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Hopefully it’s a happy one. This last year has been quite a ride for WWE. From all of the awesome wrestling that was to be seen to some of the horrible depths that they reached, the company hit almost every point on the scale with Monday Night Raw tending to be on the lower and SmackDown Live on the higher side. There’s one show to go and it’s something that won’t be seen until next year.
WWE taped the first SmackDown Live of 2019 on Saturday night at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The show will take place this coming Tuesday on January 1, 2019. This week’s episode will feature more build towards the Royal Rumble, which will take place at the end of January. Here are the results of this week’s show, courtesy of PWinsider.com by way of 411mania.com:
* The New Day kick off the show with their New Year’s Celebration. Big E, Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston all cut promos and announce their spots in the Royal Rumble match.
* Samoa Joe defeated Jeff Hardy by submission. ..

NXT officials partnering Zelina Vega alongside Andrade “Cien” Almas changed his entire career with the company. A few months later, Almas was the NXT Champion and it was not long before the duo were on SmackDown Live. Since their debut, they’ve continued to gain momentum as a duo and Almas’ stock continues to rise with every great match.
Alongside him, Zelina Vega is establishing herself as a strong personality and performer in the women’s division. She has not received a strong push on WWE programming yet, but it’s only a matter of time before Vega makes an impact in the division. It’s just going to be some time before she’s given a chance in the ring because of some health issues.
Related: What Is The Relationship Between Andrade Cien Almas And Zelina Vega? According to a report from PWInsider, Zelina Vega has been dealing with a concussion problem since WWE Evolution. She took a rough bump during the Battle Royal after a botch from Nia Jax forced her to miss some time. It’s been a..

Last year, WWE officials used Jinder Mahal as the centerpiece for the company to make a major push into the Indian market. Out of nowhere, Mahal won the WWE Title and he received a strong push on SmackDown Live until it was decided AJ Styles was a stronger choice to lead the brand. As a result, Jinder Mahal was thrust back into WWE’s midcard.
After the extremely lackluster feud against Roman Reigns, Mahal has been stuck in feud after feud without much momentum. Most recently, he has been featured in Christmas segments with Heath Slater. There’s nothing wrong with this role, but for someone who was the WWE Champion just a year ago, that’s a massive step down with the company.
Related: WWE Officials Blame Jinder Mahal For Lackluster Roman Reigns Feud According to a report from RingSideNews, Jinder Mahal has been looking injured for a while. The injury doesn’t seem to be bad enough to put him on the shelf. However, a lot of people have noticed his work in the ring is suffering as a resu..

Since her main roster debut, Ember Moon hasn’t been featured in a prominent role or a real feud on Monday Night Raw. She has been a strong babyface considering her limited role on WWE programming. However, the WWE Universe is wondering why the powers that be are waiting for when it comes to pushing Ember Moon to the next level on Raw.
According to a recent report from PWInsider Elite, the reason why Moon remains in the midcard on Raw is that WWE officials don’t want her to get buried by Ronda Rousey. In 2018, Rousey ran roughshod over the Raw Women’s roster and the last thing the powers that be want to do is force her to job out to Rousey to make her look like everyone else.
Related: Major Update Regarding Ember Moon’s Push on Monday Night Raw WWE officials believe she’s better off building her name with the WWE Universe until the time is right for her push. With WrestleMania season approaching, it’s only going to be a few more months before the opportunity arises for Ember to climb ..

Hello again. Wrestlers come and go from companies all the time. They might be fired, they might go to work somewhere else, or they might be leaving wrestling all together. It’s almost always interesting when they go, but it’s even more interesting when they come back. WWE knows how to handle these very well and in this case, that’s what they’re looking back at from this year.
Welcome back. Check out the best returns of 2018:
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WWE has posted a new video looking at the Top Ten Greatest Superstar Returns Of 2018. The video is pretty self explanatory, with a collection of people coming back to either WWE or NXT in one way or another. The countdown includes a variety of returns, both in WWE and NXT, as well as a special limited series. Some of these returns were only for a few weeks while others were years in the making.
Opinion: These are often some of the coolest things that you’re going to get out of a WWE show, with the Royal Rumble and the ..

So are you in? Despite not really being around much anymore, John Cena is the kind of superstar who can show up and instantly make an impact. That’s one of the most valuable things that you can have in a wrestler and Cena does it as well as almost anyone in history. With the new year coming we’re likely to see more of Cena, but what about one of the biggest matches of the year?
Earlier this week, it was announced that Cena would be appearing on the first Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live of the year 2019. This brought up the question of Cena’s status for next month’s Royal Rumble pay per view and event. According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, Cena will likely not be in the Royal Rumble as he is starting a move on January 20, a week before the Royal Rumble. At the moment, there is no word on Cena being at WrestleMania 35 in April.
Maybe we can do something like this again. Check out Cena’s incredible Royal Rumble return nearly eleven years ago:
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The ghost of storylines yet to come? Last week on Monday Night Raw, Vince McMahon and the rest of his family changed the course of the company by way of taking the reins and deciding where things would be heading from now on. In this case, that means we’ll be seeing more of the McMahons in the near and far future. As it turns out, that included this week’s SmackDown Live, which featured quite the surprising ending.
This week on SmackDown Live, McMahon met with AJ Styles, and asked who he was. The segment saw McMahon question why Styles wasn’t wrestling in the show if it was supposed to be the House That AJ Styles Built. McMahon then slapped Styles, who attacked him in response with agents breaking it up. With Styles pulled away, McMahon smiled to end the show.
Well, I think you know what we’re doing now. Check out the segment right here:
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Opinion: This didn’t feel like a heel turn and it doesn’t need to be. Instead, this came off like McMah..

You better stretch the calendar. Earlier this year, there was no one hotter in WWE than Rusev. He’s one of the biggest surprises in WWE as he should have been little more than a muscular evil foreigner, but he’s turned out to be incredibly charismatic, which has put him over with the fans. That has turned him into something almost no one expected with popularity to match. As it turns out, that can mean something very good.
This week on SmackDown Live, Rusev defeated Shinsuke Nakamura to win the United States Title for the third time in his career. Rusev was announced as the #1 contender last week after requesting a title shot for weeks. This is first title reign since 2016 and he has held the title for about nine and a half months combined over his first three reigns. There is no word on when he will be defending the title first.
Well we have to look at it. Here’s how Rusev won the title:
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Opinion: Good for him. A lot of people, myself incl..

When generations collide. Back in the late 1980s, almost no one was as over as the Road Warriors. Later known as the Legion of Doom, Hawk and Animal were two of the most imposing in and at times downright scary people you would ever see in wrestling. After all, there’s a reason the huge pops are known as Road Warrior pops. However, some things have changed since their day and Animal doesn’t quite seem to agree.
On a recent episode of his What A Rush podcast, Animal was talking about the Women’s Revolution and Becky Lynch in particular. The discussion began focusing on Lynch’s The Man moniker and Animal wasn’t exactly a fan. Animal talked about how unrealistic the gimmick was and how wrestling needs to be as realistic as possible. Lynch quickly replied on Twitter and didn’t seem to agree. Here are Animal’s comments (with transcription courtesy of stillrealtous.com), followed by Lynch’s reply:
“I would let her back off of ‘The Man’ thing and let her just be a pure white meat babyface t..

The first of a lot. We’re about a month away from the 2019 Royal Rumble and that means things are about to get better in a hurry. One of the most entertaining times in wrestling is hearing who is going to fill out the thirty person fields in the men’s and women’s Royal Rumble matches. As this year comes to a close, we now have the first name announced for one of the matches.
This week on Monday Night Raw, Drew McIntyre announced that he would be the first person entering the men’s Royal Rumble match. McIntyre then went on to lose in a triple threat match to Finn Balor, though Dolph Ziggler was the one taking the fall. This won’t be McIntyre’s first appearance in the Royal Rumble, as he participated in the 2010, 2011 and 2013 editions before his hiatus from the company.
McIntyre had a busy night. Here’s what he was up to on Christmas Eve:
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Opinion: This isn’t a big surprise as you had to know McIntyre was going to get a major role in the mat..

A new year with an old friend. It’s been a long time since John Cena was a regular star on WWE TV. He’ll show up every now and then, but for all intent and purpose, he’s a Hollywood actor now. That’s very good for him, but can leave some wrestling fans lacking a little bit. The good thing though is that he’ll pop in every now and then, and as it turns out that’s going to be happening a little sooner rather than later.
This week on Monday Night Raw, Vince McMahon, dressed as Santa Claus, made a few announcements, including that Cena would be back on Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live for the New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day shows. There is no word on what Cena will be doing or if he’ll be in a match. Cena’s last appearance with the company was at Super Show-Down in October.
That’s quite the costume. Check out the Boss’ announcement:
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Opinion: I know this is just a short term return and Cena isn’t likely to do much other than talk to someone..