Here is your news for December 28, 2019
We're kicking off this week's video with news from SmackDown, as Daniel Bryan will
get one more shot at the Universal Championship.
After coming up short against The Fiend at Survivor Series, Bryan met King Corbin and
The Miz to determine the next number one contender for Wyatt, though this match
quickly changed.
Mere minutes into the opener, Roman Reigns appeared and chased off the 2019 King
of the Ring winner, and the decision was made to have Bryan and Miz face off in
singles action.
The Lone Wolf only agreed to return to the match when Reigns was ejected from the
arena, but after the Big Dog returned and once again scared off Corbin and his pal
Dolph Ziggler, Bryan got the submission victory over the Miz, to earn a title match at
the 2020 Royal Rumble.
This result shouldn't be too surprising, as it was expected that Bryan and Wyatt would
face at the Rumble, which rumors speculating that the Wyatt-Miz non-title match at
TLC earlier this month was only done to extend the Fiend's feud with Daniel Bryan.
This is so far the only match confirmed for the show, asides from the two traditional
Royal Rumble matches, and though it hasn't been confirmed, there is speculation that
both the men's and women's matches will feature 10 Superstars from RAW, 10 from
SmackDown and 10 from NXT.
Two Superstars who may be in the Royal Rumble match despite being missing for
months is The Usos, as the former Tag Team Champions have been absent since
before Summerslam this year.
This absence is mostly down to Jimmy Uso, had been dealing with a DUI arrest, and
when you remember that this is Jimmy's second arrest this year, it's not hard to see
why the WWE would be hesitant to bring back the team.
With that said though, it looks like the Samoan brothers may be ready to return, as
according to WrestleVotes, the company's creative teams have been instructed to
come up with a return angle for the duo.
The same report that says whilst the pair are slated to remain on RAW, that could
easily change, and time will tell just what the future holds for Jimmy and Jey, and if
they'll still be treated the same by WWE after a highly controversial year.
Though 2019 may have not been the year for the Usos, their cousin Roman Reigns has
had a huge 12 months, including returning from his battle with leukemia in February this year.
Now, the Big Dog is closing out 2019 in a huge way, as he will represent the WWE on
FOX's New Years Eve show that will air on December 31st.
After this week's SmackDown, Reigns defeated Dolph Ziggler in the match that will be
aired next week, and the WWE even brought in their celebrity friend Maria Menounos
to serve as the special guest ring announcer.
A huge-wrestling fan who has wrestled a handful of times for WWE, Menounos will
also serve as the co-host for the FOX New Years' Eve special, alongside fellow WWE
fan and celebrity, Rob Gronkowski.
WWE has also announced that more Superstars will be appearing on the New Year's
Eve special, but so far, none have been confirmed.
This match against Ziggler isn't the only huge contest for the Big Dog, as the WWE has
also announced a match months in advance between Reigns and Baron Corbin.
On February 7th, the SAP Center in San Jose, California will play host to WWE
SmackDown, and in an advertisement for the show, it was announced that Reigns and
Corbin will face off, in a loser eats dog food match.
This stipulation comes off the back of the Big Dog being covered in dog food several
weeks back by Corbin and Ziggler, and with the match being scheduled for February,
this should give fans some idea of just how long this feud will last.
Also on the February 7th show, Daniel Bryan is set to face The Fiend Bray Wyatt, as it
seems these two will still be battling after the Royal Rumble Pay Per View.
Over to AEW now, and despite a monumental first year for the company, this week
saw a setback for Cody Rhodes.
Recently, the AEW Vice President tried to file a trademark for the name of his late
father Dusty Rhodes, but this filing has been rejected for a series of reasons.
Speaking to Pro Wrestling Sheet, Cody's legal team explained that the United States
Patent Office issued a refusal, as the Dusty Rhodes name is too similar to Dustin
Rhodes, the trademarked name owned by Cody's brother and current AEW wrestler.
Despite the setback, Cody's legal team said that they expect the matter to be resolved
quickly, and expect Cody to have full control of his father's name in the not so distant future.
Though Cody doesn't outright own his father's name, he has revealed that he gave the
WWE permission to use Dusty's name for their upcoming 2020 Dusty Rhodes Tag
Team Classic, and details of the tournament will be announced on next week's edition of NXT.
More AEW news now as after the company opted not to host a show this past
Wednesday on Christmas Day, the company has had to change a title match for the
New Years Day show.
Originally, Kris Stadtlander was slated to compete for the AEW Women's
Championship against the Champion Riho, but the company revealed on Twitter that
Stadtlander won't be able to appear due to prior commitments.
This doesn't mean that Riho will have the night off though, as instead she will defend
her title against Britt Baker, Hikaru Shida and Nyla Rose: the latter of whom she
defeated to become the first AEW Women's Champion on the pilot episode of Dynamite.
In a follow up Tweet, the company confirmed that Stadtlander will get the title
opportunity she earned, though this match will take place on the January 8th edition
of Dynamite in Sothaven Missouri, against whoever is the AEW Women's Champion at the time.
From one Women's Championship to another now, as the WWE SmackDown
Women's Championship has had plenty of historic moments since being launched just
over three years ago.
Yesterday though, reigning Smack Down Women's Champion Bayley made history as
she became the longest reigning SmackDown Women's Champion ever, having a
combined 217 days with the title across two reigns.
Bayley's first reign started this year at Money in the Bank when she cashed in the
coveted briefcase she had won earlier that night, to win the gold from new-Champion
Charlotte Flair.
After losing the gold back to the Queen at the Hell in a Cell Pay Per View, Bayley won
the title back just five days later, and has now replaced Becky Lynch's three reigns with
the gold to become the longest reigning champion.
Being SmackDown Women's Champion has also caused huge changes in Bayley, who
won the title as a face but is not one of WWE's most loathed heels, and with no end to
her title reign in sight, expect the longest reigning SmackDown Women's Champion to
keep adding days to her record.
We're heading back over to RAW now, as after what happened on the latest episode
of the red brand, it looks like Samoa Joe's time at the commentary desk has come to an end.
This week, the Samoan Submission Machne was attacked by the AOP and Seth Rollins
after Joe refused to move from the commentary desk, as he has been calling the
action with Jerry Lawler and Vic Joseph due to being unable to compete with a broken thumb.
In this week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer said that the WWE will
have a new announcer to take over from Joe as soon as this Monday, but fans
shouldn't expect Dio Maddin to fill the chair.
Before Joe took his talents to the commentary desk, Maddin worked on the RAW
commentary team with the King and Joseph, but was reportedly pulled due to Vince
McMahon and Kevin Dunn not being fans of his commentary.
This all worked out in the end, as Maddin still had aspirations to continue his wrestling
career, and was assaulted by Brock Lesnar on the November 4th edition of RAW to
give an on-screen reason for Maddin to return to the ring.
Whoever replaces Joe will have a tall task ahead of them, as Joe's commentary has
received high praise from fans, and for now, fans will just have to wait to see, or
should that be hear, who replaces the former US Champion.
Back to AEW now, and whilst the company has done a lot of things similar to WWE in
the year that they have existed, that doesn't mean the company will be a carbon copy
of the Vince McMahon led promotion.
Earlier this week, Wrestle Votes claimed that the new promotion is looking to add an
authority figure to their weekly Dynamite show, and according to them, this future
commissioner is expected to be Tazz.
The former ECW World Champion is scheduled to be on next week's episode of
Dynamite, and dad recently finish his job with CBS Radio, but according to Dave
Meltzer, this doesn't mean that Tazz will be the new commissioner.
In a tweet of his own, the Wrestling Observer Analyst said that Tazz will serve on
Dynamite as an announcer, and went on to say that the company has no plans for a TV
authority figure.
Authority figures in wrestling such as General Managers and commissioners have been
a staple of wrestling for decades, but it does seem like WWE has tried to retire the
concept in recent months.
With that in mind, there's no reason to believe that AEW would bring in an authority
figure of their own, and hopefully fans will get a better understanding of what's going
on next week, when the Human Suplex Machine appears.
As AEW opted not to do a Christmas Day edition of Dynamite, there was no
competition in the Monday Night Wars, but that didn't stop the pre-taped edition of
NXT from doing well.
This past Wednesday, the Gold brand drew an average 831,000 viewers over their two
hours, and given that they aired this show during one of the weakest nights for
television, and the show was taped, the WWE should be very happy with that number.
Next week's New Year's day edition of NXT will be the Year End awards episode of
NXT, meaning that there will be little to no wrestling on the show, so fans will have to
wait until both NXT and Dynamite are back to normal on January 8th, to see which
show dominates the Wednesday Night Wars.
And finally today we're ending with the results from Friday Night SmackDown, as the
show had plenty more on offer than the triple threat number one contenders match
for the Universal title.
After Roman Reigns sent King Corbin running to kick off the show, it was time for
some six-man tag team action, as the New Day and Braun Strowman defeated
Shinsuke Nakamura, Cesaro and Sami Zayn.
After the Monster Among Men got the pin over the Intercontinental Champion,
Strowman's night wasn't over just yet, as after some encouragement by Kofi and Big E,
the Monster showed off his best dance moves, and whilst Nakamura got those hands,
the fans in Detroit got those hips!
In Women's Division action, Carmella looked to continue her hot streak after pinning
Sonya Deville last week, as she went one on one with Deville's tag team partner
Mandy Rose.
After the Golden Goddess chose not to be in Deville's corner last week, Rose also went
into this match on her own, and after a stern slap and kick straight to the dome,
Carmella got her second straight victory against Fire and Desire.
After King Corbin returned to the arena and agreed to the Triple Threat match, it was
time for SmackDown's second women's segment, as Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross hosted
their talk-show A Moment of Bliss with special guest Lacey Evans.
The Sassy Southern Belle didn't mince her words when she said she would not stand
for Sasha Banks recent taunting of Evans' daughter Summer, and after recruiting Dana
Brooke to her side, marched to the ring for an impromptu Tag Team match against
Banks and Bayley.
Despite an impressive showing by Evans and Brooke, both of whom have had their
issues with the Boss and Hug connection, it was Banks and Bayley who reigned
supreme, with the Boss locking in the Banks Statement to get the submission victory
over the Sassy Southern Belle.
As we discussed, the main event saw Daniel Bryan defeat both The Miz and King
Corbin to earn one more shot at the Fiend, but post-match, Bray Wyatt decided to
make his presence known.
Appearing on the titan tron from the Firefly Fun House, the Universal Champion asked
Bryan if he was willing to do whatever it takes to capture the Universal Title and “let him in.”
Unsurprisingly, Bryan's answer was a resounding Yes! chant, as the Eco Warrior has
plenty of confidence going into the Universal title match on January 26th.