Bobby Roode will face Jinder Mahal on next week’s episode of SmackDown Live. The winner of that match will be crowned the new WWE United States Championship title. Roode defeated Mojo Rawley and Jinder Mahal defeated Xavier Woods to earn the opportunity at the championship.

Update: Daniel Bryan announced after Roode’s victory that the new United States Champion will be crowned on tonight’s show.

The #USTitle Tournament Finals transpiring tonight? Now, THAT calls for a YES! chant! #SDLive @REALBobbyRoode @WWEDanielBryan @JinderMahal @SinghBrosWWE pic.twitter.com/QCasK3MvAm

— WWE (@WWE) January 17, 2018

The post New WWE United States Champion To Be Determined on SmackDown Tonight appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

There has been a major shift in the betting odds for the winner of the men’s Royal Rumble match. Daniel Bryan, who previously had the worse odds to win the match, is now one of the favorites to win the match.

Bryan went from having a 66/1 chance to 9/1 or 10/1 odds of winning on several betting sites such as Skybet, Paddy Power and Betfair. The reason this shift is interesting has to do withDaniel Bryan not being cleared to wrestle and Bryan recently mentioning that if he’s not cleared by WrestleMania, that he’d be leaving the company.

As of this writing, we are unable to confirm that this shift has to do with any “smart money” bets. Historically, “smart money” bets come in just a few days before the event. We will keep you updated if we hear anything regarding Daniel competing at The Rumble.

The post Daniel Bryan Winning the Royal Rumble? appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

While speaking with Peter Rosenberg for Rosenberg Radio, Daniel Bryan talked about his retirement from WWE and revealed that he initially refused to retire from WWE when Vince McMahon asked him to do so.

“I get the call from Vince McMahon on a Saturday and I retire on a Monday in Seattle, Washington. And I got a call on a Saturday from Vince McMahon and said, ‘I would like you to retire Monday in Seattle. I just think it would be the best for you,’ that sort of thing. At first, I said, ‘I don’t want to do it.’ And then, I talked to Brie and called him back and I was like, ‘hey, if I’m going to have to retire, my mom can be there, my friends can be there, there can be this support system around me.’” Bryan noted, “I was very thankful that WWE gave me such a platform to retire on, but it was just a hard day.”

Bryan continued, “They asked me to do commentary for a thing that they did called the Cruiserweight Classic, which was on the WWE Network. And they asked me to do that, and I said, ‘yeah, that sounds great!’ It’s only 10 episodes and I only have too go do it a couple of times, and I get to help this young, independent talent because they were all unsigned talent at the time. And I thought it was great, but then, they told me, ‘you’re coming back as the General Manager.’ That wasn’t a question. That’s not an ask. And I was like, ‘argh, I don’t know if I want to do this.’”

“One of the hard things about what I do now is that the entrance is the best part. And then, I go out there and I talk. And, like, I’ve gotten better at this whole thing. I used to be someone who is very bad on the microphone. But now, I’ve developed into being more comfortable with it, finding myself with it, and that sort of thing. But it’s still not my passion. I’ve learned how to do it because that’s what my job required.”

You can listen to the full interview here.

The post Daniel Bryan Reveals He Initially Refused to Retire When Vince McMahon Asked Him To appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

In recent years the WWE has shown us that they love nothing more than a good old dose of nostalgia. Vince McMahon loves feeding the WWE universe some member berries and with Wrestlemania season, and the Raw 25th Anniversary show right around the corner, you can expect to see plenty of familiar faces back in the WWE in the coming weeks. While many of these faces will be just be showing up for one-offs and cheap pops, there will be a few who will be returning to the WWE for one last run. 2017 saw the returns of The Hardy Boyz, Shelton Benjamin and most notably, Kurt Angle. So just who will the WWE drag back for one last run in 2018? Hell, some of these faces might even be competing in this year’s Royal Rumble as surprise entrants. Let’s take a look at which superstars will be making a return to the company in 2018.

Batista

Batista recently mentioned on a podcast with JR that he has been talking to Vince McMahon and that he has expressed his desire to make a full time return to the company in the very near future. Batista’s last run in the company, back in 2014, is better off forgotten but this time, there is no Daniel Bryan standing in his way and you’d imagine that the company will have learned their mistakes from his last outing.

Batista has also publically expressed that if he were to return to the company, he would want to feud with his former tag-team partner Triple H, and while the fans may not be lining up to see these stars of yesteryear squaring up once again, it is a small price to pay for all the potential dream bouts Batista’s return could give us.

The post Predicting Five Superstars Who Will Return to the WWE in 2018 appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

WWE released a Photo Shoot interview with The Miz where he talked about several topics. One interesting note discussed on his appearance was when he talked about the events that led up to him roasting Daniel Bryan on an episode of Talking Smack and what transpired beforehand.

“There were a lot of emotions going on here. This wasn’t just to Daniel; this was like, to everyone. I unleashed a lot because Creative had nothing for me that day, and I went, ‘What?’ They were like ‘Yeah, you’re not on the show tonight.’ What do you mean I’m not on the show? I’m the Intercontinental Champion. They were like, ‘Yeah, but we’re introducing new titles, we’re introducing the new Tag Team Titles and the new SmackDown Women’s Title, and so, we don’t have room for the Intercontinental Championship.’ I was like ‘Wait a second, you’re introducing new titles, but what about the rich history of this title? The title that you guys just keep throwing back, and throwing back, and throwing back. Burying it, burying it, and burying it, and I’m sick [of it].’ I was so aggravated, I was so sick of it. And I was like, ‘Put me on Talking Smack tonight, I’m going to unleash havoc on everything and everyone.’”

You can check out The Miz’s full interview below:

In case you want to watch The Miz’s promo where he roasts Daniel Bryan again, you can check it out below:

The post The Miz Reveals Why He Roasted Daniel Bryan on Talking Smack appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

During the latest installment of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer discussed WWE advertising Daniel Bryan as a special guest referee for the SmackDown Live event on December 26th from the Allstate Arena in Chicago IL.

According the Meltzer, WWE is advertising Bryan because it’s been difficult as of late to push ticket sales in markets the feature double events. With RAW being taped at the same arena the night before, ticket sales may not be as strong the next night for SmackDown.

Meltzer believes that WWE could also be trying to capitalize on that market by placing Bryan as the special the guest referee with the idea that fans will “speculate” that Bryan will somehow be involved in some sort of shenanigans in the match. This will likely not happen because Bryan hasn’t been cleared and he’s considered “hands off” until he is (which may never happen under WWE’s watch).

The post Reason WWE Is Advertising Daniel Bryan As Special Guest Referee for Upcoming SmackDown appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

As seen on tonight’s episode of SmackDown Live, Daniel Bryan mocked Paul Heyman’s segment with Brock Lesnar from RAW this past week by portraying the “personal advocate” for AJ Styles. Also in the segment, AJ called out Brock Lesnar for losing his first UFC Fight by submission.

Paul Heyman took to Twitter to react to the segment with the following remarks:

. @WWE The role of an #Advocate is 2 spin 2 the @WWEUniverse, but speak brutal blunt truth 2your client. @AJStylesOrg has been sorely misled by @WWEDanielBryan. I continue 2 admire AJ's talent and still look forward 2 extolling his virtues after he's victimized by @BrockLesnar! https://t.co/yhFgJLjZj0

— Paul Heyman (@HeymanHustle) November 15, 2017

. @WWE Thank you @WWEDanielBryan for a most flattering imitation. I've never been compelled to imitate you, but why would I want to be YOU? Although, I must confess, I have nothing but respect for you. (and very little of that)! https://t.co/RKYqQlKuPN

— Paul Heyman (@HeymanHustle) November 15, 2017

The post Paul Heyman Reacts to Daniel Bryan Mocking Him on SmackDown appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Photo: Abdulmalik Ali

Daniel Bryan On Returning To The Ring

Daniel Bryan is talking more and more these days about returning to the ring. Busted Open Radio caught up with Bryan this past weekend, and he’s confident he will return to action…but probably not for WWE.

“I think there is an 85% chance that I will wrestle again, my wife says it’s 100%. That’s not the case, if I get a test that says I shouldn’t wrestle again, then I won’t wrestle again. So I think there is an 85% chance that I will wrestle again. I would say that there is about a 20% chance that WWE will clear me to wrestle. It’s a small chance, but it’s not an impossible chance.

“I know that they [WWE] want me to wrestle. There’s just a lot of stuff that has to happen for me to be able to wrestle. One of the things about an independent schedule is that it would be easier. But I think if WWE were to clear me, they’d give me a little bit of a lighter schedule. We’re not running as hard as we were in 2013 where you’re doing both shows [RAW and SmackDown].”

Despite what Bryan says, I don’t think we will ever see Bryan wrestling in a WWE ring again.

In 2013, #SDLive GM @WWEDanielBryan wrestled 227 matches for the #WWE. He says if they were to clear him, they’d likely give him a lighter schedule, but is only 20% confident that he’ll be cleared. pic.twitter.com/IiQoowWDjT

— SiriusXM Busted Open (@BustedOpenRadio) November 13, 2017

Chris Jericho On Alpha vs Omega

Chris Jericho continues to hype his WrestleKingdom 12 match with Kenny Omega, and he thinks that the match will be bigger for NJPW’s big show than it could be for WrestleMania.

“I think just the fact that if Kenny left New Japan tomorrow and I went to the WWE and we had the same match at WrestleMania, it wouldn’t have the same mystique about it because there’s something about it now where everyone knows that Omega is so big in Japan and Jericho has a history in Japan, which is another thing I liked about it. Kenny and I’s careers mirror each other; I started in Japan, I grew up in Japan, I’ve been there 60 times, so there’s a big history of Jericho in Japan as well that started before I ever went to the WWE. So there’s a combination of a lot of things that make this very special and a once-in-a-lifetime type of matchup. I think if it was in the WWE, even if there was no restrictions, it still wouldn’t be as big because it’s still WrestleMania in a WWE ring. This is different, it’s over in Tokyo, it’s at the Tokyo Dome fore New Japan Pro Wrestling. I think that adds to the intrigue and the mystique of the match right off the bat, as well.”

.@IAmJericho tells @bullyray5150 & @LarryDallasSXM that he vs. Kenny Omega happening in Japan is truly a special, once-in-a-lifetime match and has a unique mystique about it happening in Japan rather than the United States. pic.twitter.com/sB1WQnBiho

— SiriusXM Busted Open (@BustedOpenRadio) November 10, 2017

The post Daniel Bryan On Wrestling Again; Chris Jericho Talks His Match With Kenny Omega appeared first on TopRopePress.com – Wrestling News, WWE News, TNA News, Wrestling Results.