AEW star Beast Mortos graduated to officially become a lawyer.
“Today was a very special day to share with the people I love because today was my graduation day, I am officially a lawyer. See you in court,” Mortos wrote in a post on social media after he got his law degree.
The 38-year-old Mexican was surrounded by his family and his girlfriend, fellow AEW star Mercedes Mone.
Mortos currently holds the ROH Tag Team titles with Sammy Guevara and last competed on AEW television on the New Year’s Smash episode of Dynamite, losing to ROH champion Bandido.
Monday Night Raw will kick off early in the United States, starting at 2PM ET as the show is live from Dusseldorf, Germany. For fans in Europe, Raw starts a 8PM CET.
Scheduled for today are Gunther vs AJ Styles for the first time ever and Penta and Dragon Lee team up to take on Austin Theory and Bronson Reed.
Plus, Iyo Sky and Rhea Ripley, the new WWE Women’s Tag Team champions, will kick off the broadcast, WWE Tag Team champions The Usos appear, and World Heavyweight champion CM Punk will also be in the house.
The future of the NXT title will be addressed on this coming week’s episode of NXT with General Manager Ava leading the charge.
The title was relinquished by then-champion Oba Femi on this week’s episode after he successfully defended it against TNA’s Leon Slater. Femi left the title in the middle of the ring as he got called up to the main roster.
The last time the NXT Championship was declared vacant was on September 12, 2021 after Samoa Joe suffered an undisclosed injury. A new champ was crowned two days later in a fatal four-way match which saw Tommaso Ciampa defeated LA Knight, Pete Dunne, and Von Wagner.
It’s the fourth time that the title has been declared vacant.
The Smashing Machine movie, which features Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the leading role as Mark Kerr, is available to purchase on Apple TV for a discounted price of $12.99 for a limited time.
Johnson and his co-star Emily Blunt both received Golden Globe Awards nominations for their respective roles, with Johnson nominated for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama. Blunt was nominated in the Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture.
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.
It will also be available for streaming on HBO Max for subscribers starting January 23.
Drew McIntyre returned to his home town of Glasgow, Scotland last night as WWE champion and made his first title defense against Shinsuke Nakamura, just 24 hours after winning it from Cody Rhodes.
McIntyre received love from a sold-out crowd of over 11,500 at the OVO Hydro, who finally saw a Scottish champ live and in living color.
“Remember Clash of the Castle, the first one, I wrestled Roman. I got screwed over by Solo. Yeah, that was the worst night in my career, sent me on this downward spiral that I knew would end with this title,” McIntyre told the crowd after the match.
“But there was a moment that night, it was the worst moment of my career, when I had to sing a stupid song with Tyson Fury. So I want to make it up right now. I don’t have a great voice, as you saw, so I’m gonna need some help,” McIntyre continued.
McIntyre then had a shoutout to the Scottish football team, pumping them up for the FIFA World Cup, saying that they need to at least get through the group stages.
“We’re optimistic as hell. We believe we can do it. So let’s send a message to the lads out there. We’ll just do the chorus, you know the words, so help me out. Cheers Glasgow, good night, I love you all,” he concluded, before the whole arena started signing the Scottish national anthem, Flower of Scotland.
Another TNA star is gone from the company and this time it’s Killer Kelly from the Knockouts division.
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful is reporting through his Select service that Kelly’s deal came to an end in December and with no creative plans for her, she decided to leave.
Kelly returned to the company in June 2025 after taking maternity leave and her last match was against Myla Grace on an episode of Xplosion.
The 33-year-old Portuguese star has been part of the company since late 2020. She is a former two-time TNA Knockouts Tag Team champion with Masha Slamovich.
In a pre-recorded video which aired on Collision last night, Mercedes Mone, still with cake in her hair from Dynamite, said that she would be taking a break from AEW.
Mone, who lost the TBS title to Willow Nightingale last week, said she held the title for over 500 days because she is the greatest and now she’s sick of being disrespected by everyone.
“I am taking a break from AEW to show you why and how I elevated,” she said. And good luck without me. Because when I return, I am collecting more than just titles.”
Mone collected a total of 13 titles along the way, but now is down to nine.
Over 11,000 fans have sold out the OVO Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland for today’s non-televised event as part of the Road to Royal Rumble tour.
While it was sold out before last night’s Smackdown, it will be a huge moment for the new WWE champion Drew McIntyre, who returns home to headline the event, and a nice added bonus for Scottish fans who had no idea this was going to happen.
“I said I was bringing the title home. Took a few years, but I never lie,” McIntyre said as he walked out of the airport with the WWE title on his shoulder. “I’m officially on Scottish soil WWE champion. I’d say it’s surreal, but it’s not. It was about time.”
McIntyre posted a photo wearing the Scottish football national team jersey in bed holding the WWE title, writing, “I prayed for this and it happened,” a take on what he told CM Punk when he was injured at the Rumble. The official X account of the Scottish team congratulated McIntyre on his win and his choice of shirt.
The Scotsman also posted a screenshot of a few comments on Instagram from fans about the title change, using the incorrect words on popular phrases.
“He did the thinkable,” one person wrote, while the other replied, “End of an error.” Another one posted, “Don’t smile because it’s over cry because it happened.”
Elton Prince, the British star one half of the WWE tag team Pretty Deadly, revealed in a post on Instagram that he just underwent successful two-level neck fusion.
The injury stems from a bad landing during a match back in May 2025, where Prince explained that after the rough landing, he felt a burning hot electricity exploding through his neck and arms, losing control of his hands and all his fingers curling in.
“It was pretty terrifying and what followed has been 7 months of tests, questions and well pain,” Prince wrote. “But thanks to the efforts of the WWE medical staff and Dr Kanter, Gina and the Hoag team, we found the problem and yesterday I successfully underwent a 2 level neck fusion.”
Prince wrote that it is not exactly where he hoped he would be at just 28 years of age but we are owned nothing in life and he’s just grateful to be on the road to recovery.
He said that while he intends to work hard to get back in the ring, his focus now is just to get healthy and be the best dad he can be for his daughter. He also thanked his wife, NXT announcer Kelly Kincaid for her support.
He also mentioned his tag team partner Kit Wilson in the closing of his post.
“I’m excited to watch my brother [Kit Wilson] crush everything he does and get a well deserved spotlight shone on him,” he concluded.
A mini-tournament to determine a number one contender for the WWE Championship was announced last night on Smackdown by General Manager Nick Aldis.
Eight WWE Superstars will battle it out on next week’s episode of Smackdown from London, England where the winners will then move on for a match at the next Saturday Night’s Main Event to determine who will face new champion Drew McIntyre at the Royal Rumble.
The matches will consist of Randy Orton vs The Miz, Solo Sikoa vs Damian Priest, Matt Cardona vs Trick Williams, and Sami Zayn vs Ilja Dragunov.
Out of the eight, only Orton and Miz are former WWE champions while Priest held the World Heavyweight title.
Jordynne Grace has officially moved to the Smackdown roster, ending her stint on NXT after she moved from TNA Wrestling early last year.
The 29-year-old marked her call-up to the main roster with a match against Alba Fyre on last night’s broadcast, winning it even after Chelsea Green tried to distract the referee.
On her way to the back, Grace was met at the top of the ramp by the reigning WWE Women’s champion Jade Cargill, who came out to inform her that Smackdown was her show.
The two had a face-to-face last week in a backstage segment, with Cargill telling Grace to find another show.
Jacob Fatu returned to television last night on Smackdown and inadvertently helped Drew McIntyre, his original target, to win the WWE title from Cody Rhodes.
Fatu has not been seen on WWE TV since the October 17, 2025 episode of Smackdown where he was attacked backstage before a number one contender’s match against Drew McIntyre. This was a way to write off Fatu from television due to an undisclosed injury he was suffering from.
The Samoan Werewolf made his presence felt towards the end of the main event and prevented McIntyre from exiting the cage, beating him up in the process. When Rhodes realized what was happening, he attacked Fatu and the two brawled on the other side of the ring, leaving McIntyre alone.
McIntyre crawled out of the cage and by the time Fatu realized what was happening, it was too late and did not manage to stop him in time.
It took a while, but it finally happened. Drew McIntyre left Berlin, Germany with some extra weight in his hand luggage as he finally defeated Cody Rhodes for the WWE Championship last night on Smackdown.
The two battled it out in a Three Stages of Hell match, where the first round was a regular match won by McIntyre. The second round was a falls count anywhere match, won by Rhodes. The third was a steel cage match, won by McIntyre with some extra help from the returning Jacob Fatu.
Fatu’s intention was not to help McIntyre win, and actually prevented him from exiting the cage at first. But after Rhodes attacked Fatu, they left McIntyre unattended, and he simply crawled out of the cage for the shock victory.
The match aired without commercials.
“No longer bored at work,” McIntyre posted on X after the match, playing off previous posts where he posted photos during matches saying, “Bored at work.”
McIntyre last held a title at WrestleMania 40, winning the WWE World Heavyweight title from Seth Rollins, but lost it just five minutes later to Damian Priest when he cashed in his MITB briefcase. McIntyre was haunted by CM Punk, who was on commentary, and played a role in clocking McIntyre before Priest ran out.
Apart from this very short run, McIntyre had not held a title in front of fans as his previous runs were during COVID when no one was allowed in the arena.
TNA Wrestling announced today that WWE Superstar AJ Styles will be part of their Impact episode next week which will be the debut on AMC.
This will be Styles’ second appearance in TNA over the past several months after he also made an in-ring appearance at Slammiversary last year.
It was not stated if Styles will be actually wrestling on the show, with TNA simply stating that he would be returning on January 15 for the premiere episode.
Smackdown comes to you from across the pond tonight with Berlin, Germany and The Uber Arena the host of the broadcast. Smackdown will air on tape delay in the United States in its usual 8PM ET time slot on USA Network while it airs live on Netflix for international viewers at 8PM CET.
Headlining the three-hour broadcast is a Three Stages of Hell match for the WWE Championship as Cody Rhodes defends the title once again against Drew McIntyre.
The other two matches currently announced include The Wyatt Sicks battling The MFTs in an eight-man tag team match and Smackdown’s newest acquisition, Trick Williams, takes on Rey Fenix.
During last night’s face-to-face between TNA champion Frankie Kazarian and Mike Santana, Santana dropped a dig at AEW, telling Kazarian that both spent time in the same place, feeling miserable.
“At one point in time, we were both at the same place, miserable as all hell,” Santana told Kazarian as they sat across each other.
“We were at a place that tried to drain the passion out of what we love the most, and what did we do? We held each other up, we left that place, we bet on ourselves and today, we’re sitting across from each other about to go toe-to-toe for the grandest prize in pro wrestling on the biggest show in TNA history,” he continued.
Santana spent nearly five years with AEW between 2019 and 2014, requesting his release after he and his tag team partner Ortiz had a real-life fallout.
Kazarian wrestled in AEW between 2019 and 2022, requesting his release as well. He last wrestled for them in December 2022 on an episode of Dark: Elevation.
The two will meet for the TNA title on January 15, which is the Impact debut on AMC. The match was originally set for the Genesis pay-per-view two days later.
Rocking a U.S. Navy Seal team beanie hat and a jacket sporting the name Governor Jesse Ventura, the WWE Hall of Famer and former Minnesota Governor was interviewed by reporters to get his take on the Minneapolis ICE shooting which has rocked the country over the past few days.
Never the one who minces words, Ventura launched a near eight-minute monologue on what he thinks is wrong with America and made it sound perfectly like a wrestling promo.
“Somebody needs to clean up what the Democrats and Republicans constantly wreck,” Ventura said. “I gave up on this country. I haven’t even watched the news since last November.”
Ventura, who now appears on Saturday Night’s Main Event added, “I stumbled onto this and now look what you’ve done to me! Here I was leading a nice quiet life, now you’ve injected me back in here and probably you’re gonna make me the governor of Minnesota again!”
The 74-year-old was the Governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003 and said he only did one term and could very well run for a second.
Prime Video published the trailer of Dave Bautista’s newest movie, The Wrecking Crew, where he shares the spotlight with wrestling fan and Hollywood blockbuster star Jason Momoa.
The movie revolves around Jonny, a loose cannon cop who is played by Momoa, and his half-brother James, a disciplined Navy SEAL played by Bautista, who must work together to unravel a conspiracy behind their father’s murder in Hawaii.
The Wrecking Crew, directed by Ángel Manuel Soto, is set to be released on Amazon Prime Video on January 28.
NXT this week drew 627,000 viewers for the New Year’s Evil themed episode, up 23,000 viewers from the prior week. This was their best number in a month. In 18-49, NXT had a 0.10, up 0.03 from the last show and their best since November 25. (Ratings credit: Programming Insider)
