Live tonight from The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis, Missouri, WWE presents its second premium live event of the year, the Royal Rumble on the WWE Network. The full card is as follows:
Brock Lesnar vs Bobby Lashley for the WWE title; Roman Reigns vs Seth Rollins for the Universal title; Becky Lynch vs Doudrop for the Raw Women’s title; Edge and Beth Phoenix vs The Miz and Maryse in a mixed tag team match; the 30-woman over-the-top rope Royal Rumble match; and the 30-man over-the-top rope Royal Rumble match.
The show will start at 8PM ET and the Kickoff will begin its broadcast at 7PM ET on WWE’s social media properties and the WWE Network as well.
WWE has so far revealed 48 out of the 60 Royal Rumble entrants for both the men’s and women’s matches, leaving room for dozen surprises and returns.
In the men’s match, there are a total of 25 Superstars announced for the match so far. All those, apart from Hollywood star Johnny Knoxville, are from the main roster. The entrants are AJ Styles, Angelo Dawkins, Austin Theory, Big E, Chad Gable, Damian Priest, Dolph Ziggler, Dominik Mysterio, Happy Corbin, Johnny Knoxville, Kevin Owens, Kofi Kingston, Madcap Moss, Montez Ford, Omos, Otis, Randy Orton, Riddle, Rey Mysterio, Robert Roode, Ricochet, Rick Boogs, Sami Zayn, Sheamus, and Shinsuke Nakamura.
A couple of NXT stars are also scheduled to be in St. Louis although it remains to be seen if they will be part of the Rumble match itself. Bron Breakker and Gunther have both been told to travel.
Meanwhile, over at the women’s match, 23 entrants have been confirmed as of today, leaving seven potential surprises, returns, or NXT call-ups.
Those who are in it include Aliyah, Bianca Belair, Brie Bella, Carmella, Charlotte Flair, Dana Brooke, Kelly Kelly, Lita, Liv Morgan, Michelle McCool, Mickie James, Naomi, Natalya, Nikki A.S.H., Nikki Bella, Queen Zelina, Rhea Ripley, Sasha Banks, Shayna Baszler, Shotzi, Sonya Deville, Summer Rae, and Tamina.
Three surprise entrants, in addition to the 23, have been revealed earlier so technically it’s up to 26 entrants with four remaining.
Anything can change up until the last minute especially when it comes to coronavirus or last-minute injuries.
Tickets for the post-WrestleMania Raw will go on sale Friday, February 4 at 10AM CT on Ticketmaster.com.
Usually the most newsworthy Raw of the year, the post-Mania Raw will take place from the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. The final Smackdown before WrestleMania will also take place from the same location but tickets for that show have not been announced yet.
Over the past several years, the Raw after Mania became notorious for the unpredictable and rowdy international crowd although that has changed greatly lately, with a more subdued crowd and less surprises during the broadcast. NXT call-ups are no longer a thing either, something that the crowd looked forward to at every Raw after Mania show.
Sasha Banks made her return on WWE television during Smackdown and quickly inserted herself into the 30-woman Royal Rumble match.
Banks was initially announced to be out for up to eight weeks by WWE, which would have made her miss out on the Rumble. The former champ suffered a bruised calcaneus during a non-televised event match against Charlotte Flair on January 2.
The Legit Boss appeared at the beginning of the broadcast after Flair opened the show with an interview. Eventually, the champion was interrupted by Shayna Baszler, Aliyah, Natalya, and Shotzi before Banks came out to the biggest ovation from the Kansas City crowd.
Banks said that she’s “ready to rumble” and then slapped Charlotte. After Charlotte tried to kick her, Banks stopped her and then threw her over the top rope and celebrated in the middle of the ring.
It’s that time of the year again and in just over 24 hours we will kickstart the road to WrestleMania with the 2022 Royal Rumble live in St. Louis.
With only a few matches on the card, we will take a look at the early odds of all the matches today and then tomorrow we will update with the latest numbers hours before the start of the show.
In the WWE championship match, it’s the first-ever one-on-one encounter between Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley. The champ Lesnar is 4/6 favorite to walk out of The Dome still champion while Lashley is 27/25 to get another crack at the gold.
The situation is similar as well in the Universal title match as the champion, Roman Reigns, is the favorite to retain the title. His odds are 2/5 while that of Rollins are at 7/4.
There are rumors that Lesnar and Reigns are still on a collision course to main event WrestleMania so somewhere along the way, one of the two will eventually drop the title.
Becky Lynch and her Raw Women’s title seem to be secure enough as Lynch is the overwhelming favorite with odds of 1/16 to keep the belt while Doudrop, in her first title match, is a long shot with odds of 6/1.
A mixed tag team match is also on the card as the grIT couple, Edge and Beth Phoenix, team up to take on the IT couple, The Miz and Maryse. The Hall of Famers husband and wife are 1/5 favorites while Miz and Mrs are 3/1.
The women’s Royal Rumble match winner favorite is currently not even part of the announced list although she is heavily rumored to be there. Ronda Rousey is 4/5 favorite to outlast 30 women and go to WrestleMania while Bianca Belair is second favorite with 5/1 odds to repeat last year’s win. The top five consists of Alexa Bliss at 8/1 and Lita and Rhea Ripley both at 9/1.
And in the men’s Royal Rumble, just like the women’s winner, someone who is not even in the match – yet – is the favorite. Brock Lesnar heads up the list with odds of 9/4, followed by AJ Styles at 3/1, Big E at 6/1, Roman Reigns at 10/1, and Omos at 12/1.
In his latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that WWE reached out to Jeff Hardy via John Laurinaitis to offer him a spot in the 2022 WWE Hall of Fame, an offer which Hardy refused.
Jeff was released from WWE in early December after he walked off midway through a six-man tag team match at a non-televised live event. Hardy, who seemed “off” during the match, tagged out and then walked through the crowd and never returned. WWE officials then sent the former champ back home before releasing him later in the week.
According to Meltzer, Jeff refused and instead wanted his drug tests results which WWE didn’t share with him. The company tested Hardy due to his behavior and past history with addiction. In an interview with Steve Austin on Broken Skull Sessions which had just aired, Hardy admitted that he’s on the last strike with WWE and was told repeatedly that if he messes up they will have no choice but to let him go.
Hardy’s 90-day no-compete clause ends in the beginning of March and there are rumors that he will be going straight to AEW to reunite with his brother Matt. The Hardy Boyz in AEW would have quite a few interesting programs to work with the likes of The Young Bucks, FTR, Penta and Fenix, O’Reilly and Fish, and other tag teams.
“The Wives of Wrestling Podcast” is joining Podcast Heat and they plan on suplexing, RKO-ing and slamming the perception of how ‘Real’ housewives have been portrayed in the past. Kim Orton, wife of WWE Superstar Randy Orton, and Giovanna Angle, wife of WWE Hall of Famer and Olympic Gold Medalist, Kurt Angle, along with host, Emmy-Award winner Jon Alba, will pull back the curtain and discuss what it takes to hold down a household while their professional wrestling husbands travel the globe as modern day superheroes. The first episode of “The Wives of Wrestling Podcast” drops on Monday, February 7th.
“Life’s a journey, and listening to ‘The Wives of Wrestling Podcast’ will give you a look into ours. From being a fan of wrestling as a kid, to my kids bringing me back into the wrestling world, to marrying one of the best ever, my journey has been legitimately unbelievable, to say the least,” said Orton. “Giovanna and I live such different lives than most because of the people we are married to. But underneath it all we are just like any two best friends. Balancing our lives can be a little difficult at times, but we know just how blessed we are to be able to do that, as I don’t think either one of us would change it for the world. We are also really lucky to have Jon on board to help steer the ship so Giovanna and I don’t get too sideways. Spend a little time with the three of us and I’m sure you’ll see yourselves in a lot of our craziness.”
“I think this podcast will show the audience a humbling look inside our lives and our friendship that people won’t be expecting,” added Angle. “Kim and I are very excited to tell our stories and share the ups-and-downs on what it’s like to live this amazing life with our superstar husbands and families. We hope everyone will enjoy this ride as much as we will enjoy discussing it. And we’ll drag our buddy Jon along to try and contain us in the process!”
Every Monday, “The Wives of Wrestling Podcast” will host their personal Happy Hour and dive into a variety of topics from juggling kids’ sports schedules and extra-curriculum activities, to managing and directing the house projects, to having to flip the switch and be red-carpet ready for an event, and supporting their husband’s extremely busy schedules when they have to go back on the road. Orton and Angle’s no nonsense banter, sometimes raunchy humor, and endless stories of being married to two of the biggest names in the professional wrestling will make “The Wives of Wrestling Podcast” a must-subscribe podcast.
“In my time getting to know both Kim and Giovanna, I have learned they are both loving, driven, and strong-minded family women,” added Alba. “Their experiences holding down the fort while their husbands are traveling the world offer valuable life lessons to anyone who listens to this show, and I assure you they are wildly entertaining in how they share those lessons. I can’t wait for people to hear this completely new perspective on pro wrestling and celebrity life.”
To interact with “The Wrestling Wives Podcast” on Twitter and Instagram, follow @WivesWrestling.
The deal between Disney+ and WWE to carry the WWE Network in Indonesia is believed to be the start of something more bigger between the two entertainment companies and WWE President Nick Khan is hoping that Disney+ will continue to introduce WWE to new audiences as they continue to expand internationally.
In comments given to Deadline.com, Khan called Disney “the gold standard in creating iconic intellectual property that serves as the backbone for international business growth” and is glad that WWE Network content is now on the best-in-class platform in that country.
Meanwhile, The Walt Disney Company GM for Indonesia, Vineet Puri, added, “As home of the best global and local language content, we’re excited to welcome the extensive library of content from WWE Network to the ever expanding slate of Disney+ Hotstar. With this new content on Disney+ Hotstar, we hope to expand our reach and engage even more audiences in Indonesia.”
The Disney+ Hotstar service accounts for more than one third of the 118 million global Disney+ subscribers with over 40 million subs in the region as of last quarter. It is an Indian brand of subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Novi Digital Entertainment of Star India and operated by Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution.
In a post on his Instagram Stories, WWE Intercontinental champion Shinsuke Nakamura revealed that he has been cleared to the return to the ring.
Posing with an X-ray of his hand, Nakamura wrote that he’s been officially cleared although despite this, a return tomorrow at the Rumble might be a bit to early for the Japanese star.
Nakamura last wrestled in a singles match back in November of last year at the Survivor Series, taking on Damian Priest during the Kickoff show. Apart from a couple of tag team matches with Rick Boogs, Nakamura has been absent from the ring for two months now as he waited for his hand injury to heal.
He won the Intercontinental title in August from Apollo Crews but has barely defended the title since then. Sami Zayn awaits Nakamura as the first challenger when he is brought back to in-ring competition.
The Beach Break themed episode of Dynamite this week drew a total of 1,100,000 viewers, up 68,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. This was Dynamite’s most-watched show since September 29. The show did a 0.41 rating in the 18-49 demo, down 0.03 from last week and finished #2 in the top 50 cable chart for the night. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Three matches for the upcoming Impact Plus special event No Surrender have so far been announced.
The show, taking place live on February 19 from the Alario Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, will be streaming exclusively on Impact Plus and the Impact Ultimate Insiders YouTube channel.
Apart from Moose defending his Impact World title against W. Morrissey, Mickie James will be putting her Knockouts title on the line against Tasha Steelz and there will also be a five-on-five match featuring Team Honor No More vs Team Impact.
The former ROH stars will include Mike Bennett, Matt Taven, Vincent, PCO, and Maria Kanellis taking on Josh Alexander, Eddie Edwards, Chris Sabin, Rhino, and Rich Swann with the stipulation being that if Team Honor No More wins they can stay in Impact Wrestling but if they lose they have to leave.
This article contains spoilers, read at your own risk!
PWInsider.com is reporting that a trio of former WWE Divas are in St. Louis and expected to be part of the women’s Royal Rumble match tomorrow night.
These three women are Ariane Andrew, formerly known as Cameron, Aksana, and Melina Perez.
Ariane Andrew appeared for AEW a couple of times but was never signed to a deal with the promotion. She has not worked for WWE since 2016 and the Tough Enough alumni was most known for being one half of the Funkadactyls with Naomi.
Aksana has not been seen on WWE television since 2014 and actually never returned to the ring following her release. The Lithuanian star originally signed with WWE in 2009 and was the FCW Divas champion before moving to the main roster in late 2011.
Melina, who last appeared on WWE television in mid-2019 during a Raw Reunion show, is a former WWE Women’s and Divas champion and a crowd favorite. She was released from her WWE contract in 2011 and is now doing mostly indie dates.
There is not enough women on the main roster to pull a 30-woman Royal Rumble match so WWE has to call in reinforcements from outside the company and call up some NXT talent to make up the number.
This week’s NXT drew 593,000 viewers on USA Network, up just slightly by 6,000 viewers from last week’s number. The show did a 0.14 in the 18-49 demo, up 0.03 from last week, placing #41 in the top 50 cable chart for the night. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Speaking to Sports Illustrated, Universal champion Roman Reigns said that he’s still feeling the effects of coronavirus almost a month after he tested positive.
The champ had to step away from the Day 1 main event between himself and Brock Lesnar after he tested positive for COVID-19, resulting in a complete change of direction in the main event picture. While he had coughs and a sinus infection when he was positive, Reigns said that he still feels the effects of tightness in his chest when working out, mainly while doing cardio.
“It’s definitely something serious. As someone who is vaccinated and boosted, it still got to me and I still felt the effects,” Reigns said. “While they weren’t as severe as they can be for some, it did hang around and linger for a while.”
In the same interview, Reigns also discussed his former tag team partner Jon Moxley who recently returned from a three-month absence as he was in a rehab facility. Reacting to the comment of Bully Ray who said that Mox should apologize for letting his fans down, Reigns disagreed with the Hall of Famer.
“I don’t think he owes anybody an apology. I think the fact that he was responsible enough to do what needed to be done and also not shy away from it to help other people – because you rarely talk about those people that are just 100% inspired and motivated by what Mox did – and having that brutal honesty with himself and everyone for that matter, I don’t think he owes anyone an apology,” Reigns continued.
The Sports Business Journal is reporting that WWE has struck a deal with Disney to carry the WWE Network in Indonesia.
Starting with the Royal Rumble this weekend, Disney+ Hotstar will air all live WWE events as part of the standard subscription and all events will be available in the Bahasa Indonesia language as well as in English.
This is the first relationship between WWE and Disney+ and could open the doors to more similar deals worldwide. WWE has been looking to offload the WWE Network from a standalone service and attach it to other major media streaming services like it did with Peacock in the United States.
No details have been revealed as to how much Disney is paying and for how long the deal is.
During the Comcast Q4 earning reports today it was revealed that Peacock, the home of the WWE Network in the United States had a loss of $1.7 billion after generating $778 million in revenue for 2021. That was a heavy blow following the loss of $663 million in 2020.
And the bad news does not stop there as the parent company expects the streaming service to lose around $2.5 billion in 2022 as they double their investment in content.
For the first time, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts told investors that Peacock has 9 million paid subscribers at an average of $10 per month. Last year the company announced 24.5 million subscribers but that included paid and free subscribers. Roberts also said that the service has an additional 7 million monthly subscribers via other distributors who get the paid version of Peacock at no additional cost.
Comcast paid $1 billion for five years to carry the WWE Network exclusively in the United States.
Popular independent star Danhausen appeared last night on Dynamite, interfering in the lights out main event match between Adam Cole and Orange Cassidy.
Danhausen was hidden under the ring and when Cole went for a chair, he popped out and held on to the steel chair, allowing Cassidy to get the advantage on Cole.
Following the conclusion of the show, AEW President Tony Khan welcomed Danhausen to the team with the usual “is All Elite” graphic. “He has arrived,” Khan wrote in a tweet.
The 31-year-old from Detroit made his pro wrestling debut in 2013 and toured the indie scene before signing for Ring of Honor in 2019.
In a bid to boost the slow ticket sales in Chicago, AEW has pulled the trigger and is putting CM Punk vs MJF in a live Dynamite rather than on pay-per-view.
The match is now set for next week at the Wintrust Arena and surprisingly there’s still a couple of thousands of seats available for a place that usually sells out very quickly for AEW. The arena is set up to hold just over 6,600 fans according to WrestleTix and as of last week it was around 68% full.
Announcing Punk vs MJF for the show will surely boost sales and help pop a rating for Dynamite but it takes one major match from the upcoming AEW pay-per-view unless they go with a rematch as well.
There’s only one TNT champion after last night’s Dynamite and Sammy Guevara is now the man, reclaiming the title he actually lost back on the Christmas Day episode of Rampage.
Guevara beat Cody Rhodes in a ladder match which opened up the show in Cleveland, making him a two-time TNT champion. The two were supposed to meet at Battle of the Belts but a COVID-19 positive result for a family member forced Cody into quarantine, missing the show. Instead, an interim title match was held between Guevara and Dustin Rhodes, a match which Guevara won.
This was Cody’s third reign with the TNT championship and unfortunately for him it only lasted a month. The TNT title is the only singles one Rhodes can compete for in AEW as he is honoring the stipulation from losing to Jericho a couple of years ago.
In a WWE piece on Sports Business Journal, WWE President Nick Khan has confirmed that the company fielded some calls regarding a potential sale but stressed that WWE is not in any active conversations with any company trying to sell and they’re not actively looking to sell either.
The mass layoffs over the past year prompted several rumors that WWE is trimming its roster ahead of a potential sale to a larger company but Khan has shot down all the rumors.
The article by SBJ also looks how Khan and the several executives that joined following him helped WWE to be treated the same as other media companies.
“For the company to be treated the way that Vince, Stephanie, Kevin Dunn and myself and others believed it should be treated in the community, you needed executives who reflected that, who had range, who could get people on the phone and who could be taken seriously by their peers,” he said.
