WWE: Partnership Deal with ROW, Piper Niven Name Change Update, More on NXT Jan. 31, 2023 Viewership

Feb 4, 2023

Reality of Wrestling Signs Partnership Deal with WWE

Reality of Wrestling, owned by WWE Hall of Famer Booker T, announced that they have recently signed an official partnership deal with WWE for their NXT developmental system.

Reality of Wrestling is taking the roster to the NEXT Level! We are proud to announce that Reality of Wrestling will be working with WWE/NXT to bring our fans incredible matchups they can’t see anywhere else.
Don’t miss the chance to see NXT Superstar and NBC’s Titans Games first female champion, Ivy Nile in action on Saturday, February 11th in Texas City at the World Gym Arena.

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Piper Niven Ring Name Change Update

As noted before, Doudrop made her return to WWE at this past Saturday’s Royal Rumble 2023 event following a long illness battle and recovery from COVID-19. Doudrop made her official return under her previous ring name of Piper Niven.

The Daily Mail’s Alex McCarthy reported that his sources stated that Niven had been told of WWE’s plans for a ring name change for her return to the company around a month before their Royal Rumble 2023 event.

McCarthy reported that Niven had told him in an interview this past August that she had talks with WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque over the idea of changing her ring name. Niven stated that “we did have a conversation about it [the name change]. Because here’s the thing, before it was Vince’s vision and now it’s Triple H’s vision.”

More on NXT Week 173 Viewership – Jan. 31, 2023

The January 31st episode of WWE NXT saw NXT suffer a small decline in overall viewership but gained a small increase in key demographic rankings and a slight increase in key demographic ratings.

NXT drew 587,000 viewers and a 0.13 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking for that night was 20th place.

Detailed viewership and key demographic breakdowns were not available in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Dave Meltzer reported that the main reason for NXT’s mixed results this week was due to the large decline from their Over 50 viewership group, which was down 8.3% compared to last week’s show. This reportedly mostly offset the large gains from their younger key demographic viewership group, which was up 33.3% compared to last week’s show.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the NBA game of Los Angeles Lakers vs. New York Knicks drew 1,697,000 viewers on TNT, the College basketball game of Wake Forest vs. Duke drew 751,000 viewers on ESPN, the College basketball game of Kentucky vs. Ole Miss drew 738,000 viewers on ESPN, the College basketball game of Indiana vs. Maryland drew 489,000 viewers on ESPN2, Bering Sea Gold drew 695,000 viewers on Discovery Channel, Curse of Oak Island drew 2,576,000 viewers on History Channel, and 1000-lb Sisters drew 1,270,000 viewers on TLC.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 176,000 viewers.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was down 5.2% in overall viewership but up 3.5% in key demographic viewership. Meltzer reported that NXT’s 18-34 viewership was equal compared to the same week last year.