WWE: Ronda Rousey & Kofi Kingston Suffered Injuries, More on NXT Feb. 28, 2023 Viewership

Ronda Rousey Reportedly Suffered Arm Injury But Not Expected to Miss WrestleMania 39

Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Washington, D.C. featured a singles match between Shayna Baszler and Tegan Nox. This match was notable for Ronda Rousey appearing alongside Baszler for her match wearing a sling on her arm.

PWTorch’s Wade Keller reported that his sources stated that the reason why Rousey wore a sling and did not compete on the show as advertised was due to her aggravating a prior injury on her arm. This reportedly was the reason why WWE booked a backstage injury angle for Rousey in order to write her out of her previously scheduled match.

Those same sources also stated that Rousey’s injury is believed to not be serious and WWE officials currently do not expect her to be out of action for this April’s WrestleMania 39 event.

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Kofi Kingston Reportedly Suffered Leg Injury

Kofi Kingston reportedly recently suffered a leg injury, according to the Wrestling Observer.

Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez reported that their sources stated that Kingston suffered the leg injury during Friday’s SmackDown show in Washington, D.C.

No other details regarding Kingston’s injury is currently known.

Kingston was involved in a promo segment on the show with Xavier Woods, Sheamus, Drew McIntyre, Karrion Kross, and LA Knight over who would get to face Gunther for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 39. This segment ended in a mass brawl with Kross being the last one left standing.

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More on NXT Week 177 Viewership – Feb. 28, 2023

The February 28th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT suffer a small decline in overall viewership and key demographic rankings and a slight decline in key demographic ratings.

NXT drew 555,000 viewers and a 0.13 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking for that night was 21st 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 declines this week was due to the large declines from their older key demographic viewership and Over 50 viewership groups, which were down 15.8% and 6.1% compared to last week’s show. This reportedly offset the large gain from their younger key demographic viewership group, which was up 11.1% compared to last week’s show.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the NBA game of Los Angeles Lakers vs. Memphis Grizzles drew 1,162,000 viewers on TNT, the College basketball game of Texas Tech vs. Kansas drew 896,000 viewers on ESPN, the College basketball game of North Carolina State vs. Duke drew 899,000 viewers on ESPN, the College basketball game of Arkansas vs. Tennessee drew 564,000 viewers on ESPN2, the College basketball game of Iowa vs. Indiana drew 608,000 viewers on ESPN2, Curse of Oak Island drew 2,539,000 viewers on History Channel, 1000-lb Sisters drew 1,238,000 viewers on TLC, and Real Housewives of New Jersey drew 868,000 viewers on Bravo.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 176,000 viewers. Meltzer reported that the male/female viewership split was 117,000 male viewers and 59,000 female viewers for a split of 67.6% in favor of males.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was down 0.2% in overall viewership but up 6.7% in key demographic viewership. Meltzer reported that NXT’s 18-34 viewership was up 42.9% compared to the same week last year.