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It’s like a championship! The year is wrapping up and a lot of people are likely rather pleased with that being the case. We are on the way to a new year but that also means that we are looking back on what took place over the course of the year. WWE has had a lot of problems in 2020 but it has also had some good news. Now WWE is rewarding those great things.
Back in 1986, WWE introduced the Slammy Awards as a tongue in cheek look back at the best parts of the year. This made for some interesting shows as the awards have been presented on and off over the years. The awards have not been around since 2015, but this is a unique year and that means it is time to bring them out of mothballs, which was done this week.
WWE presented the 2020 Slammy Awards on Wednesday with the ceremony airing on the Bump. There were seventeen awards presented during the show, with several guest presenters and R-Truth as the host. These awards only count for Monday Night Raw and SmackDown, as NXT has its ow..

You have to make it important. There are certain ways to make a wrestling match feel bigger and the easiest is to attach a gimmick. Just adding a special rule to a match makes things feel a lot bigger and there are several choices available. NXT is trying one of the newer gimmicks that they have to pick from and this time around it could be something special.
NXT is in a unique place as it has its own mini arena at the moment, meaning that it can set up all kinds of different things. It also helps that they are away from the main roster, meaning that they do not have all of the same restraints. As a result, one of the NXT wrestlers has a bit of a signature match, and now it is going to be coming back for a special event.
During this week’s NXT, Tommaso Ciampa attacked Timothy Thatcher to continue their feud. With Thatcher laid out, Ciampa said that he would see Thatcher in the Fight Pit, a match that Thatcher debuted earlier this year. The match was later made for New Year’s Evil on ..

Welcome back. With so many people on all of WWE’s rosters, it can be easy to see how someone can get lost in the shuffle. There are only so many spots available for any of them and it can become quite difficult to find something for everyone to do. WWE has a tendency to move them in and around from time to time and that can help a lot. Now we have someone back from Monday Night Raw on the NXT roster.
Retribution has been around for a few months now and their record is hit and miss. The team is starting to settle down but there were so many weeks where it felt like WWE was making this stuff up as they went. It helps a lot to have a set lineup, and while the team has only been around for a little while, the roster has already undergone a change. Now we know where one missing member is heading.
Here she is again. Check out a return on NXT:

During this week’s edition of NXT, Mercedes Martinez made her return to the show, attacking Women’s Champion Hikaru Shida. This comes after Martine..

It’s not me, it’s them. AEW has a lot of things going for it and one of the biggest seems to be its roster. With so many people around, AEW has a great selection to pick from and that means there are going to be some options with everything that they can do. Some of the roster is going to be more successful than others and one AEW star is not happy with the way they are being treated.
After a little over a year of existence, AEW Dynamite still has several names who were around at the beginning. Some of them have not been around the entire time though as several names have been spending more time on Dark, which tends to be the lower level show. Now one of those names was back on Dynamite, but he has already stepped away again.
During this week’s edition of AEW Dynamite, Shawn Spears sat down with Tony Schiavone for an interview. Spears talked about how he had a problem with the company’s management and knew that his issues were not because of his own actions. As a result, Spears said ..

Dynamite
Date: December 23, 2020
Location: Daily’s Place, Jacksonville, Florida
Commentators: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Excalibur
It’s the holiday season and for once this show isn’t going head to head with NXT thanks to an NBA game. I’m not sure what to expect from this week’s show but the Young Bucks are defending the Tag Team Titles. Other than that it’s time to build towards the next two weeks of New Year’s Smash. Let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Chris Jericho/Maxwell Jacob Friedman vs. Top Flight Jericho and Darius trade shots to the face to start with Jericho getting the better of things without much effort. Darius gets in a shot of his own though and it’s Dante coming in for a double kick to the chest. It’s off to Friedman, who gets dropkicked to the floor, meaning it’s a double slugout to put the Inner Circle in trouble.
Friedman is knocked outside again but Jericho clotheslines Dante down to take over. Back in and Jericho knees Dante in the ribs and hits a belly to back ..

This article features a spoiler, so proceed with caution. Earlier this week, WWE taped its edition of Smackdown that will air on Christmas night, Friday, December 25, 2020. The show featured a number of high-quality matches, including one that has implications down the road.
In the main event of the show, Big E defeated Sami Zayn to become the new Intercontinental Champion. This will be Big E’s second run with the championship. From our own Thomas Hall:
WWE Intercontinental Championship Match: Big E. defeated Sami Zayn to win the title. The lumberjacks were all Smackdown stars, plus Angel Garza. E. hit the Big Ending on Zayn to win the titles and got hoisted on the babyfaces’ shoulders to end the show.
This match was set up with a segment on last week’s Smackdown:

Editor’s Opinion:
This is fantastic news! Ever since Big E was drafted to Smackdown, we knew that a singles championship was in his future. Putting the Intercontinental Championship on him is a fantastic move and allow ..

NXT
Date: December 23, 2020
Location: Capitol Wrestling Center, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators: Beth Phoenix, Wade Barrett, Vic Joseph
It’s the Christmas show as we have A Very Gargano Christmas. That’s special enough, but this show is also not up against Dynamite due to an NBA game so it should be interesting to see what they have on their own. We do have a title match tonight as the Tag Team Titles are on the line in a street fight. Let’s get to it.
Tag Team Titles: Killian Dain/Drake Maverick vs. Oney Lorcan/Danny Burch Lorcan and Burch are defending in a street fight but Dain and Maverick jump them from behind. The champs are in some early trouble but Maverick gets taken down so Dain can be double teamed. We settle down to Dain in trouble in the corner but managing to backdrop Burch onto a pair of chairs.
Maverick comes in without a tag to trip Lorcan down and Dain slams him onto Lorcan for a bonus. Dain hits a running boot in the corner to Lorcan and takes him to the floor, ..

That might hold her back. Injuries are a terrible thing in wrestling, or in any athletic field for that matter. What seems like something that should only keep you out for a short time can keep you out of action for an indefinite stretch, as you never can tell how bad something is going to be. That is the case with a certain out of commission wrestler, who mighe be getting to come back if things are cleared up.
There are very few wrestlers who have hit the ground running like Ronda Rousey. After dominating the UFC, Rousey switched over to professional wrestling and continued her star run, going all the way to the main event of WrestleMania 35. Rousey was a star like no other and fans have been waiting for her return. It turns out that there is a big problem that has to be cleared up first.
In a new interview with Digital Spy, Rousey revealed that a vertebrae in her back is broken in half, making traveling for wrestling especially hard. Rousey called traveling with the injury the abso..

You can see the results in Morgan. Wrestling is a complicated world as the wrestlers are going out there on live television and having to do their thing every single week. It is the same thing as a mainstream sport, but wrestling has various other details included to make it even harder. That makes any improvement all the more impressive, and now a current WWE star is being praised for her efforts.
Women’s wrestling has come a long way in WWE over the last five plus years thanks to the rise of the Four Horsewomen. The four of them have done some great things for WWE and women’s wrestling as a whole, but they can’t do everything themselves. Someone is going to have to move up to start taking some of the pressure off of them and a certain wrestler has been doing just that.
According to Fightful Select’s Brass Ring series, Liv Morgan has received praise for her recent efforts in WWE. Morgan is described as a standout talent among the roster and someone who works harder than almost anyon..

He isn’t going to be around forever. There are certain wrestlers who are capable of capturing your imagination and almost never let it go. They excel at almost everything they do and offer one memorable performance after another. You don’t get to see this very often but when you see them, you know what you have. One such wrestler might not be around as often in the future.
Since his debut in WWE, it was clear that Daniel Bryan had some special tl him. It took some time for him to get going, but once he hit his stride, there was no stopping him, all the way to the top of the company at WrestleMania 30. Bryan has something to him that you can’t duplicate and WWE has capitalized on it rather well, but they might not be able to much longer.
It’s a pretty good reason. Check out what Bryan had to say about his future:
https://media.wrestlingrumors.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/23150048/Daniel-Bryan.mp4 Bryan was recently interviewed by BT Sports where he said that he would be switching f..

That’s a big win. There have been some cool moments in 2020 with some of them leading to bigger things down the line. One of the moments that might have flown under the radar at the time was the return of MVP, who came back to WWE at the Royal Rumble and has stuck around ever since. He has been made into a manager, but that does not mean he is completely done competing.
The Hurt Business has become one of the hottest things on Monday Night Raw in recent months and they have done it in style. The team has a great look and has dominated almost everyone they have come across so far. They have also won various titles, including the Raw Tag Team and United States Title, but that left MVP without some gold. However, that is no longer the case.
MVP sent out a tweet with a photo of the Hurt Business posing with their titles, while MVP was holding a gold medal. In the tweet, MVP revealed that he had won the gold medal in a recent IBJJF Masters Tournament Brazilian jiu-jitsu competition this p..

That’s a way to start a new year. On this past week’s edition of Monday Night Raw, WWE announced that it was hosting a Raw Legends Night in two weeks on January 4, 2021. This event will take place on the first Raw of the new year.
From WWE.com:
Get ready to ring in 2021 with one legendary night.
Some of your favorite WWE Legends and Hall of Famers will return for Raw Legends Night on the first Monday Night Raw of the new year. The guest list is already set to feature two of the greatest of all time: “The Immortal” Hulk Hogan and “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair.
Scheduled to appear are:
* Alicia Fox
* Beth Phoenix
* Big Show
* Boogeyman
* Booker T
* Candice Michelle
* Carlito
* Hillbilly Jim
* Hulk Hogan
* IRS (Irwin R. Schyster)
* Ivory
* Jacqueline
* Jeff Jarrett
* Jimmy Hart
* Kurt Angle
* Mark Henry
* Melina
* Michael “PS” Hayes
* Mickie James
* Ric Flair
* Sgt. Slaughter
* Tatanka
* Torrie Wilson
[h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the list]
We may see more of this type of stuff on the sh..