WWE: USA Network Upset Over NXT Taped Shows Rumors, Ember Moon Update, Updated SD Ratings

Aug 17, 2021

USA Network Reportedly Upset with WWE Over NXT Going Back to Taped Shows Format Rumors

As noted before, WWE officials are currently planning to tape three weeks worth of episodes for their weekly NXT series on August 23rd and 24th at their Performance Center. These tapings were initially rumored to be the possible return of a taped show format for the series as part of WWE’s plans for major changes for their NXT brand.

The Mat Men Wrestling’s Andrew Zarian reported on Twitter that one of his sources within USA Network stated that network officials were upset when they learned of the rumors of WWE considering plans to return to a taped show format for NXT. The source stated that “a taped show is not what we paid for.”

Spoke to a contact from USA Network regarding the rumors of NXT going back to a taped show.

“A taped show is not what we paid for” https://t.co/AUQOLh6bq1
— Andrew Zarian (@AndrewZarian) August 16, 2021

Ember Moon Health Status Update

As noted before, Ember Moon was pulled from her scheduled match against Sarray prior to the start of this past Tuesday’s episode of NXT. WWE’s official reason for the decision to pull Moon off the show was due to her “not being medically cleared to compete.”

Moon recently provided an update on Twitter clarifying that she did not suffer a recent injury for why she was pulled from last week’s NXT show.

Just want to clarify that I am not injured.
— Ember NXT Moon Palmer (@WWEEmberMoon) August 16, 2021

Updated WWE Friday Night SmackDown Ratings

This past Friday’s episode of WWE Friday Night SmackDown drew a final viewership of 2,084,000 on FOX, according to Showbuzz Daily. This was down compared to the initial overnight number of 2,499,000 viewers on the network.

The official reason for the large discrepancy between the numbers reportedly was due to this past Friday’s episode also contained viewership numbers from NFL games that aired that night on several FOX television stations, according to the Wrestling Observer.