The Royal Rumble announcement plans for WWE Backstage’s preview special have been modified.
It was announced on tonight’s SmackDown that the preview special will now reveal the wrestlers who will be entering the men’s Royal Rumble match at numbers one and two. There will also be a WWE Backstage exclusive match between Natalya and Tamina airing on the preview special, with the winner entering the women’s Royal Rumble match last at number 30.
The preview special had originally been set to reveal the first and second entrants for the women’s Royal Rumble match and the 30th entrant for the men’s Royal Rumble match.
The WWE Backstage Royal Rumble preview special is airing on FS1 at 8 p.m. Eastern time this Saturday night. It’s being hosted by Renee Paquette, Booker T, and Paige and will also feature “exclusive Fox guests and interviews.”
This will be the first episode of WWE Backstage since weekly production of the show was ended in June of last year. It was noted at the time that the show could return for special episodes surrounding major WWE events.
The WWE Backstage preview special will also re-air on FS1 at midnight Eastern time and at 5 p.m. Eastern this Sunday, which is the day of the Royal Rumble.
New entrants have been added to this year’s Royal Rumble matches.
On Friday’s episode of SmackDown, it was announced that Intercontinental Champion Big E, Shinsuke Nakamura, Sami Zayn, and SmackDown Tag Team Champion Dolph Ziggler will be taking part in this year’s men’s Royal Rumble match. Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan, and Tamina were also added to the list of entrants for the women’s Royal Rumble match.
The men’s Royal Rumble match now has 13 announced entrants. There have been 12 entrants announced for the women’s Royal Rumble match.
The Royal Rumble is taking place on Sunday, January 31. Here’s the updated list of entrants for the men’s and women’s Royal Rumble matches:
The new rosters for Raw and SmackDown continued to take shape after the WWE Draft ended last night.
WWE announced overnight that Erik of The Viking Raiders has signed with Raw as a free agent, while Tamina, Billie Kay, and Zelina Vega have signed with SmackDown. Andrade and Mickie James are now the only wrestlers who were listed in the WWE Draft pools but haven’t been assigned to either brand yet.
Erik and Tamina are staying on the same brands they were on prior to the draft. Kay and Vega are moving from Raw to SmackDown.
Ivar of The Viking Raiders, who is out of action after undergoing neck surgery last month, wasn’t listed as eligible to be drafted. Erik also underwent surgery earlier this month to have “some hardware removed” from his arm. Erik wrote that he had been putting off the surgery for a very long time and had been working around and through the pain and limitations caused by a surgical screw protruding into his triceps.
Kay and Peyton Royce are now on opposite brands. Royce & Kay lost a match to Ruby Riott & Liv Morgan in August where the stipulations were that the winning team would get a Women’s Tag Team title shot and the losing team couldn’t team together anymore.
Angel Garza defeated Andrade on Raw last night in a match where Vega was on commentary. “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt and Alexa Bliss then laid out Andrade and Vega with stereo Sister Abigails.
Here are the updated rosters for Raw and SmackDown:
Raw —
WWE Champion Drew McIntyre
Raw Women’s Champion Asuka
The Hurt Business (MVP, United States Champion Bobby Lashley, Shelton Benjamin & Cedric Alexander)
AJ Styles
Naomi
Women’s Tag Team Champions Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax
Ricochet
Mandy Rose
The Miz & John Morrison
Raw Tag Team Champions Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods
Two matches, along with a pair of segments, have been announced for next week’s SmackDown.
It was announced on tonight’s SmackDown that Daniel Bryan and Drew Gulak will find a mystery partner to take on the team of Baron Corbin, Shinsuke Nakamura and Cesaro next week in a six-man tag team match. This was set after Cesaro and Nakamura aided Corbin in attacking Daniel Bryan tonight.
Tamina and Lacey Evans will also team up next week to take on best friends Sasha Banks and Bayley. This follows an altercation tonight that involved Bayley and Banks attacking Tamina backstage. Evans got involved to even the odds, leading to officials breaking up the fight.
A face-to-face meeting between Braun Strowman and Bray Wyatt has also been set. Wyatt confronted Strowman tonight by reading a “story” that alluded to Strowman’s previous association with the Wyatt family.
Additionally, Jeff Hardy will make his return on SmackDown. Recent weeks on SmackDown has focused on Jeff Hardy’s road to redemption, something that Sheamus has taken offense to in recent weeks. After the conclusion of tonight’s video package, Sheamus made it clear to the announcers that he would be around next week as well.
The SmackDown Women’s Championship will be on the line at Money in the Bank next month.
WWE has announced that Bayley will defend her SmackDown Women’s title against Tamina at the pay-per-view. Tamina getting the title shot was a stipulation of her defeating Sasha Banks on SmackDown tonight.
In storyline, Bayley volunteered Banks for the match against Tamina and Banks didn’t appear to be happy about it last week. Bayley distracted Tamina during the match and went to attack her with a shoe, but Lacey Evans ran down and laid Bayley out. Tamina pinned Banks after hitting a superkick.
Banks and Evans will face off on SmackDown next Friday, with the winner qualifying for the women’s Money in the Bank ladder match. The men’s and women’s ladder matches are both taking place at WWE headquarters.
Money in the Bank is set for Sunday, May 10. Here’s the updated card for the PPV:
Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match (Shayna Baszler, Asuka, Nia Jax, and Dana Brooke have qualified thus far)
Men’s Money in the Bank ladder match (Daniel Bryan is the first wrestler to qualify)
Universal Champion Braun Strowman defending against Bray Wyatt
SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley defending against Tamina
The SmackDown Tag Team titles will be on the line in another one-on-one-on-one match next week.
WWE has announced that The Miz will defend the SmackDown Tag Team titles against Big E and Jey Uso in a triple threat match next Friday. Those are the three wrestlers who didn’t represent their teams in the triple threat ladder match for the SmackDown Tag Team titles at WrestleMania 36.
John Morrison faced Kofi Kingston and Jimmy Uso in the WrestleMania ladder match after Miz was flagged from performing due to being sick. The storyline explanation for the match being changed was that Miz was injured in a brawl on SmackDown last week.
Miz vs. Big E vs. Jey Uso was announced for next Friday during a segment where The Usos and New Day interrupted Miz and Morrison on SmackDown tonight.
In another match with title implications, Tamina will face Sasha Banks on next Friday’s SmackDown. If Tamina wins, she’ll become the number one contender to Bayley’s SmackDown Women’s Championship.
Bayley retained her title against Lacey Evans, Banks, Naomi, and Tamina in a fatal five-way elimination match at WrestleMania. On SmackDown tonight, Tamina said it took everyone else in the match to eliminate her and challenged Bayley to a one-on-one title match. Bayley said she’d have to defeat Banks first, and the storyline was that Banks didn’t look happy about Bayley volunteering her for the match.
Daniel Bryan vs. Cesaro and Naomi vs. Dana Brooke in Money in the Bank qualifying matches will also take place on SmackDown next week. Plus, there will be a segment where Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose will attempt to clear the air and settle the issues between them.
There will be multiple challengers for Bayley’s SmackDown Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 36.
On tonight’s SmackDown, it was confirmed that Bayley will defend her title in a six-pack challenge elimination match at WrestleMania. Lacey Evans, Dana Brooke, Tamina, Naomi, and Sasha Banks will be Bayley’s challengers.
Paige appeared via Skype on SmackDown tonight and announced the match. Paige confronting Bayley had been set for last week’s SmackDown, but it was noted that Paige couldn’t make that show due to travel issues.
Banks was the last of Bayley’s opponents to be revealed by Paige. The story appeared to be that Banks initially wasn’t happy about Bayley having to defend her title in the match but then looked pleased to be one of her challengers.
Carmella isn’t one of the challengers in the six-pack elimination match.
WrestleMania 36 is a two-night event airing on the WWE Network on Saturday, April 4 and Sunday, April 5. WWE hasn’t announced which matches will be airing on which night. The show “will not only take place at WWE’s training facility but will include multiple locations over two nights.”
The Big Takeaway: EC3 won this week, beating No Way Jose in a fairly dull match. Sarah Logan then made her Main Event debut, losing in a solid — but short — tag team bout with Tamina against Dana Brooke & Natalya.
**********
EC3 defeated No Way Jose (5:30)
No Way Jose was still sporting his new look. EC3 made a deal of telling the conga line to get lost before the match while he swaggered into the ring.
EC3 grabbed a rare win here. The match was really nothing much to speak of. Jose lacks that sleekness that the more accomplished workers have on the main roster and they were kind of clunky in the last few minutes.
Jose went up to the top rope but was toppled by EC3, who then put him on his shoulders. He hit Jose with a neckbreaker before finishing him with the One Percenter.
EC3 and Jose were both entrants into the battle royal on Friday at Super ShowDown, but this win for EC3 broke up a streak of five straight losses.
Dana Brooke & Natalya defeated Sarah Logan & Tamina (3:16)
It was back in late January that Sarah Logan last got a win — and it was against the same team of Dana Brooke & Natalya that defeated her here. That night, she had tagged with Liv Morgan and things looked very different for Logan.
Logan last appeared on The Shield’s Final Chapter in April and has largely been a bit-part player this year. But she was good here and worked well together with Natalya when they got a little ring time. Brooke also looked to have really improved.
Brooke and Natalya cut the ring in half working over Logan. They hit stereo baseball slides on her on the outside before we went to a break. Logan had Natalya in a modified Calf Crusher when we returned and then they filled the ring.
Natalya took out Logan with a discuss clothesline and then they set up Tamina for their finisher, which was Brooke coming off Natalya’s shoulders with a beautiful swanton. This was pretty decent, but then when Natalya is involved, it often is.
Batista will officially be appearing on Monday’s go-home episode of Raw in his hometown of Washington D.C.
WWE has announced that Batista will appear on the show for a segment where he responds to Triple H ahead of their no holds barred match at WrestleMania. Batista didn’t appear on this past Monday’s Raw, but their storyline continued with Triple H reading a letter from Batista’s attorney. It said Batista wouldn’t compete at WrestleMania unless Triple H’s career was on the line.
Triple H cut a promo where he agreed to the stipulation and accused Batista of trying to quit again with the letter.
An eight-woman tag match has also been announced for Monday’s go-home show. It will feature all of the participants in WrestleMania 35’s fatal four-way Women’s Tag Team title match, with Sasha Banks, Bayley, Beth Phoenix & Natalya teaming against Nia Jax, Tamina, Peyton Royce & Billie Kay on Raw.
This will be the first time Phoenix has wrestled on Raw since 2012.
The Capital One Arena is hosting Monday’s Raw. Brock Lesnar will appear on the episode, Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair will face The Riott Squad (Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan) in a six-woman tag match, and Kurt Angle’s farewell tour will continue with a match against Rey Mysterio.
There’s a stipulation where Rousey, Lynch, or Charlotte will lose their spot in the WrestleMania main event if they betray their team against The Riott Squad.
Four teams will be in the Women’s Tag Team title match at WrestleMania 35.
WWE has announced that Sasha Banks & Bayley will defend their titles against Beth Phoenix & Natalya, Nia Jax & Tamina, and Peyton Royce & Billie Kay in a fatal four-way match at WrestleMania.
Banks faced Natalya on this week’s Raw, with Jax & Tamina causing a disqualification. Phoenix hit the Glam Slam on Tamina after the match and put her foot on Banks’ title belt when she was trying to take it out of the ring. Banks & Bayley later cut a promo where they vowed to take on all of the teams coming for them at WrestleMania.
On last week’s SmackDown, Royce & Kay defeated Banks & Bayley in a non-title match.
Banks & Bayley became WWE’s first Women’s Tag Team Champions of this era at February’s Elimination Chamber pay-per-view.
MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey is the host of this year’s WrestleMania. The show will take place on April 7. Here’s what’s been announced thus far:
Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey defending against Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair in a triple threat match
Universal Champion Brock Lesnar defending against Seth Rollins
Triple H vs. Batista in a no holds barred match (Triple H’s career is on the line as a stipulation of the match)
Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre
Shane McMahon vs. The Miz
AJ Styles vs. Randy Orton
United States Champion Samoa Joe defending against Rey Mysterio
Kurt Angle vs. Baron Corbin (Angle’s farewell match)
Women’s Tag Team Champions Sasha Banks & Bayley defending against Beth Phoenix & Natalya, Nia Jax & Tamina, and Peyton Royce & Billie Kay in a fatal four-way match
Intercontinental Champion Bobby Lashley defending against Finn Balor
Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal (Braun Strowman and Saturday Night Live’s Colin Jost & Michael Che have been announced as entrants)
WWE Cruiserweight Champion Buddy Murphy defending against Tony Nese
WWE has announced Sasha Banks & Bayley’s first televised Women’s Tag Team title defense.
Banks & Bayley will defend their titles against Nia Jax & Tamina at Fastlane. That was announced during tonight’s Raw, which also featured Bayley defeating Jax in a singles match.
Jax and Tamina interrupted Banks and Bayley in an angle on last week’s Raw, but Banks and Bayley fought them off before they could get into the ring.
Banks & Bayley became WWE’s first Women’s Tag Team Champions of this era at Elimination Chamber on February 17. They made their first title defense against The Riott Squad at Raw’s house show in Jonesboro, Arkansas this past Friday night.
WWE has announced that the Women’s Tag Team titles will be defended on Raw, SmackDown, and in NXT.
Fastlane is taking place at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio on March 10. Kofi Kingston challenging for Daniel Bryan’s WWE Championship is set for the pay-per-view, along with Shane McMahon & The Miz getting their rematch for The Usos’ SmackDown Tag Team titles.
The first two teams have been confirmed for next month’s Women’s Tag Team Championship Elimination Chamber match.
Nia Jax & Tamina and Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan won Elimination Chamber qualifying matches on tonight’s episode of Raw. Jax & Tamina defeated Alexa Bliss & Mickie James, while Morgan & Logan defeated Natalya & Dana Brooke.
The Elimination Chamber match to crown WWE’s Women’s Tag Team Champions will include three teams from Raw and three teams from SmackDown. The final Raw team for the match will be confirmed next Monday when Sasha Banks & Bayley face Alicia Fox & Nikki Cross in a qualifier.
The SmackDown teams for the match have yet to be revealed.
WWE officially announced the Women’s Tag Team titles on last month’s Christmas Eve edition of Raw. They were then unveiled on the January 14 episode of the show.
The Toyota Center in Houston, Texas will host Elimination Chamber 2019 on February 17.
WWE has announced that Intercontinental Champion Dean Ambrose will defend his title against Seth Rollins and Bobby Lashley in a triple threat match on Monday’s show, which is taking place at the FedExForum in Memphis, Tennessee. Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey will also team with her Royal Rumble challenger, with Rousey & Sasha Banks set to face Nia Jax & Tamina on the episode.
Ambrose retained against Rollins in a falls count anywhere match in the main event of this week’s Raw. Lashley attacking Rollins led to Ambrose winning. In a post-match angle, Lashley put Rollins through a table.
Rollins and Lashley’s feud also included them brawling to start this Monday’s Raw and Rollins, John Cena & Finn Balor then defeating Lashley, Ambrose & Drew McIntyre.
Banks defeated Jax in a number one contender’s match this week and will challenge for Rousey’s Raw Women’s Championship at the Royal Rumble on January 27. Banks defeated Jax after their number one contender’s match was set up during Rousey’s appearance on Alexa Bliss’ “Moment of Bliss” talk show segment.
McIntyre won with a Claymore Kick after an eye rake. He was very over and got a very good reaction. McIntyre cut a promo in English telling the fans they probably didn’t understand any of what he was saying. He told them they smelled and asked Dasha Fuentes to translate all of it, which made the crowd turn on him. Ziggler came out to a good reaction and got the crowd fully behind him.
There were lots of soccer chants, mostly directed at the heels, throughout the show, and lots of “ole, ole” chants for the mid-to-uppercard babyfaces.
This was a good back and forth match that went about 10 minutes and got a “This is awesome” chant.
– Natalya came out to a decent reaction. She cut a promo saying she loved the crowd and called out The Riott Squad who “disrespecto mi familia.” The Riott Squad came out to attack her and brought out a table to promote Natalya and Riott’s upcoming tables match at TLC. That got a “we want tables” chant from the crowd.
Bayley and Ember Moon ran in for the save, then Dana Brooke and Mickie James attacked them from behind — but the faces fought them off. The Riott Squad then tried to put Natalya through the table, but Bayley and Moon knocked them out of the ring and Natalya powerbombed Liv Morgan through the table.
The faces then posed with the broken table and the Argentinian flag, which the crowd liked.
– WWE Cruiserweight Champion Buddy Murphy defeated Gran Metalik to retain his title
Murphy retained with Murphy’s Law. Metalik came out to a next to nothing reaction, while Murphy got a decent reaction and a few chants at the start of the match. Murphy stalled for about three minutes at the beginning and told the crowd to shush multiple times to lots of heat.
Metalik was able to get over with his high flying and even got a “This is awesome/lucha” chant. This was a very good match that also went about 10 minutes.
After the match, Andrade “Cien” Almas came out with Zelina Vega to a good reaction and attacked Metalik on his way to the ring. Almas then cut a promo in Spanish telling the crowd he wasn’t happy to be here and that he was “El Idolo” to lots of boos.
– Rey Mysterio defeated Andrade “Cien” Almas (w/ Zelina Vega)
Mysterio won after a 619 and a frog splash. He was super over when he came out and got probably the biggest reaction of the night. He posed like Eddie Guerrero and got an “Eddie” chant. Almas also did the Three Amigos at one point, which got somewhat of a good reaction.
This was a very good match, again going about 10 minutes, and was probably the match of the night considering all the action, storytelling, and crowd heat involved.
The crowd was totally behind Mysterio. He cut a promo in Spanish saying he was very happy when he learned that he was coming to Argentina for the first time when he was announced for the tour. He thanked the crowd and dedicated the match to Eddie Guerrero. Mysterio posed with the flag. The audience loved him.
– Elias defeated Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre & Bobby Lashley in a no DQ handicap match
Elias entered and was very over as well. He played the intro of a famous song by Argentine band Soda Stereo and the crowd sang along with all of it. He did mess up on some chords, though. He cut his usual promo until Corbin interrupted to announce a singles match between them. The crowd booed him and chanted “F*** you Corbin” and “pelado,” which means baldie in Spanish.
In the middle of Elias’ comeback, Corbin called for timeout and announced the match was now a three-on-one no DQ handicap match, with his partners being McIntyre and Lashley. Lashley came out without Lio Rush and got some “Lashley” chants. They mauled Elias and took a selfie with him while he was in a chinlock.
McIntyre then accidentally Claymore Kicked Corbin, and Ziggler and Apollo Crews came out for the save. They hit their finishers on Corbin — and Elias pinned him after a diving elbow. This match was short and sweet thankfully.
– No Way Jose, Titus O’Neil, Heath Slater & Apollo Crews defeated The Revival, Rhyno & Jinder Mahal (w/ Sunil Singh)
Rhyno was on the heel side here. He got lots of “ECW” chants throughout the match and beat on Slater without acknowledging anything about Monday’s Raw. Slater wasn’t working as a referee either.
This was the comedy match. The fans liked Jose’s dancing, O’Neil’s barking, and Slater’s goofing around, and chanted “NXT” lightly at The Revival. Crews got the pin for his team after a crossbody.
– Apollo Crews defeated Curt Hawkins
Hawkins came out after the eight-man tag and issued a challenge to Crews, who then proceeded to beat him with a military press and a standing moonsault in less than a minute. The crowd liked Crews’ athleticism even though they didn’t react to him at all when he was tagged in during the tag match. The faces danced in the ring after.
– Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey defeated Nia Jax (w/ Tamina) by DQ
Jax got booed as much as Corbin, and the crowd chanted for Becky Lynch. Rousey got a very good reaction and was very over, although she did get some “Becky” chants as well.
Rousey retained via DQ after Tamina attacked her four minutes into the match. The match was actually entertaining until then. After fighting them off, Rousey issued the match to be restarted as a handicap match.
– Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey defeated Nia Jax & Tamina in a handicap match
This wasn’t very good, as Rousey sold for most of the match and looked a bit green here and there. Tamina and Jax didn’t look good either. As clunky as it was, Rousey’s comeback got a good reaction. She tapped Tamina out with the armbar. She then celebrated with the fans. This was probably the worst match of the show.
Before the main event, the crowd chanted for Finn Balor. He was heavily advertised for this show but wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Fuentes then thanked the crowd.
– Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins defeated Dean Ambrose by DQ
Both got very loud reactions and were super over like Mysterio. There was a bit of comedy during the match involving the crowd. Rollins sold his left knee even though Ambrose barely worked on it.
At one point, Ambrose wanted to do the Shield fist bump to no avail, before Rollins accidentally pushed him onto the ref. Ambrose then hit a low blow for a slow two count, which caused him to bring out a chair and hit Rollins with it, causing the disqualification.
While Ambrose was setting up two chairs for a powerbomb, the crowd chanted again for Balor. Rollins was able to fend Ambrose off and hit him with a chair. He then cut a promo saying he wasn’t done with Ambrose and wanted to finish him off on Friday’s show. Rollins then swung around the belt along with the flag, which the crowd loved. He celebrated with the fans at ringside.
This was a good match with a lousy finish to hype up their match for the next night. It went about 15 minutes. Overall, this was a good, fun show and many people described it as better than last year’s.
Ronda Rousey is set to wrestle on Raw for the sixth time in her career.
WWE has announced Rousey & Natalya vs. Nia Jax & Tamina for this coming Monday’s Raw. The match comes in advance of Rousey defending her Raw Women’s Championship against Jax at TLC on December 16.
On this week’s episode, Jax cut a promo before Rousey interrupted her. Jax and Tamina were about to attack Rousey, Natalya came out to make the save, and The Riott Squad ambushed Natalya. Rousey fought The Riott Squad off and chased them away.
Rousey has wrestled in three singles matches and two tag matches on Raw. She retained her title against Mickie James on the post-Survivor Series edition of Raw, which was set up in storyline after Rousey issued a challenge for anyone to come out and face her.
Monday’s Raw is taking place at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
