WWE: Sid Scala Reportedly Released from WWE, Big E Neck Injury Update, More on NXT April 9, 2024 Viewership, More News

WWE

Apr 13, 2024

Sid Scala Reportedly Released from WWE

Former NXT UK Assistant General Manager and talent Sid Scala reportedly was recently released from WWE, according to PWInsider.

Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that Scala was released by WWE over the past week.

Johnson reported that Scala had also worked as a coach and producer for WWE’s NXT UK brand prior to the brand being shut down in 2022. Scala reportedly had not been utilized by WWE since the end of his on-screen Assistant GM role for their defunct NXT UK brand.

Prior to his release, Scala had been working in WWE since December 0f 2018 and last wrestled for the company in September of 2019. Outside of WWE, Scala last wrestled in May of 2023 for indie promotion Superior Italian Wrestling.

Big E Neck Injury Status Update – Big E Reveals He’s Pain Free but Not Medically Cleared to Resume In-Ring Career

As noted before, Big E has been out of action for WWE since March of 2022 due to a broken neck injury.

Big E provided an update earlier today on Twitter stating that he is currently pain free but he is still not medically cleared for a potential in-ring return and might never be cleared to resume his in-ring career.

Hey, all!
Two year neck scans are in. Things are unchanged. My C1 has healed fibrously but has not formed new bone. I’m not medically cleared and truthfully, I may never be cleared. But I am blessed to be free of pain, immensely happy and otherwise healthy. Life is good.
— Ettore “Big E” Ewen (@WWEBigE) April 13, 2024

More on NXT Viewership for April 9, 2024

The April 9th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT gain a small increase in key demographic rankings and a slight increase in overall viewership but also suffered a slight decline in key demographic ratings. This week’s show was notable for being the post-Stand & Deliver 2024 show.

NXT drew 647,000 viewers and a 0.19 key demographic rating on USA Network. NXT’s key demographic ranking was 5th 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 mixed results this week was due to the small decline from their overall key demographic viewership group, which was down 3% compared to last week’s show, and their overrun generated the rare occurrence of losing viewers compared to their eighth quarter. This reportedly offset the gains from their Over 50 viewership group, which its percentage was not given,

In terms of notable head-to-head competition, the NBA game of Boston Celtics vs. Milwaukee Bucks drew 989,000 viewers on TNT, the 2024 Women’s SheBelieves Cup soccer game of USA vs. Canada drew 621,000 viewers on TBS, Vanderpump Rules drew 975,000 viewers on BRAVO, The Valley drew 626,000 viewers on BRAVO, Curse of Oak Island drew 2,170,000 viewers on History Channel, Love & Hip Hop Atlanta drew 341,000 viewers on MTV, and Little People Big World drew 925,000 viewers on TLC.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 256,000 viewers.

In terms of peak viewership, NXT’s peak overall viewership was 703,000 viewers for their first quarter hour featuring the Roxanne Perez, Lyra Valkyria, Tatum Paxley, & Natalya promo segment. NXT’s peak key demographic viewership reportedly was 283,000 viewers for the eighth quarter hour featuring the NXT Tag Team Championship match of Axiom & Nathan Frazer vs. Baron Corbin & Bron Breakker (c) & post-match attack with Final Testament. Meltzer reported that NXT’s overrun generated the rare instance of them losing viewers and drew 623,000 overall viewers and 250,000 key demographic viewers, down compared to the eighth quarter’s 671,000 overall viewers and 283,000 key demo viewers.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was up 22.5% in overall viewership and 51.5% in key demographic viewership. Meltzer reported that the reason for NXT’s large increases was due to last year’s show was both a record low show and went up against the NBA Playoffs.

WWE News & Notes

As noted before, WWE is currently working on plans for Bo Dallas and the Uncle Howdy character potential return to the company. This past Monday’s WWE RAW show featured the a screen glitch during Bronson Reed’s backstage promo that featured the message “Hello” and was confirmed to be part of WWE’s plans for Dallas’ return. Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Detroit, Michigan featured another screen glitch moment during the Jade Cargill & Bianca Belair vs. Chelsea Green & Piper Niven match that included the message of “You forgot about us.” Similar to this past Monday’s RAW show, the live crowd also had a separate tease involving the song “Nightbird” playing in the arena during a commercial break.

As noted before, former Major League Wrestling talent Jacob Fatu is currently believed to have recently signed a contract with WWE. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources confirmed that Fatu recently signed an official contract with WWE. Meltzer reported that Fatu was in attendance backstage at last weekend’s WrestleMania 40 event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In a recent SEC filing, TKO Group stated that Vince McMahon has registered all of his remaining over 8 million stock shares for sale.

WWE recently announced that CM Punk will be making an appearance on both nights of this year’s WWE Draft on the April 26th SmackDown show in Cincinnati, Ohio and April 29th RAW show in Kansas City, Missouri.

WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque and WWE President Nick Khan are currently scheduled to make an appearance at Sports Business Jornal’s World Congress of Sports event on April 15-17 in Los Angeles, California. Levesque and Khan will be speaking at a panel titled Building Sports and Entertainment Empires.

As noted before, Seth Rollins is currently on a break from WWE for knee injury rest and recovery reasons following last weekend’s WrestleMania 40 event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that Rollins’ wife Becky Lynch is also currently on a break from WWE following WrestleMania 40. Meltzer reported that it is currently not known when Lynch will be making her return from her break.

As noted before, WWE will be using smaller stage setups for their shows going forward as part of recent production changes made by Endeavor to add more fans and ticket sales to WWE shows. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that WWE will be scaling back on their usage of Augmented Reality graphics for RAW and SmackDown shows goinn forward as part of their new production changes. One source spoken to reportedly stated that Friday’s SmackDown show might be the last time of AR graphics being used regularly for WWE’s weekly television shows. Johnson reported that WWE officials currently have plans for AR graphics to remain as a production feature for their pay per view events.

In a recent interview with the Gorilla Position podcast, Shawn Michaels gave his thoughts about AJ Styles being his choice for an opponent if he were to come out of retirement for one more match at WrestleMania. Michaels stated “I think the one we really want to see is me and AJ. That’s where I go with. It’s also as the more talent comes along, you start looking at them. I always, I still do it now. I look at it like, boy, I can do cool stuff with him. I can do cool stuff with him. But I think AJ, I think AJ and I can get similar styles and stuff like that. So I always feel like that would be one people would want to see. So I think that would be my go-to in this particular moment.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

WWE recently announced three new matches for the card of next week’s WWE RAW show on April 15th in Montreal, Canada: