Eric Bischoff recently answered several questions regarding his career on an episode of his “83 Weeks” podcast. One question Bischoff addressed was regarding the Aces and Eights storyline in TNA Wrestling from 2012-13.
“That idea was all mine,” Bischoff said regarding the angle. “Everybody contributed, the talent contributed, you know once you launch something like that, you start laying things out, talking about dialogue, everybody’s got an opinion. Bully certainly did, Ken Anderson did quite a bit, a lot of people did.”
“Unfortunately, TNA was semi-dysfunctional at that point but if you go back and break that storyline down and follow the arc of that storyline and what we did do to pay it off, that’s a pretty good storyline.”
Bischoff then spoke about Bully Ray’s opinion of the Aces and Eights storyline from TNA.
“I think if you talk to Bully at any point and ask him how he felt about that storyline given all the things that he’s been through either in ECW or WWE, I think he puts that Aces and Eights storyline right at the top of the list in terms of the quality of the story and the way it was executed, I’m very proud of it.”
Bischoff’s comments can be heard in the player below:
Dustin Rhodes recently took to Twitter to express his desire for a Rhodes brothers vs Von Erich brothers match to take place. The Von Erichs are the current MLW Tag Team Championships and Dustin and his brother Cody are scheduled to team up next on the January 8th edition of Dynamite against the Lucha Bros.
Dustin posted the following to Twitter in regard to a possible match between the two famed families.
MLW’s Court Bauer responded to Rhodes’ comments noting that the Von Erichs and MLW will be in Texas on January 11th, 2020 for Zero Hour. AEW recently ran events in Garland and Corpus Christie, Texas as well.
This is the first time Bauer has publicly acknowledged anything regarding an MLW and AEW relationship. Dustin liked the Tweet posted by Bauer as well.
Several wrestlers work for both AEW and MLW such as Maxwell Jacob Friedman and Jimmy Havoc. This is the first time either side has acknowledged doing business on this level, however.
Dusty Rhodes actually wrestled on the 3rd ever MLW event in 2002. Steve Corino defeated both Rhodes and Terry Funk in a triple threat match that night.
MLW Zero Hour
The following matches are booked for MLW’s return to Dallas, Texas on January 11th, 2020.
Barbed Wire Match Mance Warner vs Jimmy Havoc
Ross Von Erich vs Tom Lawlor
Marshall Von Erich vs Maxwell Jacob Friedman
National Openweight Championship Alex Hammerstone vs Aerostar
Andrade is the new WWE United States champion. He defeated Rey Mysterio at a WWE house show from Madison Square Garden on December 26th, 2019. It is the first title Andrade has won since leaving NXT.
Mysterio defeated AJ Styles for the title last month on an episode of RAW from November 25th, 2019. He had won the title for the first time at Money in the Bank this year from Samoa Joe. Mysterio would be forced to vacate the title due to injury not long after, however.
9 United States Championship Title Changes in 2019
The WWE United States Championship has changed hands nine times in 2019.
There’s been a lot of speculation on the future of Marty Scurll, but the has been reportedly given an offer by Ring of Honor (ROH).
Earlier this week, ROH announced the main event of their Honor Reigns Supreme show that will see La Faccion Ingobernable of Rush & Dragon Lee & Kenny King vs. Villain Enterprises of Scurll & Body King & PCO in a six-man tag team match take place.
Marty Scurll Given New Contract
Dave Meltzer reported in the latest issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that “No word if that means he’s staying with ROH, which we were told gave him a great offer.”
This show takes place on January 12th in Concord, N.C. at the Cabarrus Arena. The promotion will be announcing more matches for the show in the coming weeks.
Scurll’s contract with Ring of Honor recently expired, but he wrestled at their Final Battle PPV event and the television tapings the same weekend, which means that he will remain on ROH TV for the next several weeks.
To make things more interesting, he appeared at the end of the NWA Into the Fire pay-per-view where Scurll had a staredown with NWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis.
The speculation is that this angle was done to set up a possible match between the two.
Time will tell where Scurll ends up on a full-time basis.
Triple H discussed a wide range of topics while doing an interview with Corey Graves for the After The Bell podcast on Thursday.
During the interview, “The Game” discussed the creation of having a brand in the UK market through the way of NXT UK back in 2016. With the brand getting bigger each year, that has caused an impact on other promotions in the UK.
Promotions such as WrestleCircus, Defiant and Pro Wrestling Chaos have closed its doors as they do not have a working relationship with WWE such as ICW and Progress.
According to Triple H, fans don’t understand what the company is trying to do in the UK, which has caused some promotions to shut down.
“People misunderstood what we were trying to accomplish over in the UK because of small thinking or short sightedness. Yes, some of these indies are going to go away. The ones that are going to go away are the ones who are paying you $25 bucks when they promised you $75 bucks.”
Triple H talked about those are the promotions that don’t have a ring that will hold up or proper medical care. Instead, those promotions who don’t work with WWE are the ones that just want to sell tickets off the popularity of its talent and could care less what the wrestlers do.
“We wanted to work with the ones who were cultivating talent. The ones that were encouraging them to become better, working with them on promos or giving them guidance, right or wrong on their matches.”
Triple H brought up how the promotions that they work with are the ones that WWE NXT UK talent to freelance work for and the ones that are thriving.
The latest special for the NXT UK brand is right around the corner. NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool II goes down on Sunday, January 12, 2020 at the Empress Ballroom and will air on their streaming service, the WWE Network.
The viewership numbers are in for the latest episode of WWE Backstage, a weekly talk show.
The show that aired on FS1 at 11pm ET drew 153,000 viewers. This is up from last week’s 93,000 viewers, according to Showbuzz Daily.
As a result, this second-best viewership since the premiere episode of the show in its normal timeslot on FOX Sports 1 back in November.
In the 18-49 demographic, WWE Backstage drew a 0.05 rating this week, which is right in line as the previous rating last week.
Regarding the Cable Top 150, unlike last week’s show that didn’t make the cut, this week’s show ranked #124.
It’s an interesting number as the show aired on Christmas Eve, which many people thought the show would drop in viewership as a result. The episode featured appearances by Maria Menounos and actor Paul Walter Houser as they served as the special guests. The show looked at the 2019 WWE Year-End Awards.
It should be noted that former WWE Champion CM Punk didn’t make an appearance on the show. Instead, former NXT Women’s Champion Ember Moon filled that role.
WWE Backstage Viewership Numbers This Year
WWE only has one more show of the weekly television series as it will air next Tuesday, which is New Year’s Eve. Here is how the viewership numbers look like since its premiere:
WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley recently did an interview with The Detroit News and discussed her recent change in character where she would ditch her happy and cheerful persona and turn heel for the first time in her career.
One of the most memorable moments from this was Bayley cutting off her signature ponytail, which she revealed was actually done backstage with the help of a “very trusted stylist” that day at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“It felt great,” Bayley said of the cut. “I knew what I wanted to do and I knew what I needed to do. But the actual snip of the ponytail, I was a little in shock. My hair was the longest I’ve ever had it, and I’ve had that freakin’ ponytail for seven years. The last time my hair was this short, I was 10 years old.”
Bayley said that playing the babyface character for so long was tiring and she didn’t even know what she was fighting for anymore. She described the heel turn as a “much-needed” change, not only for her character but also for herself personally.
“Character-wise and personally, mostly personally, it was much needed,” she said. “I really go off my emotions or what I’m passionate about at the time, and there came a point where I was like, ‘I don’t even know what I’m fighting for anymore.’ That’s when it hit me, and I was like, something needs to change. And that was it.”
Bayley said that she’s hoping this new change in her career goes well. If it doesn’t do well for her then she believes that she would be able to make it work somehow.
“I’m just taking this leap and hoping this next chapter goes well,” Bayley said. “But I believe in myself and I trust that I won’t let myself fall too far. If this doesn’t work out as great as I’d hoped it would, I’ll find a way to make it work.”
Bayley who is the current WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion, has held the title for more combined days than any other champion. Bayley, who has now spent 217 days as champ, has overtaken Becky Lynch’s combined reign which was at 216 days.
Posted December 26th, 2019 in News, WWE. Tagged: Bayley.
While 2019 was probably the best year Kofi had for his career – with reaching the top of the WWE to becoming WWE Champion at WrestleMania – the ending was not as great as fans expected it to be.
During SmackDown’s first episode on Fox, Kingston lost his WWE Championship in just a few seconds to Brock Lesnar in a squash match.
Kingston spoke to Yahoo! Sports recently and touched on this topic, and stated that he appreciates the passion and support for him from fans. Kofi believes that sometimes, you just have to make the best of what you’re given and be happy with it.
“I appreciate the passion [from the fans], I do. There are people who have careers that span years and they never have this kind of following, so I’m really fortunate to have that.
“It’s their right to be angry if they want to be angry, but it’s my job to keep moving forward. There’s a whole lot of stuff we don’t have control over, but we work with what we’re given, try to get a little bit more and claw your way back. It might not be a direct, linear path.”
Even though there’s a lot of things that Kofi didn’t have control over and maybe things didn’t go as he or his fans expected, he’s still thankful that he worked hard and achieved his dreams.
“It’s been an amazing year. You never know what kind of career you’re going to have, you just kind of keep aspiring to be at the top of the mountain.
“You work as hard as you can, knowing there’s not a lot of stuff you have control over, but sometimes the cards fall just right and fate pushes you into this position,” Kofi said.
While Kofi reached a career milestone in 2019, there’s still a lot he could achieve with the coming new year and decade. It will be interesting to see how Kofi’s career pans out from this point onward.
Shotzi Blackheart made her official WWE NXT TV debut on December 25’s taped Christmas episode of the show.
Blackheart has previously made an appearance on the yellow brand but it was on a non-televised live event show which took place on December 5 where she lost to Chelsea Green in a singles match.
The former SHINE Nova Champion had a match against Bianca Belair, in which she lost.
Blackheart was officially signed to the company back in November, before which she was offered a contract by NXT General Manager William Regal during EVOLVE 137 back in October.
In 2015, Shotzi Blackheart appeared as a contestant on the latest season of WWE Tough Enough, where she used her real name, Ashley Urbanski. She was unable to make it to the final 14 due to a medical issue. She also had a WWE tryout back in 2016.
The 26-year-old California native has worked with Hoodslam, All Pro Wrestling, and with women’s wrestling promotions like SHIMMER, Shine Wrestling, and RISE Wrestling.
Blackheart made her debut in IMPACT Wrestling after working with a number of UK wrestling promotions. She also competed in IMPACT’s All Glory event back in October.
Shayna Baszler, who is known for having a very dominant persona as a heel on the NXT women’s roster, often receives fan criticism, with many citing that her gimmick has gotten boring and repetitive.
Baszler doesn’t just have a fierce persona, she is also a brute in the ring. She is a two-time in NXT Women’s Champion and has held the title for 416 days, second only to Asuka’s as the longest-reigning champion. Last week on WWE NXT, Rhea Ripley was able to defeat Baszler and win the title for herself.
Ripley talked about her huge win against Baszler in a recent interview with Newsweek and touched on the criticism that the Queen of Spades receives from fans. “I read a lot of things on Twitter, and I see a lot of things about Shayna and about me. I absolutely hate it when they rag on her and say she’s boring.”
Rhea defended Baszler, saying that her character is not supposed to be exciting and that her job is to make the fans hate her, not like her.
“She’s a heel, she’s not supposed to be exciting. She’s not supposed to make you like her. She’s not supposed to do any of that stuff. She’s doing her job right. And I hate when people disrespect that fact. So to go out there and put on a match like that with Shayna and prove to everyone how wrong [they are about] not only me but her as well, it’s a feeling that can’t be matched. I just love proving people wrong.”
Rhea must know how hard it must be playing a heel character as she herself was one when she performed in NXT UK. She was also the first women’s champion of the brand. Hopefully, critical fans see this and understand that Baszler has a role to play and a job to do.
Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins, who are collectively known as The Street Profits, talked about how they came together and formed a tag team while appearing on the December 12 episode of Corey Graves’ After The Bell podcast.
Ford and Angelo were doing their own thing on NXT until they were paired together and would go on to win the NXT Tag Team Championship.
On the podcast, Ford & Dawkins recalled how they were both paired together when they both arrived at the WWE Performance Center for a promo class wearing Mocassin shoes.
“When we got to the PC – at my second tryout where they hired me at – they later put me through acting classes, which Angelo Dawkins was in that acting class. So, I got brought upstairs with I think there was six of us that they thought about hiring and I remember that day I thought that promos were going to be in the evening; normally I show up with a suit everywhere. I had worn my ring gear to what pretty much was the promo class and I was upset because I didn’t have a suit on and eventually they took us upstairs to the acting class and I had on gym shorts and gym clothes and some Moccasins,” stated Ford.
“I had worn my ring gear to what pretty much was the promo class and I was upset because I didn’t have a suit on and eventually they took us upstairs to the acting class and I had on gym shorts and gym clothes and some Moccasins,” Ford said. “So, I remember sitting up there and they were going like, ‘Hey Dawkins, that is a perfect fit for the both of you, he is wearing Moccasins too.’ And Dawkins was like, ‘Yeah, I see that.'”
Ford then recalled how after an event where Angelo Dawkins had a match against No Way Jose and Ford had one against Steve Cutler, the producers came up to them and told them that they want to pair the two together and make a tag team. Ford thinks that he was fortunate enough to be paired with someone who he actually knew from before.
The Street Profits started appearing on Raw in backstage segments from July and it was revealed in the WWE Draft that they were drafted to the Raw brand. They’ve also made appearances for Evolve and even won the Evolve Tag Team Championship from The Doom Patrol at Evolve 114.
Quotes used in this article are transcribed by WrestlingInc
All Elite Wrestling has announced a huge match for the upcoming AEW Dynamite Homecoming episode.
The company has revealed in the announcement that Kenny Omega and PAC will face off in a six-man tag team match on the first 2020 show for the company.
Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) will be teaming up against the team of PAC and The Lucha Bros (Fenix & Pentagon Jr.) on the Wednesday’s episode of the show which will take place on New Year’s Day.
You can check out the announcement from AEW’s Twitter below:
Dynamite will emanate from the Daily’s Place amphitheatre in Jacksonville, Florida. Other matches set for the night include Cody Rhodes vs. Darby Allin, and an AEW Women’s Championship title match involving Kris Statlander and champion Riho. Segments featuring Jon Moxley responding to Chris Jericho’s invitation to join the Inner Circle, as well as MJF revealing the stipulations for his upcoming match against Cody Rhodes.
After getting defeated by Omega on Dynamite last month, PAC has demanded a rematch to one-up his rival. They both have won against each other once in singles competition.
Meanwhile, The Young Bucks and Lucha Bros have been in the ring with each other multiple times, and have also had an Escalera De La Muerte match for the AAA Tag Team Championship at All Out.
Omega & The Young Bucks vs. PAC & The Lucha Bros was set for Fyter Fest initially, but PAC was later pulled from the event and Laredo Kid filled in as his replacement. Here is the list of upcoming AEW events:
WWE has announced that next Wednesday’s special episode of WWE NXT on New Year’s Day will have three hosts: Cathy Kelley, Sam Roberts and Pat McAfee. They will be the hosts for the NXT Year-End Awards. The Awards will be taking place on next week’s broadcast of the weekly wrestling show. There will be no live wrestling show for this episode of New Year’s Day.
The show will reveal winners of the NXT Year-End Awards. Fans were asked to cast their votes on the official website and Twitter for the nominees if the awards. Just like last year, this year also has a total of nine categories. The categories and winners of the 2018 NXT Year-End Awards are as follows:
Male Competitor for the Year: Tommaso Ciampa
Female Competitor of the Year: Kairi Sane
Overall Competitor of the Year: Kairi Sane
Tag Team of the Year: The Undisputed Era (Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong)
Rivalry of the Year: Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa
Breakout Star of the Year: Ricochet
TakeOver of the Year: NXT TakeOver: New Orleans
Future Star of NXT: Io Shirai
Match of the Year: Andrade (c) vs. Johnny Gargano for the NXT Championship at NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia
Apart from the awards, WWE will also air replays of the biggest NXT TakeOver matches from this year, which includes the first-ever women’s WarGames match.
The episode will also see the announcement of the names of the NXT 2020 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic participant tag teams.
The special New Year’s episode will air from 9 pm to 10 pm Eastern Time, January 1, 2020, on the USA Network.
Below is the announcement that WWE made on its Twitter account:
Ring of Honor has announced that the current ROH Six-Man Tag Team Champions, the Villain Enterprises, will defend their titles against La Faccion Ingobernable on January 12.
Marty Scurll, Brody King, and ROH World Champion PCO of the Villain Enterprises will look to defend their gold against RUSH, Dragon Lee, and Kenny Lee at the upcoming ROH event in Concord, North Carolina.
ROH announcer Ian Riccaboni made the announcement of the match on his Twitter:
“Hey @ringofhonor fans: I promised I would have the announcement of the Concord Main Event for Sunday January 12.
It is @rushtoroblanco, @dragonlee95, and @KennyKingPb2 vs. @MartyScurll, @Brodyxking, and @PCOisNotHuman for the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Titles.
Villain Enterprises won the ROH Six-Man Tag Team Championship since winning it on March 16 of this year. They have held the titles for over 284 days now. They most recently successfully defended their titles last month in November against Cheeseburger, Colt Cabana & Jeff Cobb.
The formation of La Faccion Ingobernable happened at the Ring of Honor’s Final Battle Fallout event on December 15. The faction is the American branch of La Facción Ingobernable, which first formed as Los Ingobernables AAA at the AAA Guerra De Titanes event on December 14. It consisted of RUSH, Killer Kross, LA Park and Konnan.
Baron Corbin, who is also known as “King Corbin” now, talked about the inception of his finishing move the “End Of Days” and also shared an interesting story about a Hall of Famer jokingly threatening to steal his move.
Speaking to Sportskeeda, Corbin revealed that he had a talk with The Undertaker himself about keeping his finisher special sacred just like Taker did with the Tombstone.
“I 100% do and you know I had a conversation with Taker about that. He really made the Tombstone something very special. Nobody kicked out of it for a long time and he held it very sacred. So that was something I took to heart and something I wanted to do with it. Because yeah nobody’s ever kicked out of End of Days. When it lands it’s over and people know that.”
Another interesting thing about the move is that it was developed by an incident. In Corbin’s words, the move came into being when he was just playing around in NXT.
“At NXT we have like a crash pad ring where you can go in and just try stuff in. I was just messing around with somebody and they jumped and I caught him and kind of hit it… just playing around. As soon as we landed I was like, ‘Oh man… that was something cool.’ When it happened, you immediately knew.”
Corbin also shared that he was excited after coming up with the move and decided to show it to WWE Hall of Famer Billy Gunn. Gunn liked the move so much and joked that he will use the move against The Shield in his six-man tag team match at WrestleMania XXX.
The December 25, 2019 episode of WWE NXT aired from Brooklyn, NY at the Barclays Center. Here are 4 takeaways from this week’s show:
Roderick Strong Retains
NXT North American Champion Roderick Strong retained his title over Austin Theory in one of the bigger matches featured on this card.
The match was fine and both stars worked hard. Theory is a talented guy but to me, he doesn’t stand out as someone that could be a breakout star. Strong is clearly the guy that they want to push and especially in this match, that makes sense as Theory accepted an open challenge, which is an easy way to get a title match.
Strong appears to be someone just waiting for what’s next for him by WWE management. I expect to see in early January that WWE will start his next feud as they will need to do so as the upcoming NXT TakeOver: Portland special is quickly approaching.
NXT TakeOver: Portland will take place on February 16, 2020 at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon. Strong is expected to defend his title at this show.
Dear Santa Claus,
Thank you for gifting us with @roderickstrong vs. @austintheory1 on #WWENXT. We are very grateful and entertained.
Isaiah “Swerve” Scott beat Jack Gallagher in a singles match. As expected, this was a fun match that I personally was looking forward to watching once I saw the match listed.
These guys put on an exciting match that you should go out of your way of seeing.
Scott is someone that appears to be a diamond in the rough as his charisma is just off the charts, which is key not only in pro wrestling but also in WWE. Add in the fact that he’s extremely talented inside of the ropes as a worker is only a plus.
Gallagher has always come across as someone who should be better used by WWE management due to his dynamic of a work style.
Add in these combinations, it makes for such a match that was presented.
In a match that felt like a time killer, Dominik Dijakovic defeated Bronson Reed in a singles match.
The match was fine as it was designed to get over Dijakovic, who has a lot of upside and it’s clear that WWE officials see that potential. Thus, the reason that WWE continues to push him on television as a main staple of the product that they give out each and every week.
I am interested in seeing where he goes in the future as he was featured in the WarGames Match last month at NXT TakeOver: WarGames III. This contest saw Tommaso Ciampa, Donovan Dijak, Keith Lee and Owens beat The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, Roderick Strong & Kyle O’Reilly) in the headliner.
Since that time, he has just been floating around and no apparent direction in regards to storyline plans for him. Hopefully, that will change in the near future.
In one of the higher-profile matches on this interesting show was a tag team match that saw Keith Lee and Lio Rush defeat Tony Nese and Damian Priest.
The match was fine but it was such an odd dynamic due to the stars that were featured in the contest. Obviously, with the show falling on Christmas, WWE wanted to put the babyfaces over in Lee and Rush, which is fine.
Nese hasn’t done much in NXT up to this point outside of a few bright moments. On the flip side, Priest seems to still be a player in NXT but his stock has dropped in just a few weeks as he continues to suffer defeats in matches.
The star of this match and really the show was Lee, who is someone that many people think should be in line for a title shot.
The dude has continued to get more over on television since his breakout run in October up to this point.
One could make the argument that he should be in line for a title shot. In fact, it could be said that he should be the NXT Champion due to the overwhelming support from fans.
All Elite Wrestling has announced the latest set of AEW Rankings for the week ending Wednesday, December 25th, 2019. Original, AEW would release these rankings on Friday but have since moved them to every Wednesday.
These rankings are for the following divisions – men’s, women’s, and tag team.
The updated standings come after the results of Tuesday’s AEW Dark episode. The way it works is the talent will be listed in rankings by their match records but doesn’t include the champions.
The most notable moves included in the women’s division as Kris Statlander is now listed first as she is the #1 contender for the AEW Women’s Title that is currently held by Riho. Britt Baker dropped from #1 to #2 in the standings as well.
Nothing changed in the men’s division while the tag team standings saw Santana and Ortiz surpass The Young Bucks, who lost last week to the AEW Tag Team Champions SCU on Dynamite, in first place.
AEW Rankings
The rankings will be updated each week. You can see the rankings here:
This week’s episode of WWE NXT is a different type of show that is being built around Roderick Strong’s Open Challenge so let’s take a look at a preview for it.
Thus, it’s time to look ahead starting with tonight’s episode of NXT. This show features matches that were taped at two different locations.
Strong’s match was filmed in Winter Park, Florida at Full Sail University a few weeks ago as part of a dark segment. The other matches were filmed last week at the Friday Night SmackDown TV event in Brooklyn, NY at the Barclays Center.
In the likely main event, Keith Lee and Lio Rush vs. Damian Priest and Tony Nese in a tag team match is expected to take place.
NXT Preview
WWE is advertising the following items for tonight’s broadcast:
Open Challenge by NXT North American Champion Roderick Strong
Keith Lee and Lio Rush vs. Damian Priest and Tony Nese
The reason for the show being taped and not live on the USA Network is due to the company giving its talent time off for Christmas. Obviously, this show takes place on the holiday.
WWE taped this past Monday’s episode of RAW last week to give the crew time off. That will change starting Thursday as the main roster crew is back on the road.
NXT is different though as they won’t return for a live episode on the USA Network until the January 8th episode.
Monday’s edition of WWE RAW averaged 1.835 million viewers in Des Moines, IA at the Wells Fargo Arena on the USA Network, which is down from 2.053 million viewers the previous week.
RAW Viewership
Here is the hourly viewership breakdown, courtesy of ShowbuzzDaily:
Hour 1: 1.955 million – Last Week: 2.204
Hour 2: 1.864 million – Last Week: 2.099
Hour 3: 1.686 million – Last Week: 1.858
The episode was expected to drop in its viewership from last week as this was a taped show. In fact, it marked the second-lowest holiday week episode of the show in history as last year’s Christmas Eve show was the lowest.
In the 18-49 demos, the first hour did 0.67 while the second hour had 0.66 and 0.60 in the final hour.
The biggest competition that WWE RAW faced came in the way of an NFL regular-season game between the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings that aired on ESPN did 13.556 million viewers.
Some of the matches that took place include Kevin Owens vs Mojo Rawley in a Christmas Street Fight, Bobby Lashley vs Cedric Alexander, The OC (AJ Styles, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson) vs Randy Orton and The Viking Raiders, Rusev vs No Way Jose, and WWE United States Champion Rey Mysterio vs Seth Rollins in the main event.
WWE will attempt to increase its viewership for RAW next week. In case you missed the show, you can check out the five takeaways here.
Watch: Top 10 Moments from Monday’s RAW (12.23.19)
Former President of WCW and Executive Producer of SmackDown on FOX Eric Bischoff recently spoke to the WrestlingINC podcast. ‘Easy E’ had some interesting comments regarding his former employers (WWE) as well as the importance of the nWo stable.
“The NWO angle changed the wrestling industry…” – Eric Bischoff
“I’m not objective, but I also think it’s fair for any reasonable person to say… the NWO angle changed the wrestling industry more than anything that’s happened since the first WrestleMania,” stated Eric Bischoff. “To suggest otherwise I think is being foolish. Had there not been the nWo, there wouldn’t have been the [Monday Night] Wars and there would have not been an Attitude Era. Had not any of the above happened, I doubt WWE would have been able to become a public company.”
“It really comes down to the Monday Night Wars…”
Eric Bischoff elaborated further, saying “who knows where the wrestling business would be had there not been the NWO? Had it not been for the NWO, we wouldn’t be seeing the success that we’re seeing across the board today. It really comes down to the Monday Night Wars as they rose the genre to its peak in terms of mainstream awareness and buy-in. Had it not been for that period of time, we wouldn’t be watching what we’re watching today.”
“I was surprised…” – Eric Bischoff
The former WCW President then discussed if he had been contacted regarding the nWo induction into the WWE Hall of Fame. Inductee Sean ‘X-Pac’ Waltman recently stated that he believed that both Bischoff and The Giant/Big Show should be included in the induction come WrestleMania weekend. “No. I was surprised they announced it this early as they usually announce it a little later in the year” said Bischoff. “But no, I haven’t spoken to anybody. I didn’t even know it until I read it online the next day,” revealed Bischoff.
WWE legend Kane recently released the book “Mayor Kane: My Life in Wrestling and Politics” last month. He took part in an interview with SI.com to promote the book and discussed his relationship with Daniel Bryan.
“Bryan and I are on such opposite ends of the political spectrum,” said Kane. “But we respect each other as human beings and value each other’s opinions, so we had conversations and learned from each other. I learned a lot from Bryan, even if we didn’t always agree.”
Bryan and Kane famously formed the tag-team “Team Hell No.” The pair were involved in several memorable segments.
“Working with Bryan was probably the most fun I had in my entire wrestling career,” Kane continued. “That was because I was working with Daniel Bryan. I can’t say enough about the guy and his talent. Kane was a very dark, serious character, but Daniel Bryan changed all that. That was such a refreshing change for me.”
Kane also spoke about what fans can expect from his book.
“It’s all about my life, so there is a significant amount of wrestling in the book that will make WWE fans happy,” he said. “It was really fun to write, especially the stories of wrestling and traveling, and there is some really good stuff from my career.”
CMLL luchador Mr. Niebla has died. The 46-year-old passed away due to complications related to a blood infection. He was in hospital undergoing treatment at the time of his death.
CMLL posted the following statement in regard to Mr. Niebla’s passing:
? DESCANSE EN PAZ MR. NIEBLA ? El CMLL se une a la pena que embarga a la familia luchistica por el sensible fallecimiento del luchador Mr. Niebla, quien tuvo una destacada trayectoria en la historia de este deporte colocándose como una de las máximas figuras.
“The CMLL joins the grief that the luchistic family is seized by the sensitive death of the fighter Mr. Niebla, who had an outstanding career in the history of this sport, placing himself as one of the greatest figures. Rest in peace.”
Former ROH World Champion Rush also posted about Mr. Niebla on social media:
EN VERDAD ME DUELE EN EL ALMA ,SE NOS FUE UN GRAN AMIGO MÁS QUE AMIGO LO CONSIDERABA MI FAMILIA , SOLO ME QUEDA DARTE LAS GRACIAS POR TUS CONSEJOS. MI MÁS SENTIDO PESAME A TODA TU FAMILIA. DIOS TE TENGA EN SU SANTA GLORIA ?? pic.twitter.com/cvuN9mGlI9
World Wonder Ring Stardom, a women’s wrestling promotion in Japan, held their Year-End Climax 2019 event today at Korakuen Hall, in Tokyo. During the show, the promotion announced that their wrestlers would be participating at New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s Wrestle Kingdom 14 event on January 4th, 2020 in the Tokyo Dome.
STARDOM wrestlers will participate in a dark match on the first day of NJPW’s two-day Wrestle Kingdom event. The participants and type of match have yet to be announced. The match will not be televised or recorded in any form: only the live attendees will see it.
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Bushiroad, the parent company of NJPW, purchased STARDOM in October 2019, and this is the first instance of collaboration on a major event for the two promotions. The STARDOM wrestlers who participate in this special dark match will be the first women to wrestle in the Tokyo Dome since Joanie Laurer, better known as Chyna, wrestled on an NJPW Tokyo Dome show in 2002.
Impact Wrestling World Champion Sami Callihan is scheduled to defend his title next month at Hard to Kill against Tessa Blanchard. Callihan spoke to Talk Sport in the UK recently and described Impact as wrestling’s “true alternative” product.
“IMPACT Wrestling is good right now,” Callihan said. “As much haters as we have, it’s one of the best weekly wrestling shows on the planet right now.”
“I think this year has been a big year for IMPACT as far as getting that nasty taste out of the fan’s mouth from the Dixie-era goes,” he continued.
Sami Callihan On Impact Wrestling Being Wrestling’s True Alternative
Callihan also stated that Impact is the Attitude-era promotion many fans have been asking for.
“People were screaming for an Attitude Era-like company to come back and I feel like IMPACT Wrestling is the closest thing to it,” Callihan said. “We’re the only company right now that isn’t afraid to offend people, to try new things. We’re not afraid to push the envelope and give you an edgy product and we’re not going to apologize for every single thing like a lot of the other companies.”
The full interview with Callihan can be read here.
Goldberg recently sat down for an interview with Inside the Ropes. During the interview, the topic of Bret Hart sustaining a concussion in a match against him at Starrcade was brought up.
“I would have loved to have worked a little bit more with Bret Hart and I would have loved more than anything to have not kicked Bret Hart in the head,” Goldberg said during the interview. “And what happened, happened. There have been things said on the internet either by Bret or other people that I was malicious and he shouldn’t have been in the ring with me. Hey, I’m really sorry man but if I really wanted to hurt the guy, he would have never gotten up.”
Goldberg continued to say that the kick is something he regrets from his career.
“Accidents happen. He was an idol of mine and still is. That’s one thing that I will forever be remorseful for is the misplaced kick. He did kind of know it was coming but there are a couple of things that I wish I could have changed, that was one of them.”
Goldberg’s comments to Inside the Ropes can be viewed in the player below:
