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, Bin Hamin, and former WWE Superstar, Stevie Richards.

Russo wonders just how much heat he must have with everyone at WWE for him not to receive an invitation to RAW’s 25h anniversary show at the end of the month. Russo points out that even Bruce Prichard has been invited back for that show and he hasn’t, so he must really be hated at WWE.

Hamin points out that Russo’s name is forever etched in history for the work he did during the attitude era, and he doesn’t need to go back to WWE at this point to prove anything. Russo mentions that WWE loves “yes men”, and he’ll never be one of those. He assumes that the people in power there realize this, and that’s why he hasn’t been invited back.

Getting into their thoughts on this week’s episode of Smackdown Live, Richards says he has no idea what WWE is trying to do with the main event angle featuring Owens, Zayn, Orton, Nakamura, Bryan and McMahon. It all feels very confusing and convoluted to Richards and Russo agrees, pointing out that WWE is trying to force these 6 guys into a 6-man tag team match at WrestleMania in order to satisfy Bryan’s urge to wrestle.

The post Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – RAW & Smackdown Analysis, Graves Vs. Saxton, What Was the Most Over Thing on RAW This Week? More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host, Jeff Lane, and Glenn Gilbertti (Disco Inferno).

Russo opens today’s show by asking Gilbertti for his opinion on the Chris Jericho/Kenny Omega match from Wrestle Kingdom 12. Gilbertti thought it was a really good match, and he points out that all Jericho fans need to see this match. Overall, he thought both men told a good story, and he gives the match a thumbs up.

Gilbertti points out that WWE has really hurt Braun Strowman’s character as of late. First they dressed him up as an elf for a social media video, and then he appeared in a backstage vignette with Alexa Bliss, announcing their partnership for the Mixed Match Challenge.

Russo was dissapointed by this as well, and he says that he just wishes WWE would protect some of their stars. He has no good explanation for why A.J. Styles, the WWE Champion, was booked to lose clean two weeks in a row on Smackdown Live, especially being pinned most recently by Sami Zayn.

Gilbertti mentions that it’s pointless to talk about WWE’s booking because they’re not good at building stars anymore – they’re good at burying people. Gilbertti thinks that a 12 year-old can watch this show for a couple of months and then write a show that’s just as effective or more effective at making stars.

The post Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Omega/Jericho Reaction, Daniel Bryan’s In-Ring Return, Rumble Match Will Expose Women, More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

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.

Photo: WWE

The numbers are in for last night’s episode of SmackDown Live, and this week’s episode, which featured the final build for Sunday’s Clash of Champions, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens trying to takeover SmackDown Live, and Ruby Riott take on SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte, drew 2.481 million viewers. This is down from last week’s 2.493 million viewers.

While the audience didn’t decrease all that much, any decrease for a go-home show is never good. Maybe fans are bored or maybe they just don’t see the appeal in the upcoming PPV. I guess we will see next week when the audience either goes up or down in the aftermath of the PPV.

The blue brand was #13 in viewership for this week on cable, falling behind two airings of CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Curse of Oak Island, Last Word, 11th Hour, Rachel Maddow, The Ingraham Angle, Hannity, All In, Tucker Carlson, The Story, and Special Report. SmackDown Live was #6 in the 18-49 demographic, falling behind Anderson Cooper, NBA games on ESPN, and Curse of Oak Island. Coverage of the special Senate election in Alabama dominated the night.

SmackDown Live drew a .71 cable rating for the night in the 18-49 demographic. This was down from the .76 rating they garnered in the same demographic for last week’s episode.

The post WWE SmackDown Ratings, Viewership (12/12/17): Numbers Down For Clash Go-Home Show appeared first on TopRopePress.com – Wrestling News, WWE News, TNA News, Wrestling Results.

Photo:TRP

It’s Tuesday, and that means it’s time for our WWE SmackDown Live preview – Clash of Champions Go-Home Edition! When we last left our heroes, Kevin Owens was handcuffed to the ring, Baron Corbin was keeping his belt clean, and we tasted some game meat.

What will the Blue Brand have in store for us tonight in Cincinnati? Let’s have a look…

1. Nakamura-Owens

Coming off of the super shocking revelation that Shinsuke Nakamura would be Randy Orton’s partner at Clash of Champions, Nakamura will take on Kevin Owens tonight. We also found out that Owens and Sami Zayn’s careers will be on the line in that match, and that Shane McMahon would be the Special Guest Referee.

While the four of these guys are more than capable of putting on a great show in a straight-forward match on Sunday, I’m thinking high jinks are likely to ensue. The tension between Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon has certainly made it feel like we have some sort of “turn” coming, but to WWE’s credit (assuming the ambiguity is intentional), it’s not clear what the face/heel dynamic is between the two. Bryan is aligning himself with the bad guys, but Shane handcuffed a guy to the ring, orchestrated a Cartel-level hit on the RAW roster, and has generally been kind of a dick.

It’ll be fun to see where it goes on Sunday, and I’m looking forward to see what develops tonight.

1. Face To Face

After nothing doing last week, A.J. Styles and Jinder Mahal would “come face to face” one last time before their title match at Clash. Their “rivalry” – which has mostly consisted of Styles beating up Singh Brothers – gave us its latest chapter two weeks ago, when A.J. Styles AND Jinder Mahal beat up the Singh Brothers.

If you’re Mahal or a Mahal fan, the next five days are pretty big for you. Jinder essentially has one more promo tonight and one more match on Sunday that will factor into where he goes after the Styles feud is done. I say this of course, assuming that Styles beats Mahal on Sunday. Will Mahal stick around in the upper mid-card, or is he headed for Tye Dillinger Island where you only pop in once a month or so?

2. Zolph Diggler, Again

I say a lot of bad things about the parts of wrestling that involve Dolph Ziggler, and I sincerely wish I didn’t have to. On top of that, I feel even worse saying bad things about Dolph Ziggler when the bad things he’s involved in aren’t his fault. I just want to care about this guy again and it’s frustrating when I continue to hope for and never receive a reason to do so.

Before last week’s episode, it was announced that Ziggler would get a shot at the United States Title at Clash of Champions, facing Baron Corbin and Bobby Roode. The problem with that is that Ziggler hadn’t been on TV in a hot minute, and had done literally nothing to earn this opportunity. So he shows up on Tuesday night and does commentary on the Corbin-Roode match, and has to attempt to justify why he’s in the match on Sunday.

Listen, I don’t know anything, so when I come in with the “this is the right way and this is the wrong way” shit, feel free to take it with a grain of salt. But why would it have been difficult to throw together a 20-second promo where someone says “if Ziggler wins this match he gets a U.S. Title shot!” and then have him beat someone on Tuesday? Announce him for the match that night instead of a few days prior, and then he has an actual (although lazy) reason to be involved here. Then do Corbin-Roode with Dolph interfering on the go-home. This isn’t calculus.

Anyway, tonight one of the guys will fight another one of the guys and the other guy will interfere. Buckle up!

3. Riott Squad Goals

I made a “squad goals” joke because I’m turning 30 in a month and want to make sure everyone knows how hip I am. Also, the Riott Squad might not be very good, which is a huge bummer.

The Riott Squad got a ton of mic time last Tuesday, and it didn’t go so well. Morgan doesn’t seem like a real human, Logan was a running joke all week for how bad she performed, and Riott is being lamented as “the one who sucks the least.” The build has indicated that they could be featured pretty heavily in the SmackDown Women’s Title Lumberjack match at Clash of Champions, but after last week’s poor outing, it’ll be interesting to see if they can bounce back, or if their role will be reduced.

4. No More Mojo

Go away. Go very far way.

5. More Rusev

With all due respect to ‘Fashion Files,’ Breezango may have officially passed the RIDICULOUS COMEDY TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP belt to Rusev and Aiden English. I wasn’t ready for it either, but now that Rusev and English have consistently entertained outside of the ring AND find themselves in Sunday’s title match at Clash of Champions, they have the top spot.

This is fantastic for me, because I never want to go back to the days when Rusev was routinely off of TV for weeks at a time. I don’t know if they’ll win at Clash (although I actually think they have a decent shot), but Rusev and English becoming SmackDown staples and getting significant screen time every week is undoubtedly a positive for the show.

WWE SmackDown Live airs on The USA Network at 8:00 pm EST. Make sure to check back after the show for my full recap.

The post WWE SmackDown Preview (12/12/17) 5 Reasons To Watch appeared first on TopRopePress.com – Wrestling News, WWE News, TNA News, Wrestling Results.

It was revealed on tonight’s episode of SmackDown Live that Ruby Riot, Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan will be going by the name “The Riot Squad” moving forward.

After blindsiding the #SDLive #WomensDivision last week, it's time for The #RiottSquad to properly introduce themselves to the @WWEUniverse! pic.twitter.com/iDAfNhmeGy

— WWE (@WWE) November 29, 2017

So much for teamwork! @NatByNature has ABANDONED her team leaving @MsCharlotteWWE and @NaomiWWE to fend for themselves against the #RiottSquad! #SDLive @YaOnlyLivvOnce @sarahloganwwe @RubyRiotWWE pic.twitter.com/e4sbPUazzN

— WWE (@WWE) November 29, 2017

It was revealed on Monday’s episode of RAW that Paige’s new group that debuted recetly will be going by “Absolution.” That group includes Paige, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville.

The post SmackDown Group Receives New Name appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane, Kenny Bolin, and Big Vito.

Russo says this week’s RAW and Smackdown Live had to be the worst 5-hour follow up to a major PPV in WWE’s history. He believes that Stephanie McMahon has to be the least cool character in the business right now, and she’s very frustrating to watch because it’s quite clear that she thinks she’s cool.

Bolin says he recalls a time when Stephanie McMahon was a gorgeous woman. However, the longer that she’s with Triple H, the more he’s starting to make her look like Chyna by turning her into a gym rat.

Russo says there was no need for Braun Strowman to be in the opening segment of RAW this week, and his inclusion there made no sense whatsoever. He thinks the only reason that Strowman was in that segment was to set up the match with Jason Jordan later in the night, and that’s just lazy booking in his opinion.

Russo goes on to say that there was a much easier way to get Strowman involved in this angle. Angle should have named Strowman as the first member of Team RAW, which would have pleased Strowman and resulted in him having Angle’s back. Then when Triple H attacked Angle at Survivor Series, Strowman getting angry would have made much more sense.

The post Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – RAW & Smackdown Analysis, Joe’s Clown Trunks, Owens and Zayn Have Heat? More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.