The final tally included 235,000 viewers aged 18 to 49, translating to a 0.18 rating in the key demo coveted by advertisers.
Despite being the go-home episode to Saturday's No Mercy premium live event, "NXT" saw a 23 percent drop from last week's total viewership of 824,000. The significant drop can surely be attributed to the absence of "NXT" Women's Champion Becky Lynch, whose presence has been a shot in the arm for WWE's developmental brand in recent weeks. On the night Lynch defeated Tifanny Stratton for the title, "NXT" skyrocketed to its best viewership in three years and once again delivered strong ratings when "The Man" came around for last week's show. On this week's show, Lynch only appeared as part of a video package previewing her Extreme Rules Match against Stratton scheduled to take place Saturday.
Lynch even acknowledged her needle-moving abilities by anointing herself "Ratings Rebecca" recently, and if this week's viewership is any indicator, she was justified in doing so.
It's worth pointing out that despite losing nearly 200,000 viewers, "NXT" still ranked #1 among all other sports telecasts on Tuesday, according to "SportsTVRatings." WWE's white and gold brand was in direct competition with several WNBA Playoffs and MLB regular season games, not to mention several talk shows on channels such as ESPN and FS1. The show included a Strap Match between bitter rivals Dijak and Eddy Thorpe, a contract signing segment featuring "NXT" Champion Carmelo Hayes and Ilja Dragunov, a North American Title #1 contender's match, and even the "NXT" Global Heritage Invitational Finals pitting Joe Coffey against Butch.
Next week's show will see the fallout from this Saturday's No Mercy PLE, headlined by Lynch vs. Stratton, Hayes vs. Dragunov, Bron Breakker vs. Baron Corbin, and Dominik Mysterio vs. Trick Williams.