WWE announced during tonight’s episode of RAW that Nakamura will open Tuesday’s episode of SmackDown Live.

.@ShinsukeN's Road to #WrestleMania continues tomorrow night on #SDLive, LIVE at 8/7c on @USA_Network! #RAW pic.twitter.com/RWQMlIKlsM

— WWE (@WWE) January 30, 2018

No other segments or matches have been announced for Tuesday’s show but we will keep you updated if we hear anything.

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During the latest installment of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer discussed the betting odds for the Men’s Royal Rumble match for Sunday’s show. Meltzer believes that someone from the SmackDown brand will win The Rumble because Roman Reigns could earn his shot at Brock Lesnar’s Universal Title at the upcoming Elimination Chamber event.

The likely winners for SmackDown include Nakamura and Randy Orton, or perhaps Baron Corbin or even Rusev as a long shot. Nakamura and Orton have both been top favorites in the betting odds for weeks now and WWE previously had plans for Nakamura vs. Styles and Orton vs. Styles but those matches never happened.

The other possibility is that an outsider who makes a surprise entrant in the Rumble ends up winning.

NOTE: We are giving away free Ringside News t-shirts this weekend. 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.

The post Possible Spoiler on the Men’s Royal Rumble Winner appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

On today’s episode of The Taz Show, Taz will discuss the classic match between Nakamura and Ibushi from Wrestle Kingdom 9.

Taz mentions that NJPW’s production is unbelievable, and they’re basically the only company in the world that can compete with WWE production-wise. They pull out all the stops here for Wrestle Kingdom, with pyro and multiple video walls to ensure a jam-packed arena full of people are satisfied. Taz points out that this is Japan’s WrestleMania.

Taz says he’s a big fan of Nakamura’s work, and he doesn’t mean to disrespect him today because he’s never met him, but this is when Nakamura was booked “Cool”. He urges his fans to check out the video of this entrance from Wrestle Kingdom 9, because this is when Nakamura truly was a “rockstar”.

He points out that we’ve seen this plenty of times before, and Taz has actually been through this himself. As a Superstar in the business you feel like your career is going great and then you finally make it to WWE and things change drastically. For whatever reason, WWE seems to struggle with capitalizing on momentum that incoming performers have.

Taz likes that Nakamura and Ibushi are wearing opposite colour ring gear during this match. He informs that this is an unwritten rule in the business, and in some cases it actually is written in the Gorilla Position in WWE. Ibushi wore white and Nakamura wore black for this bout.

The post The Taz Show Recap – Nakamura VS. Ibushi: Wrestle Kingdom 9, Nakamura’s Struggles in WWE, Comparing Wrestling to Sex, More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Russo is absent from today’s show, so Jeff Lane and former WWE Superstars, Bin Hamin and Stevie Richards will handle the RAW25 and Smackdown review show without him.

Beginning with their thoughts on Smackdown, Hamin points out that he has no idea who’s writing the promos on Smackdown Live recently, because they’ve been absolutely brutal. He feels that the creative team has taken great performers such as Kevin Owens and A.J. Styles and turned them into ‘D’ players with some of the content they’ve provided them.

Hamin also wonders what Sami Zayn is supposed to be right now. They’re trying to make him a main-event talent by pairing him with Owens and having him jump up and down during his entrance, but it’s just not working. He says that Zayn is just an annoying heel right now, and not in a good way.

Richards points out that WWE continues to book Nakamura in strange positions. They had him cut another uncomfortable backstage promo during this show, and he wasn’t able to understand a word that Nakamura said. He also didn’t understand Randy Orton attacking Nakamura during his match with Baron Corbin because it was only a couple of weeks ago that those two guys were tagging together.

Moving over to RAW, Hamin thought The Manhattan Center looked great and he had high hopes for the event until roughly 10 minutes into the show. He thought WWE really paid respect to old school programming with how much effort they put into the decoration of The Manhattan Center but after the Austin segment the show took a nose dive rather quickly.

The post Vince Russo’s the Brand Recap – RAW25 & Smackdown Analysis, WWE Already Ruining “Woken” Hardy, Reigns Set to Win Rumble? More! 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 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.

While speaking to Between the Ropes, Chris Jericho discussed the original plans for WrestleMania 33 and revealed that at one point the plan was for him to face Nakamura on the card.

Jericho explained, “After we went to Japan in June or July I remember coming back and talking to Vince, and I said you’ve got to bring this Nakamura guy up to the main roster. I wanna work with him. Let’s debut him at WrestleMania. I said I’ll stay until WrestleMania if I can work with Nakamura. Vince said okay. Then about a month later, I said that I actually think me and Kevin Owens could work at WrestleMania.”

You can listen to Jericho’s remarks below:

The post Chris Jericho Reveals Original Plans for WrestleMania 33 appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

The Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio announced that Randy Orton vs. Nakamura vs. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn vs. AJ Styles in a Fatal 5-Way for the WWE Championship will headline the Fastlane pay-per-view event on March 11th, 2018.

Here is the announcement:

WWE FASTLANE comes to Columbus for the FIRST time!

Witness the final WWE Pay per View before Wrestlemania 34.

See your favorite WWE Smackdown Superstars in action live including:

WWE CHAMPION – AJ STYLES VS RANDY ORTON VS SHINSUKE NAKAMURA VS KEVIN OWENS VS SAMI ZAYN IN A FATAL FIVE WAY MATCH FOR THE WWE CHAMPIONSHIP!

PLUS,

CHARLOTTE

BOBBY ROODE

BARON CORBIN

JINDER MAHAL

NEW DAY

THE USOS

DOLPH ZIGGLER

PLUS MANY MORE! (Card subject to change)

The post Main Event for WWE Fastlane Revealed appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

There is a rumor floating around that Jim Johnston, who has worked on WWE theme music dating back to 1985, has been released from the company. The news was first reported by ThemeTitan, which is a Twitter account dedicated to news about Johnston and WWE music.

Jim Johnston has been released by WWE

— ThemeTitan (@ThemeTitan_) November 30, 2017

Not mutual & did not mentor CFO$

— ThemeTitan (@ThemeTitan_) November 30, 2017

As of this writing, there has been no official announcement on his release. We have reached out to WWE for comment and we will keep you updated if we hear anything.

For those not aware, Johnston produced themes for The Undertaker, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, The Ultimate Warrior, D-Generation X, Vince McMahon, Chris Jericho, Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Brock Lesnar, and many others. Johnston also worked on pay-per-view themes, music that accompanied recaps or feuds, tributes, etc.

The arrival of CFO$ took away Johnston’s primary job as they were assigned the task of producing new songs for new WWE Superstars. CFO$ are behind the popular themes of Superstars like Bobby Roode, Shinsuke Nakamura, Sasha Banks, Samoa Joe, and others.

The post Jim Johnston Released from WWE? appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

WWE heads to Greensboro, North Carolina for tonight’s Starrcade-themed Live Event. Here is the final card for the event:

Steel Cage Match for the WWE Championship
AJ Styles (c) Jinder Mahal

Steel Cage Match for the SmackDown Women’s Title
Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Natalya

Fatal 4 Way for the SmackDown Tag Team Titles
The Usos (c) vs. The New Day vs. Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn

WWE United States Title Match
Baron Corbin (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

Grudge Match

Bobby Roode vs. Dolph Ziggler

Dustin Rhodes vs. Dash Wilder

The post Final Card for Tonight’s WWE Starrcade Event appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

The following matches are being rumored for the December 17th WWE Clash of Champions event:

WWE Title (Confirmed)
AJ Styles (c) vs. Jinder Mahal

Smackdown Tag Titles
Usos (c) vs. Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin

U.S. Title
Baron Corbin (c) vs. Bobby Roode

Randy Orton & Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn

New Day vs. Rusev and Aiden English

Charlotte, Natalya & Naomi vs. Ruby Riot, Liv Morgan &Sarah Logan

The post Rumored Card for WWE Clash of Champions appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.