WWE: Battle Royal Set to Determine New Women’s World Champion at 4/22 RAW Show, Drew Gulak WWE Status Update, More on NXT April 16, 2024 Viewership

Women’s Battle Royal Match Announced to Crown New WWE Women’s World Champion for Next Week’s RAW

As noted before, Rhea Ripley confirmed that she had recently suffered a shoulder injury and would be vacating her WWE Women’s World Championship as a result. During this past Monday’s WWE RAW show, it was announced that a new champion would be crowned on the April 22nd RAW show

Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania featured WWE airing an ad that announced that a women’s battle royal match for the vacant WWE Women’s World title will be taking place on next week’s RAW show and the winner of this match will be crowned as the new champion.

In regards to the competitors for this match, the ad announced the following to be participating:

• Becky Lynch
• Liv Morgan
• Nia Jax
• Maxxine Dupri
• Chelsea Green
• Natalya
• Katana Chance
• Indi Hartwell
• Zoey Stark
• Kayden Carter
• Candice LeRae
• Shayna Baszler
• Xia Li
• Tegan Nox
• Piper Niven
• Ivy Nile

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Drew Gulak NXT Absence & No Quarter Catch Crew Removal Update – Gulak Likely to Get Fired Over Misconduct Allegations

As noted before, Ronda Rousey recently accused Drew Gulak of inappropriately touching her in a backstage incident during her time in the company, which was something Gulak confirmed but claimed it was just an accident. Following the allegations, Gulak was removed from NXT television and the No Quarter Catch Crew group.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that WWE’s investigation into the allegations made by Rousey did not come back with anything solid in favor of either Rousey or Gulak’s claims over the incident. Meltzer reported that those who were interviewed by WWE officials did not have anything definitive to say about the incident.

Despite the inconclusive results of WWE’s investigation, Meltzer reported that the reason why Gulak was quickly removed from NXT television was due to he would have been a lightning rod of bad publicity for WWE had he remained on television based on the story given by Rousey.

In a follow-up report, Meltzer reported in a recent episode of the Wrestling Observer Radio that the current belief is that Gulak will likely be getting fired due to the current situation against him. Meltzer reported that the general reaction from those spoken to was “if he hasn’t been he probably will be.”

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More on NXT Viewership for April 16, 2024

The April 16th 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 625,000 viewers and a 0.17 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking was 8th place.

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 stiff sports competition from the 2024 NBA Play-In Tournament and the large decline from their overall key demographic viewership group, which was down 10.2% compared to last week’s show.

In terms of notable head-to-head competition, the 2024 NBA Play-In Tournament game of Los Angeles Lakers vs. New Orleans Pelicans drew 3,816,000 viewers on TNT, the NHL game of Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Florida Panthers drew 316,000 viewers on ESPN, the MLB game of Atlanta Braves vs. Houston Astros drew 202,000 viewers on TBS, Vanderpump Rules drew 917,000 viewers on BRAVO, The Valley drew 610,000 viewers on BRAVO, Curse of Oak Island drew 2,214,000 viewers on History Channel, Love & Hip Hop Atlanta drew 303,000 viewers on MTV, and Little People Big World drew 917,000 viewers on TLC.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 230,000 viewers.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was up 10.6% in overall viewership and 25.7% in key demographic viewership.