NEWS ITEMS: Rock talks President Trump and his timeline to run for U.S. President, NXT viewership on USA, Charlotte on Rousey in WWE

-NXT on USA Network drew 841,000 viewers, which is about one-fourth of what Smackdown drew in its usual timeslot the night before. WWE doesn’t release show-specific viewership numbers for WWE Network, but they key here is whether the WWE Network viewership for NXT takes a big hit or not. If the WWE Network viewership is similar, then that would mean they exposed NXT to a whole new audience. If, instead, for instance, NXT usually draws 950,000 viewers and this week has 100,000 viewers on the Network, they merely shifted Network viewers to USA Network for one week.

-Charlotte endorsed Ronda Rousey being part of the WWE Women’s Division picture. “What’s exciting about Ronda being a part of WWE is all the different eyes that she attracts towards the women’s division as a whole,” Charlotte told Brian Fritz of Sporting News. “I think that’s what cool. Ronda is an attraction. Any buzz that puts the women on a different or a higher level, I’m all for. She’s a star that would be a crossover star into our world and that’s exciting. That goes to show how far the women have come, that someone like Ronda Rousey wants to be a part of something that all the women have collectively built. My message to Ronda would be she knows where to find me. I’m on ‘SmackDown Live’ every Tuesday.” Read the whole interview at Sporting News HERE.

-In Variety today, “The Rock” Dwayne Johnson spoke about the possibility of running for U.S. President some day. “I couldn’t do both.” he said regarding both acting and politics. “Realistically, as we go into 2018, when you look at my slate as we’re developing and shooting into 2019 and 2020, the slate goes deep into 2021, so it feels like the realistic consideration would be 2024.” He said the idea seem realistic when he read a newspaper article last year in the Washington Post that said he could actually win. “It all started out of the blue… It was never something that I trumpeted and beat my chest and ever said publicly, ‘This is what I’m going to do,’ but as that story picked up, Americans picked it up and there was this sentiment of, ‘We’re not joking, and we would really love the idea if you would run,’” Johnson said. “In that, I knew I had to listen to the people and really, really think about it. That’s where I’m at right now — I’m well aware politics is not the business I’m in, so the best thing I can do is continuing to listen and learn as much as I can.” He said President Trump is not impressing him. “I’m continuing to watch our presidency and watch how every new development is handled,” he said. “I continue to watch our leaders in government, and like all Americans, I continue to be hopeful that our leaders exhibit poise, perspective and the ability to bring our country together during these tough times — which I don’t feel our presidency is currently doing — so that’s where I’m at. I care deeply about our country, and I care deeply about our people – especially now. Decency matters and being a decent human being matters, and character matters, and leadership matters.” FULL ARTICLE LINK

NOW CHECK OUT THIS PREVIOUS UPDATE: Smackdown Rating: Key metrics on a post-Under Siege era as WWE finalizes hype for Clash of Champions (w/Keller’s Analysis)