Tag: Nxt New Year’s Evil 2023

Kevin Owens, Grayson Waller, Carlito appear at WWE NXT New Year’s Evil

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Three main roster WWE stars appeared at NXT New Year’s Evil.

Carlito, Grayson Waller, and Kevin Owens all made appearances on Tuesday’s show. Waller headlined the event, taking on Trick Williams after it was announced Ilja Dragunov was not cleared to compete. Towards the end of the match Carmelo Hayes came out to ringside and distracted Williams, despite Williams telling him earlier in the show he wanted to win by himself. Williams went on to defeat Waller after Kevin Owens, who has been feuding with Waller on SmackDown, appeared at ringside allowing Williams to capitalize on the distraction with a running knee for the win.

Earlier in the show, Dragunov was announced as not being able to compete on the show following a storyline injury that took place two weeks ago. Despite Dragunov saying on last week’s show he was good to go, Kelly Kincaid announced that WWE’s medical team would not clear Dragunov for Tuesday’s show. After a confrontation with Waller backstage, Williams agreed to put up his title match in the main event against Waller.

Carlito also appeared as the surprise third participant in the LWO vs. No Quarter Catch Crew six-man tag team match, with Cruz Del Toro getting the win for his team. Dragon Lee was originally set to team with the LWO, but announced on Monday he would be unable to be at New Year’s Evil due to visa issues.

WWE NXT viewership up for New Year’s Evil, 18-49 demo rating down

Posted on by Paul Fontaine

Tuesday night’s special New Year’s Evil episode of WWE NXT averaged 700,000 viewers on the USA Network, up 7.2 percent from last week. It’s the second-largest audience total for the show since October 25.

In the 18-49 demo, NXT ranked 17th on the cable charts with a 0.15 rating. That’s down 6.3 percent from last Tuesday, meaning the audience skewed much older this week. It’s still NXT’s third-highest rating in the key demo since October 18.

As compared to the same week in 2022, NXT’s overall viewership was up 8.2 percent while its 18-49 rating was up 7.1 percent.

Listed below are the last 11 weeks of overall viewership and 18-49 demo ratings for NXT, as well as the 10-week averages in both categories. This week’s show was up 9.2 percent in overall viewers and up 7.1 percent in 18-49 as compared to the recent averages.

20-woman battle royal added to WWE NXT New Year’s Evil

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Four matches have been added to next Tuesday’s New Year’s Evil edition of NXT.

New matches include Dijak vs. Tony D’Angelo, Charlie Dempsey vs. Hank Walker, a tag team gauntlet match featuring Pretty Deadly, and a 20-woman battle royal with the winner facing Roxanne Perez at Vengeance Day for the NXT Women’s title.

Toxic Attraction came to the ring Tuesday and cut a promo about how they would rebuild the group brick by brick after Mandy Rose (who wasn’t named) lost the title to Perez. This brought out a number of NXT talents, eventually causing the entire women’s roster to come out and brawl. Perez then emerged and said a battle royal would take place next week, with the winner earning a title shot against Perez at Vengeance Day in February.

Despite Stacks telling Dijak not to interfere in D’Angelo’s North American title match last week, Dijak did anyway, costing D’Angelo the title. It was shown on Tuesday that Dijak had kidnapped Stacks prior to their match and had tortured him. After Dijak defeated Stacks in a match, Tony D’Angelo issued the challenge for New Year’s Evil, with Dijak accepting.

Later, Wes Lee was interviewed and mentioned he’d be watching the match between Dijak and D’Angelo at ringside, declaring that the winner would get the next shot at the North American Championship.

Dempsey vs. Walker was originally scheduled for this week’s show. However, commentators noted that Dempsey was not cleared to compete. Dempsey was shown taking off his arm sling during a match between Gulak and Andre Chase, a match that Gulak won via submission.

After spending the last few weeks obtaining items wanted by The New Day, Pretty Deadly were fed up on this week’s TV and said they would run a gauntlet next week, defeating three teams in order to earn a future title match against The New Day.

Here is the full card for next week’s New Year’s Evil:

  • NXT Championship: Bron Breakker defends against Grayson Waller
  • Tony D’Angelo vs. Dijak
  • Tag Team gauntlet match featuring Pretty Deadly
  • Charlie Dempsey vs. Hank Walker
  • Indus Sher vs. The Creed Brothers
  • 20-woman battle royal (winner faces Roxanne Perez at Vengeance Day)