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.
The WWE: Unreal series on Netflix has been renewed for season three.
The second season went live worldwide on the streaming service yesterday, with five episodes chronicling the road to SummerSlam 2025 with Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch, Cody Rhodes, Rhea Ripley, Pat McAfee, Jelly Roll, R-Truth, Iyo Sky, Naomi, Chelsea Green, Penta, and Lyra Valkyria all part of the cast.
The announcement for the third season, which will premiere in Summer of 2026, came on the final episode of season two although there’s no exact date.
The third season will focus on John Cena’s final few months in WWE ahead of his retirement match against Gunther on Saturday Night’s Main Event.
Season two ended with Brock Lesnar coming back at SummerSlam, taking out Cena.
Appearing with producer and TV host Raffi Boghosian on his show Raffi Talks, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was asked about WrestleMania 43 coming to Saudi Arabia in 2027 and his participation in the event.
Last year, WWE announced that WrestleMania 43 would be held outside the United States for the first time ever in the Kingdom, news that did not go over very well with fans, especially those in the United States.
“I’m excited for the brand of WrestleMania, I’m excited for the Kingdom because that is a big show,” Johnson said. “I’m also excited not only for the brand, but I’m excited for our athletes to be able to participate in an event like that, and that is a global event, and so I can’t wait!”
Asked about his conversations about a possible involvement, considering the rumors that he was specifically asked to wrestle on the show by the Saudis, Johnson responded, “In terms of the conversations I’ve been having, it’s all good. It will always be good!”
The Rock last wrestled at WrestleMania 40 in a tag team match with Roman Reigns against Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins.
The plan was originally Reigns vs Rock but fan involvement pushed for a Rhodes main event where Rhodes finally finished his story.
In a statement on X, Tommaso Ciampa confirmed that he is departing WWE.
The former NXT champion said that in the very near future, his contract with WWE will come to an end and he wanted to thank every single person who contributed to the last 10 years of his incredible journey.
Ciampa thanked the camera crew, ring crew, hair and makeup, refs, creative, producers, catering, medical and anyone who he might have missed.
“A very special thank you to all of the men and women who I’ve shared a ring and locker room with… nothing but love and respect,” he said, before giving a special thank you to his “black and gold family” in NXT.
“I spend the first decade of my career traveling the world on the independent scene. I spent the second decade of my career traveling the world with WWE. I have one decade remaining and I’m beyond excited for whatever challenges lie ahead,” he continued.
He said that for the first time in over 10 years, he’s available for appearances, signings, photo ops, movies, etc, and urged anyone interested to e-mail him on bookciampa@gmail.com.
Ciampa joined WWE in 2015 and was a major part of the black and gold NXT brand. He is a former two-time NXT champion, one-time NXT Tag Team champion, and two-time WWE Tag Team champion with his long-time frenemy Johnny Gargano.
Raw did not crack the Netflix Top 10 global chart for the episode of January 12, dropping off the chart after they did make it to #10 for the one year anniversary episode. This episode started at 2PM ET in the United States due to the show being in Germany.
The show did appear in the top 10 in six different countries: Bahrain, Bolivia, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom, and United States. The last show on the top 10 chart had 2,500,000 global views, so Raw pulled in less than that.
The chart was still dominated by Stranger Things, HIS & HERS and the Run Away limited series.
WWE is coming to Netflix in the country of Italy starting April 1, in time for WrestleMania.
Currently, all WWE programming air on DMAX and Discovery+ but that will soon change once Netflix enters the arena, with Raw, Smackdown, NXT, the current video library, and all of the WWE premium live events airing on the streaming giant.
The popular duo of “Il Godzilla” Luca Franchini and “Il Bardo” Michele Posa will continue doing all Italian commentary for WWE on Netflix.
The announcement was made by WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque in a video posted on the Netflix Italia social media accounts.
This will leave just Austria, Germany, Switzerland, China Japan, South Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa as the only ones which still do not get WWE on Netflix due to current media rights agreements which have not expired.
Maria Kanellis announced on social media that she has given birth to her third child with her husband, Mike Bennett.
“William Mercury Bennett was born yesterday afternoon at 7 pounds 7 ounces and 18.8 inches. He is an absolute angel,” she wrote.
The former WWE/AEW/ROH star noted that her son gets his name from his great-grandfather who is her godfather and was an immigrant from Greece and also from her brother who is a veteran, husband, and father.
“They are two of the toughest men I know. William Mercury’s name means strong willed warrior, messenger. We are so in love,” she added.
The couple have a seven-year-old daughter named Fredrica “Freddie” Moon and six-year-old son Carver Mars.
