Cody Rhodes has confirmed that he will be the Executive Vice President of All Elite Wrestling, the new promotion financed by Tony Khan, the son of Jacksonville Jaguars and Fulham F.C. owner and billionaire Shahid Khan.
Cody, whose vision led to the All In indie pay-per-view back in September 2018, will be involved in the running of the promotion, taking key decisions with the rest of management.
“I feel so damn lucky. I believe that more than talent…more than chance…work ethic will guide me where I’d like to go,” Cody wrote on Twitter. “To be Executive Vice President for our new venture, and to be flanked by Matt and Nick and a few familiar names sharing that position; this is my dream job. I can’t think of a time when so many of wrestling’s top free agents all opted out of the road usually traveled and instead wanted to start something new. I am excited to see AEW into existence.”
He also added, “What’s old isn’t new – what’s new is new. Perception isn’t reality – reality is reality. Fans first.”
A rally at the TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, Florida, was announced for Tuesday, January 8 at 5PM EST where the event will be used to provide more information about the promotion and the Double or Nothing show, the sequel to All In.
New Japan announced today on its website that the number of ticket sales for this year’s WrestleKingdom 13 has already surpasses Wrestle Kingdom 12, with 3 days of sales left. Last year’s event filled 34,995 seats in the 55,000 Tokyo Dome, which means this year’s figure will near or surpass two-thirds of the giant indoor stadium.
Sales are probably helped by the fact that this year’s event is on a Friday, while last year’s on a Thursday. Last year, Tetsuya Naito challenged Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Title, while this year, Kenny Omega, will defend it against Hiroshi Tanahashi. As all four men are on both cards, it is hard to guess if the main event plays for role, but both are seminal events in New Japan’s history.
WrestleKingdom will take place on January 4 and will stream live on NJPW World and will air on the same day in the United States on AXS TV.
The Royal Rumble pay-per-view this year will once again feature a women’s Rumble match which will now be an annual thing along with the men’s Rumble.
The number will be kept at 30 this year as well as women from NXT and former WWE Superstars will join the current crop of history-makers in this match. So far, seven women have thrown in their names in the hat for the match with 23 more to go.
The seven women who are confirmed for the Rumble assuming no injuries take place in the meantime are Natalya, Bayley, Sasha Banks, Ember Moon, Ruby Riott, Sarah Logan, Liv Morgan, and Carmella. Carmella will be entering the Rumble at #30 after she won the Mixed Match Challenge with her partner R-Truth.
After Nia Jax complained on Twitter because WWE did not include any photos of WWE women of color in one of their tweets, one particular Superstar fired back, and while he did not mention Jax’s name, it was pretty evident who it was directed to.
“ALL the WWE ladies had a great year but these ones had some very captivating moments in 2018,” wrote Tye Dillinger in a separate tweet. The original tweet showed Ronda Rousey, Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, The IIconics, and Carmella only.
But then he continued with the zinger. “And, if you’re all #BooBoo face about being left off the list despite being on TV ALL the time….maybe spend more time on the craft instead of social media…”
Ouch! That, ladies and gentleman, was a perfect 10 response!
WWE kicks off 2019 with a new episode of Smackdown, an episode which was taped on Saturday night in Pittsburgh at the PPG Paints Arena.
Today’s episode will feature the televised return of John Cena who will be involved in an interesting match as well. Four matches in total were recorded during the tapings which are Jeff Hardy vs Samoa Joe; Sonya Deville vs Naomi; Becky Lynch and John Cena vs Zelina Vega and Andrade “Cien” Almas; Randy Orton vs Rey Mysterio vs Samoa Joe vs Mustafa Ali vs AJ Styles.
Smackdown has another chance of beating Raw in the ratings for the second straight week since Raw fell on New Year’s Eve, something which has never happened before.
WWE stocks had a wild 2018, reaching nearly $100 at one point after starting the year at just $31. Yesterday at time of closing, WWE stocks traded at $74.73 but then dropped to $73.77 in after hours trading.
The big jump came in May 20, jumping to $57 from the low 50s and then had a big climb to $96.73 on September 28. Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there where it closed the year at $73.77. In terms of percentage, from the first trading day of 2018 to the last one, WWE stocks soared a whopping 144% with a market cap of $5.7 billion.
11 analysts who offered CNN Business a 12-month price forecasts for WWE have a median target of $95, with a high estimate of $105 and a low estimate of $80. The median estimate represents a 27% increase from the last trading price. The current consensus among 13 polled investment analysts is to buy WWE stock and with the UK and India television deals announcements coming in 2019, it’s looking like a good year to be a WWE investor.
2018 was certainly a year filled with big news. From Ronda Rousey’s arrival at the Royal Rumble, to Daniel Bryan’s in-ring return, a couple of wrestlers passing away, rape allegations, firings, Roman Reigns’ leukemia and many more.
Here we take a look at the top 15 most-read stories of 2018 from Wrestling-Online.com.
Everyone’s favorite WCW champion of all time! 2018 saw David Arquette seriously getting back in professional wrestling, paying his dues in the independent circuit. Unfortunately for Arquette, he agreed to participate in a death match. The result? He sliced his neck with a broken light tube. Death match + David Arquette = not happening again.
When WWE went to Saudi Arabia, the rules were clear. No women, no video of women. WWE still went ahead and aired a commercial that featured the WWE women dancing. That went over very well in the stadium, but not with the Saudi General Sports Authority which issued an apology after the event was over. Oops!
The only Impact-related entry in this list…and it’s thanks to the blond bombshell by the name of Scarlett Bordeaux. Her debut needs no play-by-play as the video says it all. Perfect 10!
It’s always unfortunate when someone passes away. On December 5, former WWE Tag Team champion The Dynamite Kid died on his birthday, which made it even more sad. Tom Billington was in pretty bad shape, his health had been in decline for several years and his death was not unexpected.
It’s safe to say that Big Cass had a terrible year. He went from one of the top acts in NXT with Enzo Amore to getting fired in a span of a few years. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when he disobeyed direct orders after he was told not to do one thing…and still proceeded to do it on television.
Cass’ former partner in crime finds himself on this list not once, but twice! Doesn’t mean he had the best year of his life though. On this occasion, Amore went incognito at the Survivor Series, buying an expensive ringside seat and then unveiled himself to the crowd after he was made. You can’t even script this stuff!
There are things that if you try a million times, you wouldn’t nail it. This was one of them. No doubt, the funniest moment of 2018 came in Saudi Arabia when Titus O’Neil came out during the Greatest Royal Rumble match and tripped, sliding all the way underneath the ring. Titus Worldslide will live on forever.
2018 started badly for Jey Uso as the Smackdown Tag Team title holder at the time was arrested following a non-televised live event in Hidalgo, Texas. WWE did not punish Uso though and he returned to TV still with the title. Welcome, to the Uso Penitentiary!
For most of his career, HBK rocked the long hair and many fans don’t even remember him not having long hair. Imagine the shock when during the WrestleMania weekend, the WWE Hall of Famer decided to cut off his ponytail! He later went and even shaved his head. Goodbye, childhood!
Another hair-related post. This time though it was not someone cutting off their hair…it was someone losing it during a match. It’s no secret that many of the WWE women use wigs and Lana lost hers during a match against Asuka when the Empress of Tomorrow kicked her so hard that Lana’s wig flew away.
Monday Night Raw had an unexpected visitor and Ronda Rousey got a close look at it while at ringside. In another LOL moment, a bat flew down to ringside and circled Rousey. Rousey kept her cool and continued watching the match while also keeping an eye on the unwanted guest.
It was the story that kicked off Amore’s horrible year that led to his firing from WWE. As the cruiserweight champion at the time, an individual named Philomena Sheahan accused Amore that he raped her a few months before. A police investigation eventually led to the accuser being described as not credible and no evidence was found. Amore was let off the hook but still on the unemployed list.
The son of Jerry “The King” Lawler unfortunately passed away in jail at age 46, hanging himself at the Hardeman County Sheriff’s Department. His death however is still being investigated as Jerry and his legal team are claiming that there’s more than what the Sheriff department are saying.
Roman Reigns also didn’t have the best of years. Richard Rodriguez, the co-owner of the Iron Addicts Gym, said that Roman Reigns was a frequent client of his, involved in the Wellness Fitness Nutrition steroid business. Filmmaker Jon Bravo, who was investigating the case, said that he would provide proof that Reigns was indeed a buyer…proof which never came and Bravo eventually went hiding.
Every year, Wrestling-Online.com publishes the prices and seating chart of WrestleMania before anyone else does. Combined with good search engine ranking for the topic and links from other forums, the seating chart and prices takes the cake of the most read story on the website for 2018.
All Elite Wrestling was officially announced at the stroke of Midnight on January 1, 2019, the new promotion headed up by Tony Khan, the son of Jacksonville Jaguars and Fulham F.C. owner and billionaire Shahid Khan.
There was also a second announcement which is Double or Nothing, the second major show following the highly successful All In this past September. A rally at the TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, Florida, was announced for Tuesday, January 8 at 5PM EST where the event will be used to provide more information about the promotion and the show.
All members of The Elite will be in attendance as well as special guests and a few special announcements. Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, and Scorpio Sky will be there as well and look like they will be joining AEW moving forward.
The promotion has been rumored for a few months and several trademarks were filed with the USPTO leading up to today’s announcement.
In 2018, WWE presented a total of 15 main roster pay-per-views and another five NXT Takeover events for a total of 20 major shows. Three of those shows took place overseas: two in Saudi Arabia and one in Australia. Apart from WrestleMania, the overseas shows packed more fans than any other WWE event in the United States during the year 2018.
With 20 major shows, there were some okay shows and some home run shows. Here, we take a look at the top five shows of the year based on importance and matches.
#5 – NXT Takeover: WarGames (2018)
Date: Saturday, November 17, 2018 Location: Staples Center in Los Angeles, California Attendance: 13,598
This was the last NXT Takeover show of 2018 with just four regular matches and one which was over very quickly. The show opened with the arrival of Matt Riddle and a quick, unannounced match against Kassius Ohno that lasted just six seconds. But the four matches that followed that were off the hook, with the women killing it in a 2-out-of-3-falls match, Velveteen Dream showing why he will be a major Superstar in a few years, Black and Gargano slugging it out, and of course the incredible WarGames match with Dunne, Ricochet, The War Raiders, and The Undisputed Era. A great show that set to bar very high for the Survivor Series the next day.
#4 – NXT Takeover: New Orleans
Date: Saturday, April 7, 2018 Location: Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana Attendance: 13,955
If there was a perfect way to kick off the WrestleMania weekend was with this particular Takeover. A hot, loud international crowd were on their feet for most of the show as the Superstars of tomorrow tore the roof off the place with incredible matches. How can you forget the ladder match to crown the first-ever NXT North American champion? Or the awesome women’s title match, or the triple threat tag team match for the NXT Tag Team titles? And not to mention the unsanctioned match between Gargano and Ciampa which went close to 40 minutes! It was a night to remember and the NXT folks did not disappoint.
#3 – WrestleMania 34
Date: Sunday, April 8, 2018 Location: Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana Attendance: 78,133
Let the good times roll! With seven hours of action, it’s impossible not to mention WrestleMania in this list. It might not be the greatest WrestleMania ever but it surely did not disappoint. We saw Charlotte Flair inflict Asuka’s first defeat in WWE, the amazing debut of Ronda Rousey with Kurt Angle against Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, The Undertaker finishing off John Cena in less than three minutes, Daniel Bryan’s long-awaited return to the ring, a 10-year-old winning the Raw Tag Team titles with Braun Strowman, Shinsuke Nakamura turning heel, and in the biggest shock of them all, Brock Lesnar beating Roman Reigns to retain the Universal title. It was a long, long, long night for everyone at the stadium and those watching on television, but it’s WrestleMania after all.
#2 – Royal Rumble
Date: January 28, 2018 Location: Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Attendance: 17,629
This was a very important Royal Rumble simply because it featured the first-ever women’s Rumble match. After years of rumors, WWE pulled the trigger on this one and even let the women main event the Rumble pay-per-view, something which would have been unheard of just a few years ago. Shinsuke Nakamura won the men’s Rumble, and Asuka made history by winning the first women’s Rumble. A lot of former WWE women also made their return to be part of the Rumble match and then we witnessed the arrival of Ronda Rousey, who closed the pay-per-view by showing everyone her intentions: she was going to WrestleMania.
#1 – Evolution
Date: Sunday, October 28, 2018 Location: The Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York Attendance: 10,900
If there was one important event in 2018, yes, more than WrestleMania, it has to be Evolution. It was a longtime coming and the women do deserve their own pay-per-view. Over the past few years, WWE has changed their mentality on how they treat their women on television and this was perhaps their crowning moment. The show was filmed differently than other WWE pay-per-views and had that “NXT feel” with dimmed lights and a spotlight over the ring. Evolution was a fantastic show from top to bottom: we saw the return of Trish Stratus and Lita, an awesome match between Toni Storm and Io Shirai in the final of the Mae Young Classic, a great match between Shayna Baszler and Kairi Sane for the NXT Women’s title, a near 30-minute last women standing match between Becky and Charlotte, and of course a main event between Ronda Rousey and Nikki Bella.
Excluding WrestleMania and the three big international pay-per-views that took place during 2018, WWE had an average attendance of 13,600 for its pay-per-view shows, including NXT Takeover specials.
WWE presented 20 special live events during the calendar year thanks to the addition of The Greatest Royal Rumble, Super Show-Down, and Crown Jewel. While last year WWE had only two stadium shows, this year they had four in total, with the three international shows plus WrestleMania 34.
The highest-attended event was WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans. The Superdome packed in 78,133 fans back in April, followed by Super Show-Down at The MCG in Melbourne, Australia with 70,309. The Greatest Royal Rumble came in third with over 60,000 fans in attendance. Crown Jewel had around 16,000 fans.
The Royal Rumble was the highest-attended non-stadium show during the year, with 17,629 fans packing the arena. SummerSlam was next with 16,169 fans, Survivor Series with 16,325, and Hell In A Cell with 15,216 fans. Money In The Bank did 15,214 in attendance, The Elimination Chamber had 15,126, Fastlane with 15,119, Extreme Rules with 14,739, Backlash had 14,724, and TLC with 13,408. Evolution, the first-ever all-women WWE pay-per-view was in the smallest arena out of all the events with a sold out crowd of 10,900.
NXT Takeover events were well-attended throughout the year. The one in Philadelphia had 14,247, in New Orleans there were 13,955 fans, Chicago II had 11,000, Brooklyn 4 did 14,896, and WarGames (2018) had 13,598.
WWE will present its last television broadcast of 2018 tonight with Monday Night Raw from the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan. The show, with seven matches, was recorded on Friday night.
Drew McIntyre vs Dolph Ziggler in a steel cage match; A battle royal to determine the #1 contender for the Intercontinental title; The Riott Squad vs Ember Moon, Sasha Banks, and Bayley; Seth Rollins vs Lashley; Jinder Mahal and The Singh Brothers vs Rhyno and Heath Slater in a 3-on-2 handicap match; Dean Ambrose vs the winner of the battle royal for the Intercontinental title; Natalya and Ronda Rousey vs Tamina and Nia Jax.
Next week Raw returns live with in-arena appearances from John Cena and Brock Lesnar and a new talk show segment from Alexa Bliss featuring guest Ronda Rousey.
Former Raw Women’s champion Nia Jax took a shot at WWE’s Twitter account for a post yesterday which read, “There’s no denying it. The women of WWE BROUGHT IT in 2018.”
WWE’s choice of photos however wasn’t very inclusive, and showed only Charlotte Flair, Ronda Rousey, The IIconics, Becky Lynch, and Carmella…all white women. Jax, who doesn’t shy away from comments, replied with emojis of women of different color with the hash tag #WeHereToo.
A couple of weeks ago, Jax got into an argument with a fan who said that she gets a push and then takes a long vacation, to which she replied that “mama needs some R&R.” Unfortunately for Nia, she then slagged off Ronda Rousey for not being in Chicago last week. “Hey @RondaRousey while you’re home enjoying your extended vacation, the rest of us women will be carrying the division that you supposedly represent.”
Both WWE UK champion Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate have finished up their bookings on the independent scene and will now be wrestling exclusively for WWE. Their exclusive deals even prevents them from wrestling for PROGRESS Wrestling, which has been helping WWE set up their NXT UK brand.
“Finished my time on the British independent scene tonight. Closing out a week that saw me in New York, Germany, Spain and London. 13 years that I wouldn’t change for anything, on to the next chapter,” Dunne wrote in a tweet.
It was later followed by another message from PROGRESS Wrestling’s Jim Smallman, who thanked both stars for their work. “For everything you’ve done in @ThisIs_Progress and for British wrestling in general. The sky is the limit for you both. Scary how talented you both are,” Smallman said, adding that he would not be missing being flicked with towels and having coats thrown at him.
Dunne and Bate are two of the few NXT UK stars who will be no longer allowed to wrestle anywhere else like in the past year. Those who got exclusive deals got a good pay increase in their WWE contract as compensation.
2018 was quite an eventful year for professional wrestling, especially WWE. While viewers might have tuned out, the money kept coming in and at least financially, WWE is more stable than ever. Here we take a look at the five biggest news stories of 2018 for WWE and how they happened.
There were a lot of stories that could have been included in this list but we feel these were the most important ones for the company over the past 12 months.
#5 – Daniel Bryan returns to active competition
Daniel Bryan must go down in history as one of the most loved WWE Superstars ever. His run leading up to his first WWE title win at WrestleMania XXX was perfect creative writing. Against all odds he did it. Unfortunately, Bryan had to retire from wrestling due to his many concussions and while still under a WWE deal, he was brought back as Smackdown General Manager.
Bryan never accepted the fact that he would not return to the ring. He made it very clear that if he is not cleared while in WWE, he will leave when his contract expires. Then, on March 20, the news that everyone was waiting for arrived: Daniel Bryan gets cleared to return to the ring.
Just three weeks before WrestleMania, WWE quickly added him to the card and in the same place where he won the WWE title four years earlier, Daniel Bryan returned to the ring, teaming up with Shane McMahon to take on Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. His return wasn’t as wildly successful as everyone thought it would be though. Unlike his first run towards the WWE title, this time around, good creative writing wasn’t on his side. But Bryan still ended 2018 on a high as the WWE champion, having won the title from AJ Styles on an episode of Smackdown in November.
The rumors of Ronda Rousey joining WWE ran for years ever since she teamed up with The Rock at WrestleMania 31 in a surprise segment and took on Triple H and Stephanie McMahon in THE WrestleMania moment that year.
Rousey continued her MMA dominance but after two bad losses in a row, she decided to hang up her gloves for good. She started appearing on WWE television and at NXT every now and then and even trained at the WWE Performance Center.
When WWE announced the first-ever women’s Royal Rumble, the rumors intensified that Rousey would be one of the 30 individuals to make history. The only problem was that Ronda Rousey traveled to Colombia to film a movie and documented her journey on her social media. Numbers 1 to 30 came out during the Rumble and Ronda was not there. But then, as Asuka stood in the middle of the ring with both champions to her side, “Bad Reputation” kicked in and out came the baddest woman on the planet. No words, just pointing at the WrestleMania sign.
And with that, the Rowdy one had arrived. She went on to have a memorable WrestleMania debut with Kurt Angle against Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, had a great match against Nia Jax at Money In The Bank, and at SummerSlam she won the Raw Women’s title from Alexa Bliss. She main evented the first-ever WWE women’s pay-per-view Evolution against Nikki Bella and also main evented her first Madison Square Garden show in December. All in all, a very successful WWE story and a terrific year for one Ronda Rousey.
Often called the deal with the devil, WWE announced in March that they had signed a 10-year deal with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to present multiple events every year as part of the Saudi Vision 2030 festivities.
It’s very obvious why WWE decided to enter this agreement: money. Lots and lots of it. The first event, titled The Greatest Royal Rumble at the 60,000-seater King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah, generated more money for the company than multiple WrestleManias combined. While WWE was criticized for even entering such a deal with a country that harbors one of the worst human rights records in the world, the criticism was mainly subdued…until Jamal Khashoggi.
Jamal Khashoggi was a Saudi reporter who worked for the Washington Post and in the weeks leading up to the second WWE event in Saudi, he was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Turkey. WWE Crown Jewel, at the King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh, was a touch and go but ultimately, amidst much more harsher and broader criticism, WWE forged ahead with the show, doing their best to avoid mentioning Saudi Arabia.
The 10-year deal remains valid and WWE will be going back to the country in 2019 for more shows and more money.
#2 – Roman Reigns takes leave of absence due to leukemia
On Monday, October 22, the professional wrestling world was stunned when Roman Reigns announced live on Raw that he had leukemia and was therefore surrendering the Universal title. It was a story that caught everyone by surprise, including those in WWE.
On Raw, Reigns introduced himself by his real name of Joe, and said that for the past 11 years, his leukemia had been in remission. No one knew that he had leukemia in the first place, let alone that it had returned. But in an emotional segment that kicked off Raw, boos turned into cheers, tears, and sad faces as WWE’s poster boy said goodbye, for now.
The former champion made it clear that it was not a retirement speech and once he was done beating cancer, he’s coming back for his title. “I am coming back because I want to show all of you, the whole world, I want to show my family, my friends, my children, and my wife that when life throws a curveball at me, I am the type of man that will stand in that batter box…I will crowd the plate, I will choke up, and I will swing for the fences every single time,” Reigns said, as fans gave him a standing ovation.
This was undoubtedly the most shocking story of the year and thankfully, the fans reacted to it with the utmost respect. Two months have passed but there is no new news on how Reigns is doing.
#1 – WWE secures massive television deals with USA Network and FOX
The last time that WWE signed a television deal in the U.S., the company felt that it got shortchanged. With television right fees increasing for pretty much anything airing on television, WWE’s TV rights were sold for cheap. But when 2018 came around, the story changed as WWE managed to secure two television deals with two of the biggest networks in America worth over $2 billion over a five-year period.
The first deal was officially announced on June 27 between WWE and FOX, the new home of Smackdown Live come October 2019. The deal called FOX paying WWE $205 million per year for Smackdown for five years, totaling $1.025 billion. As a comparison, NBCUniversal paid just $30 million for the rights of Smackdown back in 2010.
After the FOX announcement, WWE issued another press release announcing that Raw would stay on USA Network for the next five years. The deal with NBCUniversal is slightly more expensive than the one with FOX, with Raw costing USA $265 million per year for a total of $1.325 billion over a five-year period.
With the new television deals in place, WWE will be getting a whopping $2.35 billion for their shows, or $470 million per year, way up from the projected $300 million maximum that analysts were predicting. And with the good news, WWE stocks also shot up 138% and at one point in September it was up 216%.
2018 was supposed to be a great year for Impact Wrestling, with new writers and leadership but their television audience took a big hit, certainly not helped by POP’s decision to move the show to a later time slot.
Over the course of 52 weeks, Impact on POP averaged 250,000 viewers, down from the 283,000 viewers of 2017. Up until September, when Impact aired from 8PM to 10PM, the show actually averaged 281,000 viewers but then took a big nose dive once it was moved to the later time slot. Once the show moved to the 10PM time slot, the average of those episodes dropped to 119,000.
Impact crossed the 350,000 viewer mark six times during the year, an improvement over last year’s just once.
The most-watched Impact of 2018 was the March 29 episode which got 399,000 viewers. That was followed by the April 12 show which had 381,000, and the April 19 episode with 373,000 viewers.
The least-watched Impact was the October 25 episode, the first night that the show was moved to 10PM and got just 98,000 viewers. The November 15 episode did 101,000 viewers, and the November 1 show did 105,000 to round up the top three least-watched shows of the year.
Impact now moves to The Pursuit Channel on Friday, January 11, 2019 where it will air on Friday nights still in the same 10PM time slot.
Thursday’s episode of Impact on POP did a total of 135,000 viewers, up 19,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. There is only one more show on POP remaining before Impact moves to The Pursuit Channel. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
The number one contender for the WWE title will be decided on the New Year’s Day Smackdown which was taped last night at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The five Superstars who will be wrestling in a fatal 5-way match are Rey Mysterio, Mustafa Ali, Randy Orton, Samoa Joe, and AJ Styles. The winner of this match will be taking on the current champ Daniel Bryan at the Royal Rumble on January 27 at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona.
So far there are three matches announced for the Royal Rumble apart from the two Rumble matches with the WWE, Universal, and Cruiserweight titles all on the line.
Chyna’s mother Jan LaQue urged WWE to induct her daughter into the WWE Hall of Fame next year in a post published on her Facebook account.
“We HAVE to get her into the WWE Hall of Fame. She richly deserves to be there,” she wrote. “Do what’s right for Chyna! You owe her that for what she did for you and women’s wrestling.”
LaQue added that her daughter earned her place in the Hall of Fame and the induction is long overdue.
It was not just her mother who urged WWE to finally book a place for her in the HOF this week. Her former colleague and boyfriend Sean “X-Pac” Waltman also used social media to call on WWE to do it in a post which fell on her would-be 49th birthday. “I hope she’s honored [the] day before WM soon. Just seems like the right time.
The former WWE Women’s and Intercontinental champion passed away from an accidental overdose in April of 2016 at the age of 46.
It’s been exactly one year since Paige had her last match in WWE where she received a kick to the back of her neck that led her to permanent retirement.
On December 28, 2017 in Uniondale, New York, Paige teamed up with Sonya Deville and Mandy to take in Mickie James, Sasha Banks, and Bayley in a six-woman tag match. During the course of the match, Sasha hit Paige with a kick that landed on her neck and Paige, who had just recently returned after a 17-month layoff, remained motionless on the canvas.
The match was eventually called off and EMTs came out to attend to the former Divas champion. She was pulled from subsequent non-televised events and TV tapings and around two weeks later she was told that she can never wrestle again.
Paige, 25 at the time, then officially retired on the Raw after WrestleMania 34 and was then appointed the Smackdown General Manager the next day.
“One year since the night in Uniondale,” Paige wrote last night. “So crazy how quickly time passes. 2019 is gonna be a wonderful year. I can feel it!”
The past few years have been quite turbulent for the Brit, from her original neck injury, to her disastrous relationship with Alberto Del Rio, the neck surgery, and a short-lived return. Paige stayed largely out of trouble during this year as she assumed the on-screen role of Smackdown GM, a role which came to an end as well two weeks ago.
Smackdown Live averaged 2,350,000 viewers in the year 2018, down around 8% from the 2,546,000 average of 2017. 2018 is the last full year of Smackdown on USA Network as from October of 2019, the show will move to FOX in a new five-year deal which will hopefully spike up the number a little bit.
During this year, Smackdown never crossed the 3 million viewer mark, having achieved that once last year. Only 16 shows passed the 2.5 million viewer mark where as last year, 35 out of the 52 Smackdown shows did more than 2,500,000 viewers.
The most-watched Smackdown of the year was with the April 10 episode, which was the post-WrestleMania 34 show which did 2,952,000 viewers. Following that, there was the March 20 episode with 2,888,888 viewers and the April 17 show with 2,796,000 viewers. The 1000th episode of Smackdown which aired on October 16 did 2,545,000 viewers.
With a few highs, there were quite a few lows as well. Three shows this year did not even break the 2 million viewer mark, something which was unheard of last year. The Christmas Day Smackdown was the least-watched episode of the year with 1,904,000 viewers, followed by 1,948,000 viewers on December 4 and 1,977,000 viewers on December 13.
There was a notable drop during the year once May kicked in. Up until May, Smackdown was averaging 2,627,000 viewers. From May to December, the show went down to an average of 2,203,000 viewers so those months dragged down the overall number of the year.
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