Beth Phoenix will be returning on WWE television, joining the commentary team for the WWE/Facebook project Mixed Match Challenge series.
The WWE Hall of Famer will be joining Michael Cole and Corey Graves calling the action for the 12-week series that will start on January 16 on Facebook Watch at 10PM EST. Renee Young and Byron Saxton will be the hosts of the show.
Beth Phoenix last appeared on television during the Mae Young Classic tournament and also called a six-woman tag match. Fellow Hall of Famer Lita was in charge of commentary for that tournament with Jim Ross.
The series will be 20 minutes long and will air immediately following Smackdown Live. 205 Live will air following Mixed Match Challenge. The MMC tournament will see Raw and Smackdown Superstars team up – one male and one female – until there’s only one team standing.
The individual(s) manning the WWE UK Facebook and Twitter accounts made a major snafu yesterday after they called the reunion of Balor, Gallows, and Anderson as The Bullet Club.
The social media posts were deleted when the mistake was noticed but many people were quick to screen grab the posts. The post was later resubmitted and instead of Bullet Club, they referred to them as The Balor Club.
The Young Bucks, who received a cease and desist letter to stop using the Too Sweet hand signal, responded to the WWE UK Twitter account by simply posting their Cease and Desist t-shirt design. The Bullet Club name is not owned by WWE and obviously cannot be used on television or merchandise.
The Jumanji movie with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson continues to perform well in the box office charts, both domestically and internationally. The movie retained its second spot in the box office chart on New Year’s weekend, with an estimated $66.5 million from Friday to Monday according to BoxOfficeMojo.com.
Jumanji has now made $185,755,967 in domestic box office and an additional $153,000,000 in international box office, sending its worldwide total to $338,755,967.
The movie, which also includes Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Karen Gillan, and Nick Jonas, is Johnson’s sixth most successful movie so far in terms of box office revenue.
WWE Cruiserweight champion Enzo Amore missed last night’s Raw and his match against Cedric Alexander since he was ill and was taken to the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.
“I apologize to the fans who won’t get to see a #G tonight in #Miami,” Amore wrote in a post on Instagram. The post was accompanied by a video of him on a bed hooked up with an IV line. “I did everything I could from Toronto to Miami… From negative weather, through customs, to opting out on Diddy’s NYE party in Miami, 10 hrs in a hospital, I did everything in my power to make sure I would be in that ring tonight,” he continued.
Amore said ultimately, the decision to be or not to be in that ring was out of his hands and he was not cleared to wrestle.
On a related note, Braun Strowman was taken off the non-televised live events last week and sent home also due to an illness. Strowman came back in time for Raw however and last night destroyed Rhyno and Heath Slater.
The all-women Royal Rumble will be having the same rules as the men’s Rumble match. The rules of the match were confirmed by Raw General Manager Kurt Angle on the show last night.
There will be 30 females stepping in the ring come January 28 and the only way for elimination is via over the top rope and both feet hitting the floor. The winner of the Royal Rumble will get a Women’s title match at WrestleMania.
The WWE main roster does not have 30 women currently and with both champions not participating, the number will be even less. Each brand has 11 women so counting out the champions, there are 20 individuals. The other ten entrants will be a combination of NXT stars and surprise entrants, possibly former stars or even some from the independent circuit.
John Cena threw in his name to be part of the 2018 Royal Rumble match in a post on Twitter today.
“A sunny morning on the first day of 2018. Possibilities are endless, opportunities are plentiful. Time to #EarnTheDay because on January 28th, I’m entering the #RoyalRumble match and earning a chance at history @WrestleMania,” Cena wrote.
Several rumors theorizing Cena’s involvement at WrestleMania have been running rampant lately. These rumors include being the main event and clinching his record 17th title win to taking on The Undertaker.
John Cena won the Royal Rumble twice, in 2008 and 2013. In 2008, he came in #30 as a surprise entrant after he was deemed injured for several more months and in 2013 he came in #19.
2017 was quite an eventful year for professional wrestling. There were several stories which made the headlines but these are my top 10 stories for 2017. They are in no particular order of importance.
KURT ANGLE GOES IN THE WWE HALL OF FAME, GETS RAW GM JOB AND RETURNS TO THE RING
2017 was certainly the year of Kurt Angle. The former WWE and TNA champion was announced as the headliner for the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2017 as he returned to the company for the first time since 2006. The night after WrestleMania, he was given the job of Raw General Manager by Vince McMahon and then, against all odds, he returned to the ring on a 3-day notice at TLC to replace Roman Reigns with The Shield. He wrestled at the Survivor Series and at some non-televised live events as well. Angle was also involved in a storyline which revealed Jason Jordan as his son.
MAURO RANALLO QUITS WWE, THEN RETURNS AS VOICE OF NXT
One of wrestling and MMA’s most prolific commentators quit WWE in March after suffering from depression. It was later revealed that Ranallo was being constantly bullied by his fellow Smackdown commentator John “Bradshaw” Layfield and that led to him walking out of WWE, missing WrestleMania. Ranallo was then announced as the lead commentator for Bellator MMA and later was given the task to do play-by-play of one of the biggest fights in history with Floyd Mayweather and Connor McGregor. Then a new twist came in June as WWE announced that Ranallo would be returning to be the voice of NXT.
MATT AND JEFF HARDY RETURN TO WWE AT WRESTLEMANIA 33
After Matt and Jeff Hardy decided not to renew their Impact Wrestling contract, it was only a matter of time before their iconic theme song was heard again at WWE events. That moment came as a major surprise to everyone at WrestleMania 33 as hosts The New Day announced that the triple threat ladder match for the Raw Tag Team titles would now be a fatal 4-way match. Cue in the Hardyz theme song and the entire Camping World Stadium in Orlando came unglued. The Hardyz won the match and the titles much to the enjoyment of the fans. Their return video on YouTube has 23.4 million views and nearly 300,000 likes.
WWE WOMEN MAKE HISTORY WITH FIRST-EVER MONEY IN THE BANK LADDER MATCH
The WWE women continued to break glass ceilings and 2017 saw the first-ever women’s Money In The Bank ladder match. The five individuals who made history were Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Carmella, Natalya, and Tamina. Carmella won the match with controversy after her sidekick James Ellsworth climbed the ladder and grabbed the briefcase, handing it over to her for the win. As of this writing, Carmella still carries the briefcase and has not cashed in yet. On a related note, Sasha Banks and Alexa Bliss also became the first female WWE Superstars to wrestle in the very strict country of the United Arab Emirates. What’s next for the WWE women? The first-ever all-female Royal Rumble!
TONS OF PERSONAL PHOTOS AND VIDEOS OF PAIGE LEAK ONLINE
It was a turbulent year for WWE Superstar Paige. Her two back-to-back suspensions in late 2016 were followed by neck surgery, putting her out for the majority of 2017. Her relationship with Alberto El Patron was in the public eye throughout the year, with fights and drunk videos published on social media. But Paige’s world was rocked when tons of personal photos and videos were leaked on the Internet, showing her in compromising positions with former WWE star Brad Maddox and current Superstar Xavier Woods. The videos and photos were splashed all over the Internet but Paige pulled through and eventually made her return to the ring in November. WWE Studios and The Rock’s production company Seven Bucks also filmed a movie about her family so 2018 should be looking better for Paige. Other WWE women – past and present – also had their photos and videos leaked and victims included Charlotte Flair, Maria Kanellis, Victoria, Kaitlyn, and others.
RIC FLAIR FIGHTS FOR HIS LIFE
Wrestling fans are not ready to live in a world without the Nature Boy Ric Flair but that almost became a reality in mid-August. What was announced as “routine monitoring” by his former management turned out to be a full-on fight to save his life. The former 16-time world champion underwent surgery after his vital organs shut down. He was given a small percentage to live, but Flair kicked out and after a lengthy stay at the hospital, he returned home and is now doing much better. Flair dumped his management company and hired a new one after he came out of hospital. ESPN then aired 30 for 30: Nature Boy, a documentary special on the life of Flair which was well received by fans and critics. Wooooo!
THE UNDERTAKER RETIRES?
The Undertaker’s undefeated legendary run at WrestleMania came to an end at WrestleMania XXX against Brock Lesnar but Taker still wrestled – and won – at WrestleMania 31 and 32. At WrestleMania 33, The Undertaker headlined the show with Roman Reigns and asked for Jim Ross to do commentary for the match. Roman Reigns inflicted Taker’s second defeat at WrestleMania 33 and after the match was over, Taker left his gear neatly in the middle of the ring and then disappeared in a hole in the entrance ramp similar to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator 2 ending. He has not appeared on WWE television ever since and WWE is playing it as it was his retirement match. Or not?
JEFF JARRETT GETS TOP JOB AT IMPACT BUT IS FIRED LATER IN THE YEAR
If there’s someone who can give Paige a run for her money for a bad 2017, that person is Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett returned to Impact Wrestling in January after Anthem Sports & Entertainment took over the company from Dixie Carter. Jarrett was given the role of Chief Creative Officer and was tasked with the day-to-day runnings at Impact. Anthem also announced that they would rebrand Impact to Global Force Wrestling, the company Jarrett founded after he left TNA years earlier. Things turned for the worse in September when Jarrett was given a leave of absence to tackle personal matters. In late October, Anthem permanently fired Jarrett from his role and ended their business arrangement with GFW. A few days later, Jarrett entered a WWE-sponsored rehab facility where he spent two months and returned home just before Christmas.
CHRIS JERICHO AND KENNY OMEGA TO WRESTLE AT WRESTLE KINGDOM 12
Chris Jericho was always considered to be a “WWE lifer” ever since he moved from WCW in 1999. Known to be a company man through and through, Jericho gave WWE years of service and made several returns after taking time away to continue his musical career with his band Fozzy. But after entering in some Twitter arguments with NJPW’s Kenny Omega, Jericho surprised everyone by appearing via video at the end of NJPW’s Power Struggle to challenge the IWGP United States champion Kenny Omega to a match at Wrestle Kingdom 12. The match will take place on January 4 at the Tokyo Dome at New Japan’s event which is considered to be their version of WrestleMania. The dream match between the two has created a lot of buzz for NJPW and Jericho as well who always finds a way to reinvent himself throughout the years.
ALBERTO EL PATRON GETS SUSPENDED AND STRIPPED OFF THE IMPACT TITLE
It’s no surprise that Alberto El Patron hates WWE and hated the fact that his girlfriend Paige was stuck there. The two had a weird relationship which involved a lot of public fighting and El Patron was considered to be a bad influence on the young Brit. In March, he won the Impact title but his reign came to an end a few months later after he was detained by police at Orlando International Airport following an altercation with Paige. The incident was covered on many websites, including TMZ who ran the audio of their argument. A few days later, Anthem suspended El Patron but he still was left part of the Impact tapings which were already filmed. The incident took a twist after Paige came out defending her boyfriend, saying it was her who caused the disturbance and attacked him and not the other way round. In July, Orlando police cleared El Patron of any wrongdoing but an internal investigation by Anthem revealed several shortcomings from their champion, thus stripping him off the Impact title. El Patron eventually returned to Impact at Bound For Glory.
As the saying goes, there is no rest for the wicked as WWE starts the new year with a live episode of Monday Night Raw from Miami, Florida.
The broadcast will be headlined by an Intercontinental title match between Roman Reigns and Samoa Joe, with the stipulation being that if Reigns is disqualified, he will lose the IC title as well.
Cedric Alexander will also battle the Cruiserweight champion Enzo Amore and Brock Lesnar will be on the show as well as the buildup for the Royal Rumble continues.
After model Christine Teigen put over WrestleMania as an event she has attended and would recommend, Stephanie McMahon quickly jumped on the story to invite Teigen to WrestleMania 34.
“We’re sorry you had to leave early,” McMahon wrote, referring to the tweet that Teigen wrote saying first she didn’t want to go to WrestleMania but then she had to be pried from her seat to leave early. “Consider this your official invitation to #WrestleMania34 in #NOLA this year!”
The WWE Chief Brand Officer also told her that she should let Triple H know if anyone tries to make her leave early this time around and if it happens, “they’ll have a whole locker room to deal with!”
McMahon’s tweet caused a bit of a storm from fans who were annoyed that WWE would invite a well-known celebrity who can afford a ticket on her own rather than inviting someone who really can’t afford the trip!
For the year 2017, Impact Wrestling on POP did an average of 282,750 viewers, down from the 2016 average of 310,990 viewers.
It was not particularly a great year for the company television-wise even though they changed ownership and brought in new people to run things. Impact only did more than 350,000 viewers just once in 2017, versus the 12 times in 2016. Crossing the 300,000 viewer mark was also a tough task, with Impact only doing it 17 times in 2017 while they did it 36 times in 2016.
The July 13 episode was the most-watched Impact episode of the year 2017, coming in with 374,000 viewers. That episode was dominated with the angle between Alberto El Patron, LAX, and Bobby Lashley. The episode of the previous week from July 6 came in second as the most-watched with 345,000 viewers.
The December 14 episode of Impact was the least-watched of the whole year and that particular episode ran head-to-head with WWE’s Tribute to the Troops. The Thanksgiving episode did 169,000, coming in as the second least-watched show of the year.
Brian Pillman Jr., the son of the late former WWE/WCW/ECW star Brian Pillman, made his professional wrestling debut yesterday at an independent promotion in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Pillman Jr., trained at the Storm Wrestling Academy in Canada under the guidance of Lance Storm.
“Thank you for taking care of me tonight! Wrestling is such a beautiful and exhilarating thing when the 2 people in the ring have a special bond like we had as soon as we met. You are so young yet so wise,” Pillman Jr. wrote on his Twitter, addressing his opponent of the night, Johnatan Wolf. “BLESSED is the only word I can think of right now!!!”
Wolf wrote back saying that he was honored to be his first professional match and told fans that Pillman Jr. “is the real deal.”
Brian’s step sister Alexis also entered the pro wrestling business as a valet in 2008 using the name “Sexy” Lexi Pillman but a year later she died after being involved in an automobile accident.
Last night’s non-televised main event in Toronto, Canada, was cut short due to blood after it was determined that the ringside physician would not be able to stop the bleeding in time.
The main event featured Roman Reigns defending the Intercontinental title against Samoa Joe and Joe was cut the hard way above the eye. With Joe outside the ring, the referee threw the “X” hand signal to alert those backstage that the injury is legitimate. The incident occurred just a few minutes after the match started.
The referee eventually called for the bell on the suggestion of the ringside doctor much to the disappointment of the fans. Samoa Joe was not happy about it either and wanted to continue, arguing with the referee, but he was overruled in the decision. Joe eventually went back in the ring to get the Superman punch and a spear.
Smackdown’s 2017 viewership increased over the year 2016 as this year the show drew an average of 2,546,000, up from last year’s 2,419,000 average.
Over the course of the year, the show did over 2.5 million viewers a total of 34 times and it crossed the 3 million mark just once. In comparison, last year Smackdown passed the 2.5 million mark just 16 times. It also did over 3 million viewers just once.
The highest rated episode of Smackdown for 2017 was the April 11 show with 3,105,000 viewers, beating out the post-WrestleMania show which did 2,885,000 viewers. Coming in third was the January 31 episode which followed the Royal Rumble.
The June 13 episode was the least-watched with 2,072,000 viewers, which continued a bad week for WWE since the day before, Raw was also the least viewed of the year. The October 31 episode, falling on Halloween, came close with 2,119,000 viewers.
Comparing 2016 vs 2017 viewership is not completely fair though since Smackdown only went live on Tuesdays on July 19 of last year. Taking into account only those episodes from July 19, 2016 till the end of the year, Smackdown Live in 2016 averaged 2,625,000 viewers. But taking the same amount of episodes from this year from July 18 onward, Smackdown did 2,651,000 viewers on average which is on par with last year.
Fans in Albany, New York were treated to an Elias concert last night which had an appearance from none other than Kane.
Elias was singing with Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson before they were interrupted by the Big Red Machine. However, Kane was not there to wreck havoc, but instead joined Elias in signing the popular nursery rhyme ‘She’ll be Coming Down The Mountain.’
The two first sang together before Kane took over for a solo performance. The crowd obviously got a kick out of it and so did Gallows and Anderson who were watching from ringside. After the singing was done, Kane decided to deck Gallows and Anderson and then chokeslammed all of them, including Elias.
Former WWE and WCW champion Sid Vicious had the lamest excuse ever for missing a show he was booked on for a promotion called Absolute Intense Wrestling in Cleveland.
Vicious, who still appears at indie events, blamed the Donald Trump travel ban which prevented him from boarding a flight to Cleveland to honor his booking.
In a post on the AIW Facebook page, the promoter wrote that they tried calling him several times but he never answered the phone. When they called him using Hornswoggle’s phone – who was also participating in the event – he picked up immediately.
“Sid claimed Donald Trump’s travel ban prevented him from boarding his flight to Cleveland this morning because of an unpaid speeding ticket and he claimed this is new government policy since he didn’t have his passport even though he was traveling within the United States and is a United States citizen,” the promoter wrote. Obviously the problem was not the travel ban since U.S. citizens aren’t part of the travel ban and no passport is required for internal flights.
“We recorded his cancellation call just so there is proof of all this and we we will do our best to play the audio tonight or on a future episode of our podcast.”
AIW paid for his airline ticket, hotel, and some merchandise and claimed that they lost close to $1,000.
For the year 2017, Monday Night Raw averaged 3,081,000 viewers over a period of 52 weeks, which is slightly down from the 3,198,000 average from 2016.
It wasn’t the best year when it comes to ratings for Monday Night Raw as the show never crossed the 4 million average in 52 episodes. In 2016, the show passed the 4 million mark on three different occasions. And out of 52 weeks, the show only did over 3 million viewers on 25 occasions. Last year, 36 Raw shows did over 3 million average viewers.
The highest-rated Raw of 2017 was the night after WrestleMania on April 3. That show did an average of 3,767,000 viewers. The night after the Royal Rumble came close to 3,616,000 viewers to take the second spot and the April 10 Raw came third with 3,420,000 viewers.
The lowest-rated Raw was on June 12, with only an average of 2,542,000 viewers tuning in.
When it comes to the least-watched individual hours, hour one of the May 22 Raw drew 2,661,000 viewers. Hour two of the June 12 Raw had 2,552,000 viewers, and hour three of the June 12 Raw did 2,335,000 viewers.
Mae Young Classic tournament participant Jazzy Gabert revealed on the Edge & Christian podcast this week that her neck problems have kept her from signing a WWE deal.
The 35-year-old German star recounted how she traveled to the United States to get her medical done by Dr. Joseph Maroon, WWE’s head medical doctor. Unfortunately for her, Maroon found out that she had several issues with her neck and an MRI confirmed that she has three herniated discs, effectively killing her chances of competing in WWE at this point. She was then informed that the contract offer was being rescinded due to this.
Gabert said that the only way in WWE is to fix her neck which would mean undergoing surgery and a long layoff for rehab.
The popular indie star, who also wrestles under the Alpha Female name, was eliminated in the first round of the MYC tournament by Abbey Laith but was praised by everyone, including the Full Sail crowd.
The final Impact of 2017, which was part two of a Best Of series, drew 285,000 viewers, up 16,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Not to be outdone by Smackdown who will have a Tag Team title match on the first episode of 2018, Raw General Manager Kurt Angle announced today that there will be an Intercontinental title match on the New Year’s Day edition of Monday Night Raw.
The match will feature champion Roman Reigns taking on challenger Samoa Joe…with the stipulation that if Roman Reigns is disqualified, he will not only lose the match, but the title as well. In regular rules, titles do not change hands on count-out or disqualifications.
Someone on Twitter asked the question what would happen if someone attacks Joe on purpose to get Reigns disqualified, a valid question that one other Twitter user suggested that he might have spoiled the ending of the match!
This will be the first ever live Raw on New Year’s Day.
PWInsider.com is reporting that Lockdown will be returning as an Impact pay-per-view from next year. The date for this show will be April 22 although no location has been announced yet.
Lockdown has been changed to an episode of Impact over the past two years. In 2015 it was held at the Manhattan Center in New York and in 2017 it was held at Wembley Arena in London. The last time the show was on actual pay-per-view was in 2014, an event held at the BankUnited Center in Coral Gables, Florida.
It is expected that Impact will hold a few more pay-per-views in 2018 compared to the last few years. Only Slammiversary and Bound For Glory have been retained as actual PPV shows since the company scaled down its pay-per-view offerings.
