A few stars from TNA have exited the company.
TNA Hall of Famer Rhino worked his last tapings during the weekend and has said his goodbyes. Also working her last tapings in Atlanta was ring announcer Jade Chung, who has opted not to renew her deal according to PWInsider.com.
Chung’s husband, Josh Alexander, is also leaving the company in February 2025 and is rumored to be WWE-bound.
Japanese star Kushida and British star Trent Seven have also departed the company according to multiple insiders.
Kevin Owens has proclaimed himself to be the “true” WWE champion and it seems that the angle stealing the title at the end of Saturday Night’s Main Event will continue heading at least in the next couple of weeks.
“I am proud to officially announce that I will be competing in my first matches as your new, true WWE Champion on this year’s Holiday loop starting in Jacksonville on the 26th, followed by 3 more shows in Florida and then one in Detroit for some reason,” Owens wrote on social media. “Be there to witness history! Oh, the Raw crew has shows too. Whatever.”
Owens copy and pasted his head on Cody Rhodes’ body in the WWE tickets graphic and added a bad edit of the WWE Winged Eagle championship on his shoulder.
Owens laid out Rhodes after SNME went off the air with a package piledriver, took the WWE title, and then had an altercation with Triple H on the way back.
The NXT title match last night between champion Trick Williams and Eddy Thorpe ended with no real winner as both stars were pinned by each other with two different referees making the three-count.
With one referee out after a bump, a second referee joined the fray and when the champ hit his finisher, the Trick Shot, the first referee came to his senses and went for the pin…along with the second referee in the ring.
Williams dropped on Thorpe but landed with both his shoulders on the mat too. One ref counted to three for Williams but the other referee simultaneously counted to three for Thorpe, who had his arm on Williams’ body. Thorpe’s right leg was under the rope, which supposed to mean a break in the count, but that did not seem like it had any effect on the planned finish.
NXT went off the air with everyone arguing and NXT GM Ava trying to calm things down. After the show went off the air, Ava declared Williams still NXT champion. That did not sit down well with Thorpe, who got in Ava’s face. That led to Shawn Michaels coming out at ringside as well and Thorpe got in HBK’s face and shoved him as well. Thorpe was eventually escorted to the back after Williams took care of business.
EXCLUSIVE: After @avawwe_ declares @_trickwilliams the champion, @EddyThorpe_WWE gets in Ava’s face and shoves @ShawnMichaels in disbelief. #WWENXT pic.twitter.com/WYg8Up7Bzu
— WWE (@WWE) December 18, 2024
Saturday Night’s Main Event drew 1,590,000 viewers for the NBC return along with a 0.42 rating in 18-49, a demo number which has to be considered disappointing since both Raw and Smackdown on cable beat it.
Variety is reporting that the show, which was also simulcast on Peacock, drew an additional 700,000 viewers on streaming for a total audience of over 2.3 million, beating the NBA Cup semifinal match on ABC.
The last SNME on NBC in 2008 drew 2.4 million viewers.
Tickets for the NXT New Year’s Evil episode on CW went on pre-sale today on AXS.COM with the code NXTLIVE.
The show will take place from the Shrine Expo Hall in Los Angeles, California on Tuesday, January 7, the day after Raw debuts on Netflix. This will be the first NXT on Netflix for international viewers.
The cheapest tickets are $127.15 or $344 for ringside, both prices including all taxes and fees.
Tickets go on sale to the general public tomorrow morning.
WWE is opening its brand new headquarters for the public tomorrow for the Raw on Netflix Kickoff event.
The event will take place starting at 2PM ET at 707 Washington Blvd in Stamford and registrations quickly filled up, with the company not accepting new registrations.
If you previously registered, please be on the lookout for an email from tickets@universe.com as selected participants will be notified by today 3PM ET. The event will stream live on the company’s social media properties.
Scheduled to appear are WWE World Heavyweight champion Gunther, WWE Women’s World champion Liv Morgan, CM Punk, Solo Sikoa, Rhea Ripley, Seth Rollins, and Logan Paul.
Rampage on Friday night rebounded in the ratings and drew 279,000 viewers, up 102,000 viewers from the prior week. This was the most-watched Rampage since September 20. The show had a 0.11 rating in 18-49, up 0.07 and also their best number since September 20. Rampage was #14 on the top 50 cable chart for the night. (Ratings credit: Programming Insider)
WWE is already promoting a new arrival to the Raw roster for the premiere episode on Netflix after a 23-second mystery vignette aired on the show last night.
A big red 0 appears in the promo and then it changes to a zero with a strikethrough. The strikethrough zero then blinks three times before the Raw is Netflix logo appears and “Coming on 1.6.25” flashes on the screen.
The vignette is most likely for the arrival of Penta El Zero Miedo, whose AEW contract expired at the beginning of the month.
— WWE (@WWE) December 17, 2024
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer is reporting that AEW has offered a contract to Matt Cardona although it’s not known if he has signed or not.
Cardona is currently locked in a program with Chris Jericho for the ROH World title and the two will meet at Final Battle at the Hammerstein Ballroom this Friday.
The former WWE Intercontinental champion has been appearing on AEW television the past couple of weeks to build his program with Jericho. He already had a couple of appearances in the promotion throughout the past couple of years.
Cardona recently stated that he would love to end his career in WWE and have another WrestleMania moment as Matt Cardona as his previous gimmick, Zack Ryder, is “dead.”
Zoey Stark advanced to the semi final of the WWE Women’s Intercontinental title tournament after she successfully defeated Kayden Carter and Raquel Rodriguez last night on Raw.
Stark will now face Dakota Kai in the semi final while Lyra Valkyria will meet the winner of the Kairi Sane vs Natalya vs Alba Fyre match which will air on next week’s Raw.
The final of the tournament was not announced as to when it’s taking place but it’s highly likely happening on the Raw premiere on Netflix early next month.
The Women’s Intercontinental title will be exclusive to Raw and it’s the second mid-card women’s title introduced following the Women’s United States title on Smackdown.
The second match for the Raw premiere episode on Netflix was made official last night and is a big one with CM Punk taking on his arch nemesis Seth Rollins.
Punk opened the show and was interrupted by Seth Rollins who was among the fans in the stands. That did not stop the two from having a big brawl, with Punk and Rollins coming together among the fans. Several WWE officials and referees broke up the fight with fans chanting “let them fight.”
Just when it looked like the situation was under control and Punk was walking back through the stands, Seth Rollins escaped the officials holding him and ran towards Punk for part two of the brawl.
The match was then made official by Raw General Manager Adam Pearce in a backstage segment.
Roman Reigns vs Solo Sikoa in a tribal combat rules match for the ula fala was also announced last week, with this Raw shaping up to be like a premium live event.
Smackdown last week drew 1,530,000 viewers, up 36,000 viewers from the prior week and the best number in three weeks. The show had a 0.47 rating in 18-49, up 0.03 and was #1 on the top 50 cable chart for the night and #1 on all of television, beating the second-placed show on CBS by 0.13 in 18-49. (Ratings credit: Programming Insider)
Former champion Becky Lynch today announced that she has joined the cast of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy which will start streaming on Paramount+ later next year.
In a video shared on her social media, Lynch said, “When you’ve already been champion of the world there’s really only one place where you can go next…and that’s to the stars!”
Lynch continued, “And I’m so excited to share with all of you that I’m joining Star Trek: Starfleet Academy as part of the bridge crew and this has been the most incredible experience acting alongside just a spectacular cast and crew.”
Joining the cast with Lynch are Holly Hunter, Kerrice Brooks, Bella Shepard, George Hawkins, Karim Diane, Zoe Steiner, Sandro Rosta, Robert Picardo, and Tig Notaro.
Production on the 10 episodes began in August 2024 at Pinewood Toronto Studios in Toronto, Canada. A second season is already in development.
In its third week since its release, Disney’s Moana 2 movie featuring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson retained its #1 spot on the box office chart with a $26,621,000 weekend.
The movie is now at $337,516,469 in domestic gross and another $379,500,000 in international sales for a worldwide number of $717,016,469 according to BoxOfficeMojo.com. It has now surpassed both domestic and worldwide box office of the original Moana movie which was released in 2016.
Johnson’s other movie, Red One, slipped one place to #6 with a $4,400,000 weekend and a total of $92,604,000 domestic gross and an additional $82,600,000 in worldwide receipts for a total of $175,204,878. The Christmas movie is already streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video.
The brand new Raw logo was revealed in a video on social media ahead of the Netflix premiere.
The slick video shows Triple H arriving at the new WWE Headquarters in Stamford as he pulls up in a car.
“A logo is an identity, tells you everything you need to know without saying anything at all,” Triple H says as he opens the car and walks into the state-of-the-art building.
“It’s real, rebellious, raw,” he continues.
Triple H then walks in front of a large video screen and says, “Welcome to Raw on Netflix,” as the brand new logo is displayed.
Raw moves to Netflix on Monday, January 6 with a live broadcast from the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. Over 10,000 expensive tickets have already been sold for the show.
TNA star Hammerstone will be undergoing surgery for a knee injury which kept him out of the Final Resolution event this past Friday.
Hammerstone was scheduled to team up with Jake Something against PCO and Sami Callihan and The Rascalz in a triple tag team match but the company announced that he was not medically cleared to compete.
In a post on social media, the 33-year-old said that for the first time in his career, he has to undergo surgery, “which really sucks,” but he’s confident it’s a “pretty minor procedure” which will not keep him out of the ring for a long time.
The former MLW champion joined TNA earlier this year and has also appeared on NXT as part of the talent exchange the two had going on for months.
The Young Bucks made a surprise appearance last night at the NJPW Strong Style Evolved show, coming to the aid of Jack Perry.
The former AEW Tag Team champions attacked Shingo Takagi, Hiromu Takahashi, and Yota Tsuji following their tag match against Perry and Konosuke Takeshita in the second to last match on the 10-match card.
After all the dust cleared, Matthew Jackson grabbed the mic and said it was great to be back in an NJPW ring and come January 5, they will take the IWGP Tag Team titles. The two will face Great-O-Khan and a partner of his choice at Wrestle Dynasty, marking their first NJPW match since 2019.
The Bucks were last seen on AEW television in October, losing their titles to Private Party.
Two titles will be up for grabs in the same match at Wrestle Dynasty next month in a bout involving Mercedes Mone and Mina Shirakawa.
Mone last night headlined the NJPW Strong Style Evolved show and successfully defended the NJPW Strong Women’s title against Hazuki. But after the match, Shirakawa made an appearance and said that she wants to take on Mone at Wrestle Dynasty in Tokyo.
Mone agreed to have her NJPW Strong Women’s title on the line as long as Shirakawa pus up her RevPro Undisputed British Women’s title on the line as well.
Shirakawa agreed to the deal and the two had a dance off the end the show.
This means that if Mone beats Mina, she will hold the TBS title, NJPW Strong Women’s title, and RevPro’s Women’s title, three titles from three different promotions and different countries.
Shirakawa just recently lost a match against Mariah May for the AEW Women’s title last week on Dynamite.
.@MercedesVarnado & @MinaShirakawa “CEO!CEO!CEO!”
Sign up Now & Stay tuned to https://t.co/CcdQ1X9P52#NJPW #njpwworld #njSSE pic.twitter.com/OCslJfasSU
— NJPW WORLD (@njpwworld) December 16, 2024
Chelsea Green made history last night at Saturday Night’s Main Event by becoming the inaugural WWE Women’s United States champion.
The title was introduced to the Smackdown brand on November 8 and a tournament to crown the first-ever champion kicked off a week later.
12 women took part in four, triple-threat matches with Bayley defeating Candice LaRae and B-Fab, Chelsea Green defeating Blair Davenport and Bianca Belair, Michin defeating Piper Niven and Lash Legend, and Tiffany Stratton defeating Naomi and Elektra Lopez.
In the semi finals held on Friday’s Smackdown, Green beat Bayley and Michin beat Stratton, sending both to the tournament final and a rematch from their previously well-received dumpster match of several weeks back.
Green was the overwhelming favorite heading into the match, a testament to her hard work and character development over the past several months. Her victory was given the seal of approval from the usually-tough New York crowd who erupted following the Unprettier finisher.
A report on CNN.COM states that Linda McMahon, the soon-to-be Secretary of Education under President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet, was the largest donor to Trump among his cabinet picks and his second most-generous donor.
The person who pumped the most money into Trump’s 2024 campaign was Elon Musk, but Musk does not form part of the cabinet. The former WWE President and CEO donated a total of $21.2 million, most of which went to Make American Great Again, Inc., the super PAC that spent heavily on advertising to aid his campaign.
In comparison, Elon Musk donated over $262 million to pro-Trump super PACs. After McMahon’s $21.2 million in donations, the closest cabinet member with the most donations is Howard Lutnick with a total of $9.4 million. He will be the Secretary of Commerce, a position which was originally thought it was going to McMahon.
McMahon served as the Administrator of the SBA in Trump’s first presidency and then transitioned to run organizations to help him get re-elected into office. She, along with Lutnick, headed up the transition team after Trump won the election.
Apart from being a confidant of Trump, McMahon is also a long-time friend along with her ex-husband Vince McMahon.
