Dave Meltzer reported in the latest issue of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE officials are unhappy about the drop in viewership numbers for their new Facebook Watch series, Mixed Match Challenge. Apparently “key people” in the company are already sour on the tournament.

“Mixed Match Challenge dropped greatly in viewership. Even before this week’s numbers came in, we had heard they were very unhappy about the huge drop from week one to week two and key people were already souring on it. The second show was really bad. This week’s show felt like a harmless gimmick show but there feels like no important reason to watch.”

Here is the breakdown of the numbers since it’s debut:

Episode 1: 135,600
Episode 2: 91,900
Episode 3: 62,400

As you can see by the numbers above, the show is having a downward trend. It will be interesting to see if WWE makes some changes to the show to try to garner more viewers.

NOTE: We are giving away free Ringside News t-shirts every Monday during RAW! You can find out more details here on how to enter our contest or you can purchase one of our new shirts at Pro Wrestling Tees.

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WWE announced AJ Styles vs. Sami Zayn for this Tuesday’s episode of Smackdown Live, the first Smackdown of 2018.

JUST ANNOUNCED: #WWEChampion @AJStylesOrg and @SamiZayn will square off in a non-title match THIS TUESDAY on the first #SDLive of 2018! https://t.co/xoocyxowhL

— WWE (@WWE) December 30, 2017

Other matches announced for the episode include:

* Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin versus The Usos for the Smackdown Tag Team Titles

* Xavier Woods versus Aiden English in the US Title Tournament

The post Match Announced for Tuesday’s Episode of SmackDown Live appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Ross welcomes PWTorch’s Wade Keller to the show to discuss Sunday’s Clash of Champion’s PPV.

Keller thought Clash of Champions was a fine show, but there weren’t any defining or memorable moments  that would have made a great show. The main event match between A.J. Styles and Jinder Mahal was okay, but not great, and the Daniel Bryan/Shane McMahon storyline failed to give viewers a big payoff.

Ross calls Charlotte the greatest women’s wrestler he’s ever seen, and he refers to her as the female version of 1980’s Hulk Hogan in the sense that she’s bigger, tanner and more impressive looking then all of her competition. Keller agrees and mentions that he expected Smackdown Live to be A.J. Styles & Charlotte’s brand when WWE conducted their Superstar shakeup months ago. Hopefully now that she’s holding the Women’s Title she can claim her rightful position as a major part of the show.

Ross asks Keller what he thinks about the ongoing Twitter dispute between Jim Cornette and several indie wrestlers, including The Young Bucks. Keller says that his views on how the business should be presented are more in line with Cornette’s, but he differs with Cornette in the sense that he wouldn’t want to ridicule someone for enjoying a different style of wrestling.

The post The Ross Report Recap w/ Wade Keller & Konnan – Clash of Champions Analysis, Development of Aro Lucha Wrestling, Elias is the Complete Package, More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Taz welcomes Mike Johnson from PWInsider to the show to start this special 3-hour, 500th episode of The Taz Show.

Johnson informs that Luke Harper was sent home from WWE’s overseas tour on Friday, and WWE reshuffled the weekend shows in order to account for Harper’s absence. Taz says he hopes that everything is okay with Harper physically and with his family back home and Johnson agrees, saying that Harper is the most underrated performer on the roster.

Taz asks Johnson about the news that John Cena is being sued by Ford Motor Company. Johnson informs that those rumours are true and apparently the lawsuit originates from the fact that Cena had a lease of a new Ford sports car which he wasn’t allowed to sell in the first two years. Cena did not oblige by his contract and sold the car quickly, reportedly to pay off some bills.

Taz says this is very strange, and it’s rather shocking to think that someone like Cena is having financial difficulty. He admits that the more money you make, the more you spend.

Johnson informs that Anthem is giving all their current Superstars legal ownership of their characters/gimmicks. This has led to WWE and Matt Hardy bringing the ‘Broken’ gimmick to WWE where it will be slightly altered and referred to as ‘Woken’. Taz thinks this is going to be awesome, and he just hopes that WWE goes full throttle with the gimmick.

The post The Taz Show Recap – Special Guests Jim Ross, Johnny Morrison & Chris Jericho! Cena Money Problems? Jericho Supposed to Win WWE Title at ‘Mania? More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

WWE announced the following for next week’s episode of SmackDown Live:

* Kevin Owens vs. Randy Orton

* The Fashion Files return

Check back here next week for our live play-by-play coverage of the event.

The post Match & Segment Announced for Next Week’s SmackDown appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

As previously noted, WWE is planning on celebrating 25 years of RAW on the January 22nd, 2018 episode of the show.

Bryan Alvarez discussed the celebration on today’s installment of Wrestling Observer Live and mentioned that the event will be an “all hands on deck” episode. Alvarez speculated that the company will bring several WWE Superstars of the past to make an appearance on that show.

The event will take place at the held in Brooklyn, NY at the Barclays Center and WWE has plans to release a DVD in celebration of the 25 years.

We will keep you updated if the company announces any of names for the event.

The post WWE Bringing In Big Names for Upcoming RAW Episode? appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Block 1:

Taz opens today’s show speaking about WWE releasing writer Jimmy Jacobs. During The Bullet Club’s invasion of RAW last week Jacobs made his way out to the crowd and took a picture with his former colleagues. Jacobs then posted this picture on his Instagram and WWE clearly didn’t take kindly to this.

In Taz’s opinion, Jacobs had to know that WWE was going to be furious with him doing what he did. He suspects that perhaps Jacobs was looking for a way out of WWE because working for that company isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be at some points. Jacobs is a smart guy and he had to know that if he went out and took a picture with The Bullet Club he was going to be fired.

Taz continues by pointing out that Jacobs already has a new shirt for sale on ProWrestlingTees.com and this might have been his whole plan right from the beginning. Taz still doesn’t understand why WWE was so angry about this ‘invasion’ anyways, and if he was running things he would have just invited them into the building that night.

He points out that a lot of people are calling WWE petty since they first sent a cease and desist letter to The Young Bucks and now they’ve released Jacobs. While Taz agrees with the sentiment that those actions could be considered petty, he also points out that WWE has to protect their assets. On the other hand, he mentions that WWE is the top dog in the wrestling business and that’s not going to change in our lifetimes, so perhaps they shouldn’t be so worried about acknowledging other promotions.

The post The Taz Show Recap – Jimmy Jacobs’ Release, WWE’s Pettiness, Elias Mimics The Undertaker, More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

WWE announced on tonight’s episode of SmackDown Live that The Hype Bros will face Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin at Sunday’s WWE Hell in a Cell event during the Kickoff Pre-show. In addition to that match, it was also announced that an episode of The Fashion Files will be shown.

Here is the updated card:

Hell In a Cell Championship
Shane McMahon vs. Kevin Owens

WWE Title Championship
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Jinder Mahal

WWE United States Championship
Baron Corbin vs. AJ Styles

SmackDown Women’s Championship
Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch

Hell In a Cell Tag Team Championship
The Usos vs. The New Day

Dolph Ziggler vs. Bobby Roode

Fashion Files Segment

Kickoff Pre-show:
The Hype Bros vs. Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin

WWE Hell In a Cell takes place on October 8th from the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan. As always, we will be providing live play-by-play coverage of the event.

The post New Match Added to Sunday’s WWE Hell in a Cell appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Block 1:

Taz opens today’s show speaking about last night’s episode of NXT.

He says that while he enjoyed the lengthy video package dedicated to Asuka, that took up a lot of time on a one-hour broadcast. Caught up in all of this is the noticeable absence of NXT Champion Drew McIntyre yet again. Taz says the time that was utilized for Asuka’s video package should have been dedicated to building their new Champion.

Taz has a major problem with how NXT has booked McIntyre since winning the NXT Championship. He loves McIntyre and he has absolutely no issue with McIntyre becoming Champion, but he’s still fairly new to the NXT brand so the creative team must do a better job of building their new top guy.

Taz continues by pointing out that Wolfgang mentioned on last night’s show that he was trained by Drew McIntyre. This was a perfect spot for McIntyre to be utilized in a guest commentator position, where he could put over the two UK competitors, all while remaining visible to the NXT Universe and threatening revenge on Adam Cole and company.

At the end of the UK Title match, McIntyre would have been in a great spot to help Wolfgang after the attack from The Undisputed Era. This would have effectively tied together both stories and would have given McIntyre some much needed television time.

The post The Taz Show Recap – NXT Analysis, Drew McIntyre Still Missing, Will Heyman Turn on Lesnar? More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Block 1:

Taz opens today’s show by saying he enjoyed last night’s episode of Smackdown Live, however, there’s one thing in particular that he would have changed about the show. Taz thought the show should have opened without the normal opening and theme music, and instead it should have opened with Kevin Owens giving orders in the television production truck.

Taz thinks this would have been a very unique way to open a show, and it would have given the creative team a number of entertaining, different options in terms of how to present Owens in this new setting. Owens could have been threatening to fire the production staff and even the cameramen in the truck, and this would have fit in nicely with the rest of the show.

Given the ‘Kevin Owens takeover’ theme that ran throughout the rest of the show, Taz thought it was lazy to simply open the show with their regular ‘Smackdown Live’ cold open. Nonetheless, he loved this episode of Smackdown Live. He simply thinks his idea to open the show would have made a great show even better.

He thought the final segment of the show between Vince McMahon and Kevin Owens was a fantastic piece of business. He says McMahon put Owens over ‘Steve Austin style’, and he’s sure that Owens thanked McMahon after the show went off air last night. Taz gives all the credit in the world to McMahon for going out to the ring and getting bumped around like that at his age, because he certainly doesn’t have to do that.

The post The Taz Show Recap – Smackdown Live Analysis, Headbutt Heard ‘Round the World, Where was Vince’s Help? More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.