Samoa Joe muscles up a few more viewers for NXT

NXT wrapped up their TakeOver: In Your House special on Sunday night with a cliffhanger, and we quickly heard rumors it involved the return of Samoa Joe to WWE.

Other than that, not much changed for or around the brand heading into its June 15 episode. All the champions retained. There was still competition from the NBA and NHL playoffs on other channels.

So it seems reasonable to attribute the modest increase in viewers from the week before to General Manager William Regal’s announcement, and Joe’s arrival. PWTorch reports last night’s audience grew a little less than 4% June 8’s, to 695,000.

Regal’s new enforcer didn’t get more fans under 50 to tune in, though. The rating in the key demo was down slightly, to .19.

Here’s a look at the black-and-gold brand’s viewership and 18 - 49 year old demo rating since they moved to Tuesdays after WrestleMania 37.

• Apr. 13: 805,000 / .22
• Apr. 20: 841,000 / .23
• Apr. 27: 744,000 / .22
• May 4: 761,000 / .18
• May 11 - 697K / .17
• May 18 - 700K / .15
• May 25 - 698K / .13
• June 1 - 668K / .19
• June 8 - 669K / .20
• June 15 - 695K / .19

The other difference, at least in my opinion and the opinion of most of the NXT watchers I know or follow, is that this was the best all-around episode of the show Triple H & team have delivered in a while. Hopefully that will get both of these numbers trending in the right direction, especially as the number of basketball and hockey games dwindle in the weeks to come.

For complete results and the live blog for NXT this week click here. To read a recap & reactions of the night’s events click here. For a full playlist of the show click here.