Roman Reigns has declared for the Royal Rumble in a video which aired yesterday on Smackdown.
The Rumble will be the first time that Reigns will appear on WWE television since Survivor Series: WarGames, though he is expected to appear more during the road to WrestleMania.
He is the eighth man to announce his intentions to be in the match following Cody Rhodes, Dragon Lee, Gunther, Jey Uso, Penta, Rey Mysterio, and Solo Sikoa.
Alexa Bliss, Asuka, Bayley, Charlotte Flair, Chelsea Green, Giulia, Iyo Sky, Jordynne Grace, Lash Legend, Liv Morgan, Lyra Valkyria, Nia Jax, Raquel Rodriguez, Rhea Ripley, and Roxanne Perez are the ones who so far have declared for the women’s Rumble match.
The taped Smackdown last week on USA Network drew just 968,000 viewers, down 22,000 from the previous week and marks the second week in a row that the show drew less than a million viewers. Smackdown had a 0.21 rating in 18-49, down 0.05 from the prior show and was #2 on the top 50 cable chart behind the NBA on ESPN. (Ratings credit: Wrestlenomics)
The WWE United States Women’s champion Giulia and Kiana James earned a shot at the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles after winning a triple threat tag match last night on Smackdown in Montreal.
Alexa Bliss and Charlotte and Nia Jax and Lash Legend were the other teams in this match, which ended with James winning Bliss after Bliss was hit by Legend’s Lash Extension finisher just seconds earlier.
It’s unclear when they will be able to cash in this title shot but Giulia and James have a date with either Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky or Liv Morgan and Roxanne Perez, with their opponents to be decided after tonight’s Saturday Night’s Main Event tag team title match.
A fourth match was added to tonight’s Saturday Night Main Event and it’s one with a lot of history across two promotions as AJ Styles will take on Shinsuke Nakamura.
Styles was invited to Smackdown by General Manager Nick Aldis, with Aldis saying he got him over because he had a match for him for Saturday Night’s Main Event.
The two men faced each other multiple times, but did so on the biggest stages of both New Japan Pro-Wrestling and WWE. Nakamura defeated Styles at NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom 10 to retain the IWGP Intercontinental title and then Styles defeated Nakamura to retain the WWE title at WrestleMania 34.
Styles will face Gunther at the Royal Rumble with his career on the line.
Smackdown is back live at 8PM ET on USA Network after two weeks in Europe, with the show coming from Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec.
Five matches have been announced already including The Wyatt Sicks vs The MFTs for the WWE Tag Team titles, Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss vs Nia Jax and Lash Legend vs Giulia and Kaina James in a triple threat tag team match to determine the #1 contenders for the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles, Damian Priest vs Trick Williams, Jade Cargill vs Chelsea Green, and Carmelo Hayes hosts his United States championship open challenge.
Plus, Smackdown General Manager Nick Aldis has invited AJ Styles over for the show, an invitation which has been accepted by the former WWE champion.
Trey Miguel, who returned to TNA Wrestling yesterday on Impact after he was released from his AEW contract days after he signed it, said that the last week was really hard on him mentally.
“I planned to step away from wrestling after the week I went through,” he wrote on X. “I didn’t think I could do it anymore.”
Miguel thanked everyone who had his back, especially TNA who offered him a contract to return after he left with the rest of The Rascalz.
“It was hard not to quit. But we can’t give up. Thank you God,” he concluded.
Miguel was part of the Feist or Fired match and pulled down briefcase #4 during the match. One of the four briefcases contains termination papers, a scenario which Matt Hardy wrote that TNA “has the opportunity to do maybe the funniest thing ever.”
“If this is the fired briefcase I’ll be so pissed,” Miguel responded on X.
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Wrestling is reporting through his Select service that Powerhouse Hobbs has officially signed a deal with WWE.
Hobbs left AEW when his contract expired last week and participated in his final match for the company during the Collision tapings after the January 14 episode of Dynamite, losing the AEW Trios titles. The match aired a few days later on Collision.
The California native started his AEW journey in 2020 and was part of Team Taz, the Don Callis Family, and The Opps, winning the TNT title on one occasion as well as the AEW Trios titles with Katsuyori Shibata and Samoa Joe.
It’s unclear when Hobbs will officially start with WWE but with the Royal Rumble just around the corner, it would be a great place to make a first impression!
The Smashing Machine, the movie led by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in his portrayal of MMA fighter Mark Kerr, is now available to stream on HBO Max.
Joining Johnson as part of the cast are Emily Blunt, Lyndsey Gavin, Oleksandr Usyk, Bas Rutten, Ryan Bader, Satoshi Ishii, Yoko Hamamura, Paul Cheng, Cyborg Abreu, and Zoe Kosovic.
The movie is based on the 2002 documentary The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr and is directed by Benny Safdie and distributed by the A24 movie studio.
While the movie bombed in the box office, with only $11,411,388 in the United States and $9,702,919 internationally, it landed both Johnson and his co-star Emily Blunt two Golden Globe Awards nominations and one Academy Award nomination in the Best Makeup and Hairstyling category.
Ash by Elegance has returned to TNA Wrestling, five months after she surrendered the TNA Knockouts title.
The former Dana Brooke in WWE made a surprise appearance on last night’s episode of Impact on AMC, joining The Elegance Brand taking out Xia Brookside, Indi Hartwell, and Knockouts champ Lei Ying Lee.
Ash surrendered the TNA Knockouts title at last year’s Victory Road, saying that she was unable to compete anymore. She never revealed the reason why she originally left.
She last wrestled on September 5 in a six-woman tag match with Heather and M By Elegance defeating The IInspiration and Masha Slamovich. The match was taped and aired on the September 18 episode of Impact.
Smackdown commentator Joe Tessitore has been named part of the Zuffa Boxing broadcast team.
Zuffa Boxing, a joint venture between Saudi Arabia’s Sela Sport and TKO Group Holdings, will hold its first numbered event tonight live from the Meta Apex in Las Vegas and will be broadcast live exclusively on Paramount+.
Tessitore will be the lead play-by-play for the event along with fight analysts Max Kellerman, Andre Ward, Antonio Tarver, Mike Coppinger, Skipper Kelp, contributor Mark Kriegel, host Molly Qerim, reporter Heidi Androl, and ring announcer Joe Martinez.
He already does commentary for college football so this is the third sport he will be diving into.
With Tessitore doing work for Zuffa Boxing tonight, he will have to be replaced by someone else for Smackdown, at least when the shows go head-to-head like tonight.
Trey Miguel left TNA at the end of 2025, signed with AEW a couple of weeks later, got released from AEW a few days after that, and now signed a new contract with TNA Wrestling.
It’s been a roller coaster of a month for Miguel, who thought he would be part of The Rascalz in AEW, but previous online comments came to haunt him, with AEW releasing him after orders from top brass in Warner Bros. Discovery just a few days after he signed a brand new AEW contract.
Last night on Impact on AMC, Miguel appeared during the Feast or Fired match, pulling down one of the four briefcases which could still bring bad news for him. The four briefcases include either a TNA World title shot, a TNA International title shot, a TNA Tag Team title shot, or his termination papers…again!
“We’re thrilled to welcome Trey Miguel back to the family. TNA Wrestling has officially re-signed Trey Miguel,” Tom Hannifan said on commentary.
The missing Raw views when Raw did not crack the Netflix Top 10 global chart were finally published today in the Netflix What We Watch bi-annual report.
The November 24 episode pulled in 3,000,000 global views, half a million less than what the previous episode did. That was the special Madison Square Garden show with John Cena’s final appearance.
The December 1 episode had 2,900,000 views and that was followed by the December 8 episode which was in the top 10 with 2,700,000 views. The December 15 show had 2,900,000 views, the December 22 show had 2,400,000 views, and the year ended with the December 29 episode with just 2,200,000 views.
The 2.2 million figure on December 29 was a record low for the show.
FOX Nation has expanded its partnership with Real American Freestyle (RAF), securing a new long-term agreement to remain the exclusive broadcast partner for the emerging freestyle wrestling league, announced FOX Nation president Lauren Petterson. Through this expanded deal, FOX Nation will exclusively stream all upcoming RAF matches, delivering nationwide live events featuring elite competitors including Bo Nickal, Wyatt Hendrickson, Colby Covington, Michael Chandler, and more.
Founded by the late WWE legend Hulk Hogan alongside his co-founders, CEO Chad Bronstein, Chief Media Officer Eric Bischoff and Chief Operating Officer Izzy Martinez, Real American Freestyle has quickly established itself as a rising force in combat sports. Attracting decorated athletes and a passionate fan base, RAF has been a top subscription driver for FOX Nation, with the most recent event earlier this month (RAF05) in Sunrise, Florida drawing the highest day of acquisitions for the platform in over a year.
In making the announcement, Petterson said, “We’re incredibly proud of what has been built over the first five events and the strong momentum Real American Freestyle has generated. They have been great partners who share our commitment to delivering premium content, and we look forward to expanding this relationship as the league continues to grow.”
Bronstein commented, “This extension reflects the momentum we’ve been building since the first event and the incredible partnership we’ve developed. FOX Nation saw early on that there was an opportunity to give elite wrestling a true professional platform, and the audience response has continued to grow with each show.”
Bischoff added, “RAF is reaching core wrestling fans and pulling in new ones. Elite athletes, real stories, clear stakes, and crossover matchups that bring audiences together. FOX Nation understands how to grow long-term programming, and this extension gives us the space to keep developing RAF the right way.”
RAF is redefining wrestling with a bold, modern approach and a mission to professionalize the sport as the league delivers a reimagined style of storytelling that blends fierce competition with top-tier entertainment. Upcoming events include RAF06, taking place at Mullett Arena in Tempe, Arizona on February 28, with international expansion planned for later this year.
In addition, FOX Nation will roll out a new special on Thursday, January 29, titled “RAF: Wrestling’s Greatest Takedowns” hosted by Colby Covington, offering subscribers a curated look at highlights and standout moments from previous matches.
FOX Nation is a direct-to-consumer on-demand streaming service designed to complement the FOX News Channel experience with a members-only destination for its most passionate and loyal super fans. Featuring more than 10,000 hours of content, the subscription service includes lifestyle and entertainment content, as well as historical documentaries and investigative series from a multitude of FOX News personalities. Morning Consult named FOX Nation as one of the top 10 fastest-growing brands in 2023 among Gen Z adults, with the platform placing in the top 15 overall. Launched in 2018, FOX Nation is available at foxnation.com and via app for iOS devices, Android devices, Fire TV, Apple TV, Google TV, Android TV, Roku, Xbox One, FuboTV, Vizio TVs, and Samsung TVs, as well as DIRECTV, DIRECTV STEAM, YouTube TV, Comcast Xfinity, Cox Contour, The Roku Channel, DISH and SLING.
Netflix released its bi-annual What We Watched report which provides the global views of every single show airing on the streaming service.
The new report, detailing views from July to December 2025, also includes the views for the WWE premium live events and all other WWE shows. All the numbers, apart from Raw, are excluding the United States, which are not counted in these reports.
The all-woman Evolution PLE was the least watched premium live event for 2025 with Netflix registering only 900,000 global viewers for the show in July.
SummerSlam fared better, but was not the most popular in the second half of 2025. The Saturday show drew 1,500,000 views while Sunday was slightly more popular with 1,700,000 views.
Clash in Paris followed by 1,300,000 global views in late august and the most popular was Wrestlepalooza, the widely-panned show which drew 1,900,000 views in September.
In October, Crown Jewel: Perth recorded 1,400,000 views while Survivor Series: WarGames ended the year with a 1,800,000 views.
For NXT, The Great American Bash and Heatwave each pulled in 100,000 views while No Mercy, Halloween Havoc, and Deadline all had 200,000.
The previous PLEs had Royal Rumble with 3,200,000 views, Elimination Chamber with 2,000,000 views, WrestleMania 41 Saturday with 2,500,000 views, WrestleMania 41 Sunday with 2,900,000 views, Backlash with 1,500,000 views, Money In The Bank with 1,700,000 views, and Night of Champions with 1,300,000 views.
NXT Roadblock, Stand and Deliver, and Battleground all had 200,000 from earlier in the year.
Hulk Hogan’s left boot from his WrestleMania X8 match against The Rock has been put up for auction.
The boot has a blue and white flame design with Hogan’s face portrayed and is signed by the WWE Hall of Famer along with the words “Hollywood,” and “4 Life,” with a black marker across his image on the boot.
The boot exhibits extensive wear, with creasing and cracking throughout and significant tread wear, with wear exhibited on the paint.
The current bid is at $28,000 after it started with just $10,000 and the auction will end in 16 days.
After being nominated for a Golden Globe award for his performance in The Smashing Machine, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson missed out on the industry’s biggest award, the Academy Awards.
Johnson did not win the Golden Globe but there were rumors that he might be up for an Academy Award nomination. Unfortunately for the People’s Champion, that has to wait for a different movie as Leonardo DiCaprio, Ethan Hawke, Timothee Chalamet, Wagner Moura, and Michael B. Jordan picked up the five nominations in the Best Actor in a Leading Role category.
Not all is bad news for The Smashing Machine though, as the movie did pick up one nomination in the Best Makeup and Hairstyling category.
Emily Blunt, who was also nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in The Smashing Machine, missed out as well.
AEW had to change plans for this weekend’s episode of Collision due to weather issues.
Collision was set to take place from the Esports Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Saturday night but due to a severe storm which is expected to last through the weekend, changes had to be made.
Instead, Collision was taped following yesterday’s episode of Dynamite in Orlando, with the company planning to return to the Esports Stadium for the January 31 episode.
AEW kicked off its second Esports Stadium residency on January 3. The January 31 show will be the last one for this residency.
Taz returned to the AEW commentary desk yesterday after an absence of nearly four months.
The Human Suplex Machine had total shoulder replacement surgery in October of last year, a year after he underwent a knee replacement which also kept him off TV for a few months.
While Taz was out, former AEW World champion Bryan Danielson filled his spot and it remains to be seen what will happen now that Taz is back.
The former ECW champion was inducted into the 2300 Arena Hardcore Hall of Fame in September.
Bishop Dyer, the man formerly known as Baron Corbin in WWE, wrestled a dark match prior to the live AEW Dynamite last night in Orlando, Florida.
Dyer was involved in an eight-man tag team match although he was on the losing side this time around. He teamed up with Hadar Horvitz, Ori Gold, and Martin Stone in their losing effort against Billy Gunn, Austin Gunn, Brady Booker, and Elijah Drago.
Fans greeted the former WWE United States champion with a big applause when he was tagged in the match.
The 41-year-old left WWE in November 2024 after his contract expired and was not renewed by the company, spending 12 years in total working in developmental, NXT, and ultimately the main roster.
AEW is looking to keep the momentum going with Dynamite with a third week in increase in viewership as the show hits the Addition Arena in Orlando, Florida.
Six matches have already been announced for this packed episode which starts at 8PM ET on TBS and also streaming on HBO Max.
Matches include Swerve Strickland vs Kevin Knight, Kenny Omega vs Josh Alexander, Samoa Joe vs Speedball Mike Bailey, Death Riders vs Don Callis Family in a street fight, Megan Bayne and Penelope Ford vs Toni Storm and Mina Shirakawa, and FTR vs Alec Price and Jordan Oliver.
Plus AEW World champion MJF appears and Triangle of Madness respond to Kris Statlander’s challenge.
