Lyra Valkyria & Bayley Set To Run It Back, WWE SmackDown Ratings (3/14/25), News On Maven, Shawn Spears/NXT
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Lyra Valkyria will defend the WWE Women's Intercontinental Championship next week against Raquel Rodriguez. If Valkyria retains, she plans to give Bayley the next title shot.
On this week’s episode of WWE RAW, Valkyria discussed her upcoming match and approached Bayley in a WWE “Digital Exclusive.” Valkyria expressed that she couldn’t stop thinking about her loss to Bayley last month and feels the need to prove herself by defeating Bayley, which is why she intends to grant her the next opportunity for the title.
DING DONG! HELLO TITLE MATCH! pic.twitter.com/X1btB1yA1z
— WWE (@WWE) March 17, 2025
Friday night's episode of WWE SmackDown did 1,571,000 viewers on the USA Network. This is down from the 1,731,000 viewers the show did the previous week.
WWE SmackDown pulled in a 0.52 rating in the key 18-49 demo, which is the same from the 0.52 demo rating from one week ago.
The show ranked #2 for the night behind the ACC men's basketball tournament semifinal between Duke and North Carolina. That game did a 0.56 demo rating and 2,256,000 viewers.
WWE SmackDown is averaging a 0.473 demo rating and 1,555,000 viewers in 2025 to date.
During a new YouTube video, Maven commented on his one-off as the General Manager of WWE Monday Night RAW back in 2004.
For those who may not recall, Maven earned the “one night only” GM role in the 2004 Survivor Series elimination match where he, Randy Orton, Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit defeated Triple H, Batista, Edge and Gene Snitsky
You can check out some highlights from the video below:
On being heavily featured on the episode: "I'm more nervous than I had ever been in my entire life, including my first match on Smackdown against Taz and the reason being, a normal Monday Night Raw for me consisted of about a six-minute match and maybe a small promo … on this night it would be different, we split our shows up into segments and it's usually 14 to maybe 16 segments make up an entire Monday Night Raw … I found myself in I think it was 11 of the segments."
On what he was told backstage: "Did I truly have any input? The answer is no. I was given a promo sheet, I was given all the matches, they definitely weren't listening to who I thought should be in matches. In fact, I had no clue what the matches were going to be until they handed me the piece of paper."
Shawn Spears is thrilled to see the ongoing partnership between WWE NXT and TNA Wrestling, which he calls a "no brainer."
During a recent appearance on the “Gabby AF” podcast, Spears commented on the partnership and his new alliance with The Culling in NXT.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the WWE & TNA partnership: "I'm excited with this idea that the landscape's changed. And that's just a testament of how…Hunter is operating. As the head of this company, he's literally…we're talking about a fourteen time, I think, champion. So he can actually sit back and kind of survey the landscape. And I'm not speaking for him, I don't know what he's doing. But it's a new day and age when the business is always evolving. So if there's an opportunity to partner with TNA and to allow our talents to get more exposure or to get more reps or to get more brand building opportunities, then how is it not a no brainer? Like, why wouldn't we go that route? And I think that's the beautiful thing about pro wrestling; no matter what company you're with, it's all the same. So let's get as many pro wrestling fans together, and it's only going to benefit TNA, it's only going to benefit WWE. It's going to benefit everybody across the wrestling brand."
On The Culling: "The faction is complete, a lot of pieces in play for a while that finally came to fruition a week ago, so what you saw on NXT that happened to Tony and his crew was a long time coming. Good planning, and I feel the people that are in this little crew, are people that have kind of been looking to break out for a long time … when I say kids, I mean it in the most respectful way, they're just younger, are very hungry, very driven and I can kind of see little pieces of myself and how I used to be, and to a degree how I still am in each one of them … I have these three core kids that I know are limitless in terms of talent and possibility. So in that regard it's very exciting for someone like me."
The post Lyra Valkyria & Bayley Set To Run It Back, WWE SmackDown Ratings (3/14/25), News On Maven, Shawn Spears/NXT appeared first on Wrestling Headlines.
