Where the Rock goes, the world follows, and that was certainly the case on Tuesday night as his appearance on NXT New Year’s Evil received the brand’s highest ratings in five years and the highest ever since their move to the CW, falling just shy of the 1M viewer mark (957,000). To paraphrase the Great One, while there weren’t quite millions (and billions) watching at home, the numbers were still pretty spectacular for the developmental brand.
After helping open the night for Raw’s Netflix debut, the Rock announced later during the show that fans would see him on Tuesday night. The announcement received a huge pop as, finally, the Rock was coming to NXT.
Not only did the Rock move the Nielsen needle, helping NXT record its biggest audience since September 25, 2019, during the brand’s heyday on USA Network, but it also bolstered ticket sales. Over 200 tickets were sold following the Rock’s Raw message leading to a nearly 1,800-seat sellout of the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Surprising no one, the man is still a tremendous draw as even on top of those stellar numbers, WWE’s YouTube channel also got a boost. The Rock’s full NXT speech reached nearly half a million views, nearly doubling that of the second-highest watched video of the night….the Rock’s segment with Ethan Page and Ava Raine. In that special moment with his daughter, Rock reminded Page (who has been a thorn in Raine’s side) that on NXT, she’s the Final Boss, before taking to the ring to bookend what has been a fantastic two-day stretch in WWE’s history.
While the Rock was the primary reason for the show’s bump in viewership, it would be short-sighted to say he was the only reason fans tuned in. New Year’s Evil was a stacked card, featuring an NXT Women’s Championship match between Guilia and Roxanne Perez, NXT Championship match between Trick Williams, Eddy Thorpe, and Oba Femi, an NXT Women’s North American Championship match between Stephanie Vaquer, Cora Jade, Kelani Jordan, and Lola Vice, and NXT Heritage Cup Championship match between Lexis King and Charlie Dempsey. You can read the full results from the show here.
Featured Image, Credit: WWE / CW Network
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