Bianca Belair and the WWE NXT women dominated a study of biggest ratings overachievers.
WWE NXT’s Bianca Belair currently finds herself in the middle of an inevitable-turned-scheduled WrestleMania 36 matchup between NXT women’s champion Rhea Ripley and Charlotte Flair. But the rising star landed at the top of a recent study of biggest ratings draws compared to expected viewership.
Authored by Brandon Thurston and the Wrestlenomics staff, the “AEW and NXT Quarter-Hour Viewership Study” was dominated by Belair and several NXT women. The comprehensive deep-dive report studied just how much a featured star’s quarter-hour rating exceeded expectations. Based on filtered data aimed at giving the most accurate assessment of P2+ viewership (age two and above), this study was devoid of quarter-hour biases skewed by opening segments and the top of the hour.
Belair led a pleasantly surprising list of WWE NXT and AEW stars who scientifically overachieved in viewership dating back to late October. NXT women account for three of the Top 5—and five of the Top 10—acts listed.
While thorough and certainly informative, Thurston admits the study—like most—is not without its faults. Per the report, these numbers “ don’t account for how long each person was onscreen for during a given 15-minute segment, nor does it account for whom they appeared along with.”
Also commenting on the report, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter noted that during the period of study, “there was the women’s Battle Royal on NXT which was a big hit.”
A study of AEW and WWE NXT quarter-hour viewership revealed Bianca Belair and the NXT women ... [+]
Given the amount of variables that were deftly factored out of this fascinating study, there is plenty of information to be gained about who may be deserving of bigger opportunities. Oddly enough, overachieving despite being overlooked for major opportunities is the very predicament the Bianca Belair character finds herself in right now.
