Bobby Roode defeated Jinder Mahal in the finals of the United States Championship tournament on tonight’s episode of SmackDown Live to be crowned the new US Champion.

Our NEW #USChampion is nothing less than #GLORIOUS!!! #AndNew #USTitle #SDLive @REALBobbyRoode pic.twitter.com/k7WtbVyEsK

— WWE (@WWE) January 17, 2018

The match was originally scheduled to take place on next week’s show, however WWE did an angle after Roode defeated Mojo Rawley to set up the match on tonight’s show.

The post New WWE United States Champion Crowned appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

On today’s episode of The Taz Show, Taz will discuss the classic matchup between Abdullah The Butcher and Bruiser Brody which aired from Japan on April 10th, 1981 as part of the Champions Carnival tournament.

Taz points out that that Abdullah and Brody didn’t need the NWA or WWE “machine” to get over. They got over huge all over the world by constantly travelling to different territories and bringing their aggressive style with them wherever they went. Whether it be Japan, Puerto Rico, or the United States, these two men had an amazing rivalry throughout the years, and we rarely see this type of rivalry today.

He mentions that Abdullah and Brody were very different looking individuals, but neither of them look like regular people who work in an office building. They were both very unique looking people and if you saw either of them in an airport, you’d know they were stars of some kind.

Braun Strowman is one of the only competitors in WWE today that resembles this type of old-school character. He’s similar to Brody and Abdullah in the sense that if you see him walking towards you in public you’d probably turn and walk the other way. He has a tremendous mystique about him, and there’s no doubt that this is a person you wouldn’t want to mess with.

The post The Taz Show Recap – Abdullah the Butcher Vs. Bruiser Brody 1981, Unpredictability & Believability, Brody’s Untimely Death, More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

New Japan Pro Wrestling will present the 12th annual Wrestle Kingdom event from the Tokyo Dome in Japan. Coverage of tonight’s event will kick off at 2AM ET. Here is the card for the show:

IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito

IWGP UNITED STATES HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP (NO DQ)
Kenny Omega (c) vs. Chris Jericho

IWGP INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Jay White

IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Marty Scurll (c) vs. Hiromu Takahashi vs. KUSHIDA vs. Will Ospreay

NEVER OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP (HAIR VS. HAIR/NOBODY AT RINGSIDE DEATHMATCH)
Minoru Suzuki (c) vs. Hirooki Goto

IWGP TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Killler Elite Squad (Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr.) vs. EVIL and SANADA

Cody vs. Kota Ibushi

NEVER OPENWEIGHT 6-MAN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP (GAUNTLET MATCH)
Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, and Bad Luck Fale (c) vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, Juice Robinson, and Togi Makabe vs. Beretta, Toru Yano, and Tomohiro Ishii vs. Hanson Raymond Rowe, and Michael Elgin vs. Taichi, Takashi Iizuka, and Zack Sabre Jr.

IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Roppongi 3K (c) vs. The Young Bucks

PRE-SHOW
New Japan Rumble

The post What to Expect at Tonight’s Wrestle Kingdom 12 Event appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

According to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the reason WWE booked Dolph Ziggler to vacate the United States Championship title and seemingly “walk out” on the company’s is the latest attempt to re-boot his character again.

This attempt comes weeks after another failed attempt when he was wrote off television for a while to try to repackage him.

The post Reason WWE Booked Dolph Ziggler to Vacate the United States Championship appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

When Dolph Ziggler seemingly vacated the United States Championship, Daniel Bryan knew what he had to do. He booked one of WWE’s rare tournaments. You don’t see those too often. I know we had the Mae Young Classic and the Cruiserweight Classic recently, but I’m talking about one for the main roster dudes. They could happen a bit more.

Obviously they shouldn’t be overdone, but they could be used every once in a while, and here’s why.

Tournaments Showcase The Midcard

Remember the tournament WWE held for the vacant WWE Championship back in 2015? I know most people don’t want to. In case you do, you most likely remember the big names such as Roman Reigns, Dean Ambose, and Kevin Owens advancing in the tournament. But did you know that men like Kalisto, Ryback, Stardust, Neville, Titus O’Neil, and Tyler Breeze were also there? Granted, they didn’t last very long, but they were there. And those aren’t your main-event names.

Even with the Smackdown tournament for the vacant US Championship, they have the ability to showcase some of their less used talents. Though Tye Dillinger didn’t win, he had a strong showing against Jinder Mahal. Unless WWE decides to have big names such as Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura compete, they’ll have to use Sin Cara, Zack Ryder, Mojo Rawley, and Mike Kanellis, who are all talented performers. They have the chance to show off what they are capable of.

They Provide a Reason for Matches

Too often we see matches happen just for the sake of having a match. That’s it. No storyline advancement. No interference or anything. Nothing happens. A guy wins and the other guy loses. If WWE did more tournaments, this would happen less often. Now two guys can fight, and there’s a valid reason for them to fight. Therefore, the audience gets invested in the match.

Qualifying matches also do this quite well. Just last Survivor Series, the members of Team Smackdown (except for John Cena and Shane McMahon) all had to fight for their spots. Randy Orton beat Sami Zayn. Shinsuke Nakamura beat Kevin Owens. Bobby Roode beat Dolph Ziggler. At last year’s Money in the Bank, all the performers in that match had to qualify.

This doesn’t specifically apply to tournaments, but when you give a match a reason for happening, people will care about it more. Tournaments and qualifying matches provide an easy reason for two people to be fighting.

It Kills Time

Sometimes the gaps between PPVs can be as long as five or six weeks. For a company that often has trouble booking a story for four weeks, this can be a problem. Look at Raw right now. They’re far away from the Royal Rumble, so it’st just kind of happening. Last week’s episode was a whole episode of nothing. There are times when the shows feel like they are just spinning their wheels.

If there are five weeks until a PPV, instead of having the challenger decided in one and having him fight in tag matches against the champion for four, how about have the challenger decided in two or three weeks, and spend the others building the match? There are only so many promos you can cut, so many time you can stare down your opponent before it gets old. It may build interest a bit, but there is a better way.

The post Reasons Why WWE Should Do More Tournaments appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

WWE heads to the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ for tonight’s episode of SmackDown Live. Here are the highlights from tonight’s show:

Daniel Bryan opens the show talking about the Women’s Royal Rumble match. Bryan talks about the main event of tonight’s show before Shane McMahon comes out. Shane talks about what transpired at Sunday’s WWE Clash of Champions where Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn one their match with the assist from Daniel Bryan. Bryan said he did it to protect Shane from himself. Bryan and Shane talk about the vision for the SmackDown brand. Bryan says if he has a problem, he can fire him. Bryan says he doesn’t want Shane to turn into Vince McMahon. Shane says he turns Bryan before telling him “Good luck with the show tonight.”

Bryan and Shane talk about the vision for the SmackDown brand. Bryan says if he has a problem, he can fire him. Bryan says he doesn't want Shane to turn into Vince McMahon. Shane tells him Good luck.#WWE #SDLive Results – https://t.co/o5468sCc7H pic.twitter.com/V3wCOSBPNc

— Ringside News (@RingsideNewscom) December 20, 2017

Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin defeat The Usos.

Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin defeated The Usos#WWE #SDLive Results – https://t.co/o5468sCc7H pic.twitter.com/klvLIyITab

— Ringside News (@RingsideNewscom) December 20, 2017

Charlotte in-ring promo. She talks about her win at WWE Clash of the Champions and the first-ever Women’s Royal Rumble match. Charlotte says she will be waiting to defend her championship to whomever wins the Women’s Royal Rumble. Naomi comes out and announces herself as the first women in the Women’s Royal Rumble match. The new NXT rookies come out and Naomi calls them “chicken heads.”

Naomi & Charlotte defeated Sarah Logan & Ruby Riott.

Backstage segment with The New Day, Rusev Claus and Aiden English. Rusev Claus puts everyone on the naughty list before a challenge is issued. The New Day accepts.

Dolph Ziggler in-ring promo. Ziggler talks about all the championship titles he had won. He then drops the United States Championship Title and walks to the back. It appears that he just forfeited the title.

"YOU'RE NOT WORTHY OF MY PRESENCE!" –@HEELZiggler pic.twitter.com/0yXxtBbzeH

— WWE (@WWE) December 20, 2017

(Note: Ziggler’s contract was rumored to be expiring. We will keep updated)

The New Day defeat Rusev & Aiden English.

Randy Orton, Nakamura & AJ Styles defeated Jinder Mahal, Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn.

Goodnight, @SinghBrosWWE!#SDLive @RandyOrton pic.twitter.com/G7T4C7dvgL

— WWE (@WWE) December 20, 2017

The post WWE SmackDown Live Highlights – December 19th, 2017 appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Here are the final betting odds for tonight’s WWE Clash of Champions event, courtesy of Bet Wrestling:

* WWE Championship Match: AJ Styles (c) -1350 vs Jinder Mahal +650

* WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship Match: Charlotte Flair (c) -675 vs Natalya +425

* WWE Smackdown Tag Team Championship Match: The Usos (c) -140 vs Shelton Benjamin and Chad Gable +370 vs The New Day +410 vs Rusev and Aiden English +535

* WWE United States Championship Match: Baron Corbin(c) -385 vs Bobby Rodde +375 vs Dolph Ziggler +1035

* Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn -975 vs Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura +525

* The Bludgeon Brothers -2150 vs Breezango +1050

* Mojo Rawley -1545 vs Zack Ryder +725

Check back here at 8PM ET for our live play-by-play coverage of the event.

The post Final Betting Odds for Tonight’s WWE Clash of Champions appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

X-Pac opens today’s show speaking about WWE’s suspension of Rich Swann amidst domestic violence allegations. He hopes that the reports aren’t true because if they are this is a terribly tragic situation for many reasons. He recalls WWE suspending Kevin Nash for a similar set of circumstances right before his Hall of Fame induction a couple of years ago, so there’s no denying that WWE is steadfast when it comes to their zero tolerance policy regarding domestic violence.

X-Pac thought the recent interaction between Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega in Japan did wonders in building hype towards their match at WrestleKingdom 12. He wonders if we’ll see a rematch between these two when NJPW visits the United States in the new year.

He points out that Sasha Banks and Alexa Bliss made history last week by wrestling a match in India. The women have been doing incredible things over the last couple of years and they continue to break down barriers. Being the first two women to wrestle in India must have been an amazing feeling for those two women.

The post X-Pac 1, 2, 360 Recap w/ Konnan – Women’s Wrestling in Mexico, Returning to Impact, Young Bucks in Lucha Underground, More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

While appearing on Ellen yesterday, The Rock was asked about running for President of The United States. The Rock responded to the question, “I’m seriously considering it, yes.”

Jumanji co-star Kevin Hart was very supportive of the idea. You can check out footage from the show below:

The post The Rock Says He’s Seriously Considering Running for President appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Austin is joined on today’s show by Anderson and Gallows, The Club.

Austin asks Karl Anderson about his experience training in the Dojo in Japan. Anderson says he had been working some indie shows for 4-5 years locally in the United States before considering a move to Japan. He wishes he would have made that move to Japan two years earlier because he learned a lot very quickly in Japan.

Anderson says that he initially met Shinsuke Nakamura during his time at the Dojo and he had some terrific matches with Nakamura. He believes the only way to improve is to work with people who are at or above your technical level, and working with Nakamura really helped him.

Austin mentions that working in Japan can be a terrific experience but you’re simply punching the clock, working your matches and earning your money. In WWE things are different because you still get paid to wrestle, but you also get the national exposure that accompanies working for the largest wrestling company in the world.

Anderson agrees, but mentions that he began to notice a difference in Japan during his last couple of years there when The Bullet Club started picking up steam. They really became a mainstream news story over there at that time and PPV shows were selling out 10,000 seat arenas, so he got a little taste of what that kind of exposure felt like but he knew he’d have to work for WWE to really understand it.

The post The Steve Austin Show Recap w/ The Club – Working in Japan/TNA, Origins of the ‘Festus’ Character, Developing The Bullet Club, More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.