NXT’s ‘New Year’s Evil’ Draws Historic Audience, Breaking Five-Year Record

The January 7 NXT event, “New Year’s Evil,” achieved its highest television audience for a WWE developmental brand in more than five years.

According to Nielsen data, “New Year’s Evil” averaged 957,000 viewers from 8:00-10:00 PM on The CW, with 341,000 of those in the 18-49 target demographic. This is NXT’s highest audience since September 2019, when the show aired on USA Network. This is also the show’s highest audience since moving to The CW in October 2024, with its October 1st premiere on the network reaching 895,000 viewers.

“New Year’s Evil” took place at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Among the matches on the card were Julia defeating Roxanne Perez to win the NXT Women’s Championship, Stephanie Vacaire defeating Cora Jade, Kehlani Jordan and Lola Vice to win the NXT North American Women’s Championship, and Oba Femi defeating Trik Williams and Eddie Thorpe to win the NXT Championship. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson also made a special appearance at the show, singing a promotional song in the ring to close out the night.

NXT is the brainchild of Paul “Triple H” Levesque, who currently serves as WWE’s chief content officer. The show is currently hosted by Shawn Michaels, himself a WWE Hall of Famer with a legendary in-ring career.

NXT’s high ratings came shortly after WWE officially moved its flagship series “Monday Night Raw” to Netflix, with the first episode streaming live from the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California on Jan. 6. Johnson was in attendance at the show and appeared in several segments.