The holidays mean that there’s very little to report on this week, but here’s what’s currently going on in the land of WWE.
On the Christmas Eve edition of Raw Santa Vince appeared and made a few announcements. The biggest of these is that the women’s tag team division is FINALLY happening. No details on when or what the logistics will be, but simply having it announced on television is a welcome development. Santa Vince also announced that John Cena will be returning soon to both Raw and Smackdown. Of course it’s not at all surprising that with ratings struggling and Mania season on the horizon Vince would bring his golden boy back to TV. Finally, Santa Vince made a steel cage match for the New Years Eve Raw between Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre.
NXT announcer Mauro Ranallo was involved in a scary car accident on Dec 23. According to his social media post, another car lost control and hit him at full speed. The photos he shared make it look like a seriously scary head on collision with both cars heavily damaged. Thankfully, Ranallo goes on to say that everyone involved walked away unhurt.
Congrats to Raw Superstar Sarah Logan and NXT’s Ray Rowe on their Viking themed wedding. As one would expect, many of their fellow superstars were in attendance (and in costume). Also getting married this week was Lio Rush.
WWE Network
WWE Network quietly put up several new shows on Christmas Eve. No word yet on whether or not we can expect more episodes of any of them, but I did see a report that trademarks had been filed on some of the show titles. Some thoughts on the 4 new shows:
Fashion Files: Cold Case Unit- If you miss the old Fashion Files segments that Breezango used to do on Smackdown then this is the show for you. It’s basically the same thing, but in a slightly longer stand-alone format.
WWE Kitchen Smackdown- Hosted by Bo Dallas, this was a cooking competition show between 3 WWE superstars who clearly had very minimal experience in a kitchen. This episode featured Dana Brook vs Curtis Axel vs Alicia Fox, and frankly I was afraid for the judges to eat some of what they concocted.
Botch Club- Good Brothers Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson hosted this show featuring clips of wrestling bloopers. Of the 4 shows, I felt this one has the most potential to become a regular series on the Network (even if the concept is basically a rip off).
Xavier’s Arcade Challenge-Super gamer and creator of the Up Up Down Down channel on Youtube Xavier Woods brings some of that passion to the WWE Network. Woods visited a retro gaming bar in Philadelphia and challenged other patrons to some of the games.
PPV Event Plans
NXT UK: Takeover Blackpool: Jan 12:
The weekly TV is still building towards these announcements, but these are the matches currently being advertised for NXT UK’s first Takeover event. As Takeovers go, this would be a relatively full card already, but I wouldn’t be surprised to possibly see another match added. There are quite a few heavily featured players for the brand that don’t currently have a match on the announced card.
UK Title: Pete Dunne© vs Joe Coffey
UK Womens Title: Rhea Ripley© vs Toni Storm
UK Tag Titles: (crowning of inaugural champions) Mustache Mountain (Trent Seven and Tyler Bate) vs Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake and Zack Gibson)
No DQ Match: Dave Mastiff vs Eddie Dennis
NXT Takeover Pheonix: Jan 26:
This card is still coming together, but here’s what we know so far…
NXT Title: Tommaso Cimpa© vs Aleister Black
NXT Womens Title: Shayna Baszler© vs Bianca Belair (Belair won a 4 way #1 contender match this week)
Possible Additions include…
NXT North American Title: Ricochet© vs Johnny Gargano
Royal Rumble: Jan 27:
What we know so far…
Universal Title: Brock Lesnar© vs Braun Strowman
Men’s Rumble: Drew McIntyre, R-Truth (#30)
Women’s Rumble: Carmella (#30)
The following Cruiserweight title 4 way match was announced this week. The 3 men who will face champion Buddy Murphy will be decided in qualifying matches on 205 Live the next two weeks.
Cruiserweight Title 4 Way: Buddy Murphy© vs (Kalisto or Lio Rush) vs (Drew Gulak or Akira Tozawa) vs (Cedric Alexander or Hideo Itami)
Happy Holidays!
