Santos Escobar have new tag team partners he is aligning with – Humberto Carrillo and Angel Garza.
The two appeared in masks during the end of the Lashley vs Escobar tournament match and attacked The Street Profits, allowing enough distraction for Escobar to roll up the former WWE champion for a pinfall.
The two men then unmasked to reveal themselves and shook hands with Escobar.
Both Carrillo and Garza have been part of NXT lately as they showed off their new personas before getting called up again to the main roster. Their last match for the black and gold brand was last month.
The Authors of Pain and Paul Ellering are returning to television in a new faction with Karrion Kross and Scarlett.
In a vignette which aired on last night’s episode of Smackdown, a silhouette of Ellering in the middle flanked by Adam and Rezar was displayed as Kross narrated the promo, even dropping the word Authors in the middle.
Kross and Scarlett are being repackaged for this new faction, with the one-minute promo showing Kross taking out several people along the way and then Scarlett asked if we “see the vision,” at which point the silhouette of AOP flashed across the screen.
Authors of Pain have been signed to a WWE deal for quite a while but never used. They are former NXT and Raw Tag Team champions who were released from WWE in September 2020.
A triple threat number one contenders match will take place on the Smackdown New Year Revolution show in to weeks time to determine who will be facing Roman Reigns at the Royal Rumble.
The match will feature Randy Orton, AJ Styles, and LA Knight, a match which will headline that broadcast on January 5.
All three men had shots for the title while Reigns was the champion in the past, with LA Knight receiving his match at Crown Jewel earlier last month in Saudi Arabia.
Reigns could still face more than one man at the Rumble, depending on how WWE decides to book the finish of this match.
Recorded last week for tonight due to the Holiday break.
AJ Styles opens tonight’s show. AJ starts out by saying Randy Orton wants Roman Reigns at the Royal Rumble and LA Knight wants Roman Reigns anytime and anywhere. And he doesn’t blame either one of them, but he also doesn’t give a damn about either one of them.
AJ continued that he is number one when talking about Roman Reigns and he wants Roman at the Royal Rumble. LA Knight interrupts him. Knight says he wants Reigns first and said AJ might be his first after last week and AJ accused him of stepping over him to get his shot at Reigns.
Randy Orton comes out and they continue to debate.
Nick Aldis comes out and Nick says in two week we present New Years Revolution and there will be a triple threat match A.J. Styles VS. Randy Orton VS. LA Knight and the winner will face Roman Reigns at Royal Rumble.
Mia Yim, Shotzi, Bianca Belair & Zelina Vega VS. Asuka, Iyo Sky, Bayley & Kairi Sane
During this Holiday Havoc Street fight it was pure chaos. Zelina got hit with a pumpkin pie then the Blue Mist from Asuka. Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn where in big, wrapped presents at ringside when Asuka and Kairi tried to open one, they popped out. They threw Asuka into the railing and took out Kairi. In the ring Bianca hits the KOD on Bayley but Iyo comes in and Mia Yim comes and sets Iyo up on the table set up in the ring and drops down on Iyo with a senton and gets the win for her team.
Winners: Mia Yim, Zelina Vega, Shotzi & Bianca Belair
In the locker room Roman is asking who this new general manager is and wants the Wiseman to bring him to him. Heyman tried to talk to Roman and he said no just bring him to me.
Dragon Lee VS. Butch for the NXT North American Championship
Dragon Lee retains after hitting Operation Dragon. Butch put up a good fight.
Winner and Still NXT North American Champion: Dragon Lee
Nick Aldis comes to talk to Roman Reigns. Roman tells Paul to leave and Nick sits down. Roman asked him how he knew he wasn’t talking to him when he told him to leave, and Nick said all due respect, not sure if I care if you did. Roman tells Nick he had some good match ideas, but he needs to run everything by him. Nick said he is an executive, he doesn’t have feelings and he is the General Manager, and it stops with him. Nick then tells Roman that Solo is a big boy and even handled John Cena in a way Roman never could so he looks forward to more productive dialog and hopes they can get to know each other better. Roman looked angry.
Kevin Owens VS. Carmelo Hayes in a Semi Final Match in the United States Championship Tournament.
As Hayes set Owens up for the leg off the top rope, Owens moved and hit Hayes with a pop up powerbomb. Hayes kicked out at 2. Owens then was able to hit the stunner and got the win.
Winner: Kevin Owens
Owens and Hayes shook hands after the match.
The O.C. found AJ Styles backstage and Mia hugged him and was happy to see him and Doc said we are glad your back are we all good? And AJ replied I don’t know, are we? And walked away.
Bobby Lashley VS. Santos Escobar in a Semi Final Match in the United States Championship Tournament.
During the match, masked men attacked the Street Profits where were at ringside and distracted Lashley and Escobar rolled Lashley up and held the tights to get the pin.
Winner: Santos Escobar
After the match they stood with Escobar and unmasked, revealing Humberto Carrillo and Angel Garza as Santos says I am alone no more.
Butch is shown walking backstage, Jackie Redmond tried to interview him, Pretty Deadly walk in singing and Butch attacked them. Nick Aldis comes in and says we don’t do that back here anymore if you want Pretty Deadly, go find yourself a tag team partner and at New Years Revolution you can have Pretty Deadly in the ring.
A.J. Styles VS. Solo Sikoa
Styles hit the phenomenal forearm and Solo rolled out of the ring and Roman Reigns came in and attacked AJ to cause the disqualification.
Winner by Disqualification: A.J. Styles
After the match Solo comes back in and continues to punish AJ but Randy Orton comes out and goes after Roman. Jimmy Uso now comes out to help his family and LA Knight is out and quickly gets in the ring and starts hitting Roman and Solo. AJ then started yelling at Randy and LA for coming out and then punched Knight. Knight responded with punches of his own. Randy pulls Knight off AJ, Knight pushes Randy. AJ back up hitting both and then Randy and LA got into it.
Watching from the aisle Jimmy and Solo started toward the ring but Roman stopped them and shook his head no.
Former WWE and Impact star Jessica McKay gave birth to a baby boy two days ago on December 20.
McKay announced the new arrival, Cooper, with a post on Instagram writing, “So in love with our little Coop.”
McKay wrestled in WWE as Billy Kay and was part of the IIconics with Cassie Lee, who went by the name of Peyton Royce. The duo then moved to Impact Wrestling as The IInspiration.
Lee gave birth to a baby boy as well in January of this year.
Both stars announced that they were leaving professional wrestling in April of last year and were granted their release from Impact Wrestling.
The WWE Madison Square Garden non-televised live event on December 26 has surpassed the 15,000 tickets distributed according to @WrestleTix, making it one of the biggest house shows in the last several years.
The seating has been expanded to accommodate over 15,600 fans so there are around 600 tickets more left to sell over the next three days.
This event will feature the first match for CM Punk in WWE in 10 years as he takes on Dominik Mysterio. Cody Rhodes will also battle Shinsuke Nakamura in a bull rope match.
Tickets are not selling cheap for this show, with the cheapest being $81 in the rafters and ringside seats are almost $1,000.
The week of live events has some crazy business this year, with another show at the Kia Forum in Inglewood doing over 12,000 fans as well. That will be the last WWE show of 2023 on December 30.
Tonight’s taped episode Smackdown is the last one of 2023 as next week’s broadcast will be a Best Of show.
Five matches have been taped for the show including Kevin Owens vs Carmelo Hayes and Bobby Lashley vs Santos Escobar in the United States title #1 contender tournament, Dragon Lee vs Butch for the NXT North American title, a Holiday Havoc eight-woman tag team match between Damage CTRL and Bianca Belair, Shotzi, Zelina Vega, and Mia Yim, and AJ Styles takes on Solo Sikoa.
Plus, Undisputed WWE Universal champion Roman Reigns, Randy Orton, and LA Knight will also be in the house.
CJ Perry is finally going home from hospital after spending several days there due to a serious infection which started from a small splinter on her middle finger.
Perry was admitted to the Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Los Angeles, California last weekend and underwent surgery on Monday after the potential fatal infection spread to other parts of her body.
The AEW star chronicled her hospital stay on her Instagram, uploading graphic photos of her open wound and vomiting, urging her followers to treat any cuts on their body seriously because it could lead to much worse situations.
Perry was supposed to accompany Andrade to his CMLL return last Friday and then on Collision on Saturday but obviously that did not happen.
Impact Wrestling has announced some re-signings this week, as Trey Miguel, Zachary Wentz, Eddie Edwards, and Brian Myers have all inked a new deal with the company.
The promotion is revving up for the Hard To Kill pay-per-view in mid-January that will see it go back to its TNA Wrestling brand name.
TNA President Scott D’Amore also announced that one of their biggest signings will debut during the pay-per-view but offered no hints on who it is.
New names have also arrived in the company, with Kushida, Trent Seven, and the latest signing being Dani Luna, the former NXT UK star.
The Iron Claw movie about the Von Erich family opens in theaters nationwide today and with many good reviews already, distributor A24 is hoping for a good Christmas week for the movie.
The movie already has an 87% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
The film features Zac Efron as Kevin Von Erich, Jeremy Allen White as Kerry Von Erich, Harris Dickinson as David Von Erich, Stanley Simons as Mike Von Erich, Holt McCallany as Fritz Von Erich and Maura Tierney as Doris Van Erich.
The synopsis of the movie reads, “The true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who made history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s. Through tragedy and triumph, under the shadow of their domineering father and coach, the brothers seek larger-than-life immortality on the biggest stage in sports.”
Nearly there, welcome to the weekend btw. Hope you’re having a good one.
A goddamn Fight
Hangman Adam Page vs Jon Moxley, Dynamite, 01/11/23
Meltzer: 4.25*
Their second match and Hangman’s return after a gnarly concussion suffered during the first. Premise being that Moxley had damaged the Cowboy’s brain to the point he couldn’t remember his new son’s name.
Built up by some excellent promo work. Mox vowing that this time Page wouldn’t get back up. Hangman that he wanted to make sure Moxley remembered every single thing he was going to do to him.
So on a loaded show with a large, lively crowd both were massively over. Adding to the atmosphere as we got started with a fight. Just an absolute fight. A vicious Moxley aiming for the head, Page storming back. If you like stiff boots and lariats…
Mox at least playing heel, Page a huge babyface to the 8,000+ (what a difference a year makes). The former kept countering the Buckshot and going after Hangman’s head – stuffing him on it via Death Rider, hammer & anvils into a choke, a piledriver. A woozy Page struggling to kip-up after his usual comeback.
And that pop for the Buckshot when finally it came, my god. It knocked Mox out. Playing brilliantly into the feud. Which I enjoyed at the time but didn’t remember being quite this good on the mic.
The Art of the Promo
Jon Moxley re: Orange Cassidy, Collision, 09/02/23
Meltzer: N/A
If there’s another guy as good at building up their opponent with their words, I can’t think of one. The former champ’s mouth did a lot for Adam Page during the above feud earlier this year. But not on the level of this. This was pure magic:
He talked about being a rock around raging seas. Or in other words being Orange Cassidy. The puzzle thirty-one other men have failed to solve. The Cassidy who forged his own path, was never supposed to make it. If he’s a cosplay wrestler who’s he trying to be? Are any of them the ‘winningest’ champ in wrestling?
Cassidy won round one and he can have that. Cause it’s all he’ll get. When you’ve wrestled as long as Mox you wrestle a lot of big matches and there’s always ‘tomorrow’. But the chance he has at All Out is ‘once in a lifetime’ because Cassidy’s on the run of a lifetime.
He usually senses he’s won as a match starts. He can smell BS. But Cassidy looks like the real thing. Though he won’t target arms or legs. He’s after Cassidy’s soul, his will, his conditioning. A lot of guys say they wanna be wrestlers but most don’t make it cause it’s so hard.
Sunday it’ll get really, really hard, will Cassidy look for a way out? ‘I really hope not. Lotta people believe in you Orange Cassidy, don’t disappoint us.’
God damn I’ve got chills all over again reading that last line back.
It was riveting, creative, told a story, made a point and Moxley levied his no-nonsense, tell-the-truth character against informing us that Cassidy was the real deal.
I was hoping this was up on AEW’s YouTube to link here. But no. They do have the clip of Dennis Rodman coming out to verbally spar with Jeff Jarrett on the same night though if you fancy watching that back?
Anyway, it’s the final countdown (that’s not a hint!) tomorrow as the Twelve Days of Wrestmas concludes.
Just because there aren’t enough, AEW introduced yet another title for the Ring of Honor brand – the ROH Women’s TV championship.
AEW President Tony Khan unveiled the title during last night’s episode of ROH TV in front of the audience while also carrying the title. Khan did not say when and how the first champion will be crowned.
This is the seventh title in Ring of Honor and the second women’s title for the promotion. It joins the ROH World title, ROH TV title, ROH Pure title, ROH World Tag Team title, ROH World Six-Man Tag Team title, and the ROH Women’s title.
Pretty much all the titles are defended on both the ROH and AEW television shows and pay-per-views.
The Holiday Bash themed episode of Dynamite drew 782,000 viewers this week, down 63,000 viewers from the prior week. This was the least-watched Dynamite since October 25. The show did a 0.26 rating in the 18-49 demo, down 0.04 from last week and placed #4 in the top 50 cable chart for the night on cable. (Ratings credit: SpoilerTV)
On the latest episode of his podcast Grilling JR, Jim Ross revealed that Dean Malenko recently underwent brain surgery to try and treat Parkinson’s disease symptoms.
Ross said that he saw Malenko backstage at Dynamite on Wednesday in Oklahoma and the surgery was done to stop his shaking due to Parkinson’s, and the surgery was successful.
The 63-year-old former Four Horsemen member is a coach in AEW and a senior producer and has been signed to the company since May 2019.
He previously worked as a producer for WWE for 18 years until he was released from the company in April 2019.
PWInsider.com is reporting that former WWE Raw, Smackdown, and NXT Women’s champion Bayley has signed a new deal with WWE, believed to be for a couple of years.
Bayley is the latest in a string of Superstars who recently inked a new deal with the company, including Charlotte Flair, Rey Mysterio, and his son Dominik Mysterio.
Both Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins will have their deals expire sometime in 2024 and both are expected to re-sign soon as well.
WWE is also actively trying to get Mercedes Mone back although reports suggest that her asking price trumps any contract previously signed by any WWE female star, including the latest Charlotte Flair one which is believed to be one of the biggest ever.
The Damage CTRL leader is back in action on WWE television on Smackdown tonight.
In his interview with Jimmy Traina of SI Media Podcast, AEW World champion MJF has shot down the previous rumor that he has already signed a new AEW deal.
“I’ve never lied. January 1, 2024. When stuff like that gets leaked out, it makes me laugh because I remember something got leaked out about Cody having secretly re-signed, and then he showed up,” MJF said about his contract situation.
The “bidding war of 2024” has not been brought up for several weeks now by MJF and there was one report which said that he had already signed a new deal with the company.
MJF also mentioned the leaks about CM Punk and Tony Khan being on the same page, when in fact, they were not, and said that fans “leak out” things that they want to be true themselves.
“I love AEW. I want to stay in AEW. After this pay-per-view, it’s time to assess the situation,” he continued.
MJF will defend the AEW World title against Samoa Joe at the Worlds End pay-per-view and the outcome of that match might give everyone a hint at which side he’s leaning towards to. WWE can’t legally speak or offer him anything at this point as he is still under an AEW contract so if MJF really is assessing things after December, his contract needs to run out before starting any kind of negotiations.
Matt Riddle will return to Major League Wrestling for his first match in the company since 2018.
Riddle, who became a free agent today, will be taking on Jacob Fatu at the Kings of Coliseum event which will take place on January 6, 2024 at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The news of his return was announced by MLW in a press release issued today, saying that his coming back to MLW to “finally win the big one,” the MLW World Heavyweight title.
Riddle worked for MLW for a few months only from late 2017 to early 2018 and then joined WWE.
He was released from WWE in September of this year.
15 former WWE Superstars who received their pink slip in September are now officially free agents.
Those who are now legally able to work for anyone, anywhere, include Aliyah, Dabbo-Kato, Dana Brooke, Dolph Ziggler, Elias, Emma, Mace, Mansoor, Matt Riddle, Mustafa Ali, Rick Boogs, Riddick Moss, Shanky, Shelton Benjamin, and Top Dolla.
All released Superstars from WWE get a 90-day no-compete clause where WWE will continue to pay their regular paycheck for the next three months but they are not allowed to work or show up anywhere else unless they get permission from the company, which has been granted in the past.
All eyes are mostly on where Ziggler, Riddle, and Ali will end up now that they are able to show up on television.
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful is reporting through his Select service that Mercedes Mone is asking for a huge sum of money to return to the ring to either of the two big U.S. promotions.
Sapp noted that the figure floating around surpasses the amount that Charlotte Flair received on her new deal, which is said to be one of the biggest contracts for a female star in WWE history.
There were rumors earlier this month that any plans AEW had for Mone following several month-long discussions are no longer in play, although that doesn’t mean that the two cannot come to another agreement.
Mone last appeared on TV when she was sitting among the fans for AEW All In at Wembley Stadium. Mone is now training to return to the ring and in a recent video said that she can’t wait to be back with “some wrestling promotion” in 2024.
The City of Hagerstown in Maryland announced via social media that it will present the key to the City to WWE Superstar LA Knight in a ceremony on Saturday, December 23 at Noon at University Plaza.
LA Knight, real name Shaun Ricker, was born in Hagerstown and graduated from North Hagerstown High School in 2000.
The public is invited to attend this recognition ceremony on Saturday as he returns to his hometown to receive this unique and well-deserved honor.
