The involvement of TNA Wrestling proved to be a winner on the June 18, edition of WWE NXT which saw its best ratings of 2024 so far.
The show opened with a battle royal to determine the next challenger for WWE NXT Champion Trick Williams. The match itself had been announced the previous week by WWE Champion Cody Rhodes who had teased that members of other rosters would be part of the line-up.
The Ratings Are In
With Rhodes\' tease, many fans tuned in expecting to see non-WWE talent and were not disappointed. The match saw TNA Wrestling\'s Frankie Kazarian and Joe Hendry compete with Hendry getting one of the loudest pops of the night and a promo. Despite this fanfare, Hendry was the first man eliminated, much to the delight of Kazarian, and the Scottish star shared a tense face-off with Shawn Michaels.
The June 18, edition of WWE NXT earned 724,000 viewers, in a highly-impressive number for the show. The show saw a slight increase from the previous episode with Rhodes which garnered 718,000 viewers. The show did a 0.26 rating in the coveted 18-49 demographic, another increase on the previous week and the highest rating of 2024.
It\'ll be interesting to see how this compares to the June 19, edition of AEW Dynamite as the two shows were at odds for years. The June 12, edition of Dynamite earned 681,000 viewers, lower than this week and last week\'s WWE NXT. Dynamite has also done less than a 0.26 rating for seven of the previous eight episodes.
What\'s to Come?
WWE\'s collaboration with TNA Wrestling is expected to continue forward, in another sign that this is a much different company than before. The promotion is also set to work with Marigold Wrestling as IYO SKY will compete for the new promotion next month. July will also see AJ Styles compete for Pro Wrestling NOAH against Naomichi Marufuji. The match will be Styles\' first for NOAH and only further demonstrates that WWE\'s new era is willing to \'play\' with others.
Related: Tony Khan On WWE-TNA Collab: \'Wrestling\'s Spirit of Cooperation Has Never Been Stronger\'
