Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host, Jeff Lane.

On one of their audio shows this past week, Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez picked Nakamura to win the Royal Rumble match this year. They think this will lead to Nakamura challenging A.J. Styles for the WWE Title at WrestleMania, and they think WWE teased that with a spot on Smackdown Live a few months back. Russo can’t even remember what “tease spot” Meltzer’s talking about.

Russo has heard clips of wrestling analysts saying that Chris Jericho proved that he could hang with the elite during his recent WrestleKingdom match against Kenny Omega. One analyst said Jericho could return to the West beaten, but not bested. Russo points out that this was a fake fight – of course Jericho can hang with Omega. Jericho is the elite of the wrestling business. In fact, he WAS the business in this match.

A fan calls into the show and points out that WWE’s programming is so bad right now. The fan asks Russo why WWE doesn’t simply change their approach in an effort to improve their programming. Russo points out that WWE produces a lot of programming each week, not to mention the increase in PPVs over the last couple of years.

The post Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Jericho IS the Elite, Styles Vs. Nakamura at ‘Mania, Earthquake Can’t Stop Dave Meltzer, More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host, Jeff Lane.

Russo opens today’s show speaking about the recent interaction between Chris Jericho and Pro Wrestling Sheet’s Ryan Satin. Satin made an issue of the fact that Jericho dedicated his Wrestle Kingdom 12 match to Chris Benoit and Jericho swiftly responded, ridiculing Satin and saying he had his reasons for dedicating the match to Benoit.

Russo wonders that out of all the people in the world, wouldn’t Jericho be at the bottom of the list of people you’d want to fight with? Jericho has millions of fans and he’s also very smart and funny, so he’ll make you look foolish in front of all those fans. That’s exactly what happened in this case according to Russo.

While speaking about this week’s episode of RAW, Wade Keller of PWTorch said that he thought there was much more attention to detail and better acting than on recent episodes of the show. Russo wants Keller to give some examples of this attention to detail and great acting, because he didn’t see anything close to that.

Keller went on to say that Renee Young is “pitch perfect”, and she might be best of all time at her job, even better than Lance Russell. Russo disagrees with this entirely and doesn’t feel that you can compare anyone from this era to Russell or Gene Okerlund. He says that these interviewers have to have a personality and punch their time in the business before anyone can make those comparisons.

The post Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Jericho Deals with Criticism, Chyna’s Influence on the Business, Meltzer Meets Omega! More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

X-Pac opens today’s show by wishing a happy birthday to his long-time friend, Jim Ross. Ross turns 66 years old today, and X-Pac reinforces how much Ross has meant to him over the years as a mentor and a friend.

X-Pac talks about a recent video he saw of Brian Pillman Jr., son of former WWE Superstar, Brian Pillman. He points out that Pillman Jr. looks and works just like his father, and he has no issue at all with Pillman Jr. using the Pillman name throughout his wrestling career. He thinks Pillman Jr. should continue to use his family name and get every advantage that he can get out of it. He points out that Curtis Axel probably could have benefitted from utilizing the Henning name.

He mentions that Wrestle Kingdom 12 will take place is just a matter of hours, and he thinks this will be the biggest NJPW event ever internationally, mostly due to having Chris Jericho involved in the show. On the other hand, he doubts that this will be the biggest show NJPW has put off locally in Japan.

The post X-Pac 1, 2, 360 Recap w/ Justin Credible – Struggling with Alcohol Abuse, Recent Relapse, Feeling Uncomfortable in WWE, More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

NJPW announced that Chris Jericho vs. Kenny Omega at Wrestle Kingdom 12 will now be a no disqualification match.

【緊急発表】ケニーvsジェリコの王座戦は反則裁定なしのノーDQマッチ！Codyvs飯伏はROH世界王座戦からスペシャルシングルマッチに変更！【WK12】 https://t.co/gUsEsvI3td #njpw #njwk12 pic.twitter.com/98r1LR5QfV

— 新日本プロレスリング株式会社 (@njpw1972) December 18, 2017

Here is the updated card for the show:

IWGP Championship
Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito

IWGP United States Championship
Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho

IWGP Intercontinental Championship
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jay White

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
Marty Scurll vs. Hiromu Takahashi vs. KUSHIDA vs. Will Ospreay

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship
Roppongi 3K (Sho and Yo) vs. The Young Bucks (Nick and Matt Jackson)

Cody Rhodes vs. Kota Ibushi

IWGP Tag Team Championship
The Killer Elite Squad (Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL & SANADA)

NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship
SANADA & EVIL & BUSHI vs. Bad Luck Fale & The Guerrillas of Destiny

WrestleKingdom 12 takes place on January 6th, 2018 on AXS TV.

The post Stipulation Added to Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho WrestleKingdom Match appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane.

On one of his radio shows last week Bryan Alvarez from Wrestling Observer was adamant in thinking that the current angle with Kenny Omega is going to make Chris Jericho a bigger star than anything he could have done in WWE. Jericho apparently said this himself as an explanation for why he did this match.

Russo points out that Jericho and Alvarez are right in this case because nobody is watching Monday Night RAW. In Russo’s opinion, this was Jericho’s way of saying “Nobody’s watching WWE” without getting in trouble with Vince McMahon and other WWE officials.

At another point this week Alvarez tweeted out that Sami Zayn is an incredible heel. Russo says that Alvarez clearly hasn’t seen a good heel before because Jake Roberts was an incredible heel. Contrarily, Zayn is a cab driver look-alike that comes off like Woody Allen. Russo says that Alvarez needs to get his head out of his ass.

Russo says that incredible heels should give kids nightmares and they should always be a credible threat to win matches. In Russo’s opinion, Zayn can’t accomplish either of those things right now.

The post Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Origins of WWE’s 1998 “NWA” Angle, Matt Hardy Staying Relevant, Sami Zayn an ‘Incredible’ Heel? More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Ross opens today’s show by clarifying his recent remarks in which he suggested that Hulk Hogan will probably return to WWE at some point in the future. Ross received backlash from some people who felt like he was dismissing Hogan’s past usage of the “N” word, and Ross says that couldn’t be further from the truth. He simply believes that Hogan is a huge part of WWE’s past, and it makes sense to him for both parties to reunite at some point in the future.

Ross points out that he called the first ever Clash of Champions with Tony Schiavone many years ago, and all the talk about this upcoming Sunday’s show is bringing back a lot of great memories for him. He also adds that he’s really looking forward to the WWE Championship match between Jinder Mahal and A.J. Styles because in his opinion, Styles is still the greatest in-ring worker in the world.

Ross announces that he and Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler will be making appearances on the 25th Anniversary edition of Monday Night RAW on January 22nd. He’s not quite sure what they’ll be doing on the show yet, but he’s just happy to be involved.

Chris Jericho makes a surprise call into the show to promote his upcoming Cruise. Ross takes this opportunity to ask him about his recent physical interactions with Kenny Omega. Jericho says it was great to finally work with Omega and calls him a great worker. He also says he was very happy with how their entire angle played out, with Omega being busted open and bleeding everywhere.

The post The Ross Report Recap w/ Chris Jericho & Jeremy Borash – Attacking Kenny Omega, Impact’s Creative Shake-up, No Need for 6-Sided Rings, More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

As previously reported, Chris Jericho attacked Kenny Omega at NJPW’s World Tag League Final show as part of the build to their Wrestle Kingdom 12 match next month.

Jericho posted a new video on Instagram where he formally introduces himself to Omega and says that the attack was both a warning and introduction of what Omega can expect to happen to him at Wrestle Kingdom.

You can check out the footage below:

Made a special trip to #Fukuoka tonight to send a message to @kennyomegamanx… #AlphaVsOmega #Jan4 #TokyoDome #AlphaClubJericho @njpw1972

A post shared by Chris Jericho (@chrisjerichofozzy) on Dec 11, 2017 at 5:01am PST

The post Chris Jericho Reacts to Attacking Kenny Omega appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Ross informs that AXS TV is going to have a 3-hour WrestleKingdom 12 Special on Saturday, Jan. 6th. Ross mentions that the highly anticipated match between Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega will be one of the matches that will be presented during the 3-hour special. Ross says he’s really looking forward to calling these matches with Josh Barnett.

He was quite excited to see ‘Woken’ Matt Hardy make his debut on WWE programming this week. He says that this is a very original, compelling character and Hardy should be very proud of what he’s accomplished in creating this character and successfully brining it to Monday Night RAW. Ross says he’s very proud of what Hardy has accomplished in the business, and he compares Hardy to Chris Jericho in the sense that he continues to successfully redefine his character.

Ross says he has heard rumours that Alberto El Patron is planning to retire in the next couple of years. He points out that El Patron has had a very long, successful career and he’s made a lot of money so he should be able to retire comfortably. However, he adds that wrestlers say they’re planning to retire all the time only to continue working for another decade, so he’ll wait for the official news before believing that El Patron is actually hanging up his boots.

The post The Ross Report Recap w/ Matt Riddle & John Morrison – “Woken” Hardy’s WWE Debut, Riddle’s UFC Release, Morrison on “Wrestling’s Purpose”, More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Taz opens today’s show by thanking his fans for sticking with him for 500 episodes, and he was very pleased with how the 500th edition of the show turned out. Chris Jericho was a special guest on the show and revealed why he blocked Taz a couple of years ago. Taz admits to feeling terrible about Jericho being offended by his tweets from 2015, which resulted in Jericho blocking him.

He truly believed that Jericho blocking him was either a mistake or a rib by Jericho, but after realizing that his tweets really hurt Jericho he felt terrible. He’s been thinking about it all weekend and wants to make it known again that he regrets those tweets and points out that he shouldn’t have sent them.

Taz informs that there are a lot of things happening within CBS and their new parent company, Intercom. Taz mentions that things are changing and he may have some very exciting opportunities coming his way in 2018. He can’t speak about anything yet, but he guarantees his fans that if he’s not live everyday doing The Taz Show as we all know it, he’s still going to drop multiple podcasts each week talking wrestling.

The post The Taz Show Recap – RAW Preview, Strowman & Kane Lacking Chemistry, Changes Coming to the Taz Show? More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Chris Jericho spoke with TV Insider. Here are some highlights from the interview:

If he considers himself a legend: “I think I would be a pretty big a**hole to call myself a legend. Some people say that I have some sort of legendary status. And if someone says that, thank you very much. I’m more than happy to accept that. It’s hard for you to call yourself a legend. Although I did call myself the living legend in WWE. So, if you look back in 2004, my character definitely thought he was a legend.”

Last time he was starstruck: “I’ve met Keith Richards a couple of years ago, and that was big one. You just got to be cool and talk to them like they’re normal dudes. I still have my heroes. I saw Wayne Gretzky a few months ago. He had a couple of cocktails. I was sort of starstruck, but he was going off on how much he loved me and my work. I was like, ‘Wow, Gretzky likes me. I don’t care if he has had a couple of cocktails. I am talking to Wayne Gretzky!’”

The post Chris Jericho: ‘I’d Have To Be A Pretty Big A-Hole To Call Myself A Legend’ appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.