It was revealed that Alicia Fox, who is currently out with an injury, will be replaced by Mandy Rose in the Mixed Match Challenge series. She will tag with Goldust to face Jay Uso & Naomi on next week’s show.

NEXT WEEK on @WWE Mixed Match Challenge, @Goldust teams with his NEW partner @WWE_MandyRose to take on the husband-and-wife duo of #JimmyUso and @NaomiWWE! #WWEMMC pic.twitter.com/WmdeNhxtqN

— WWE (@WWE) January 31, 2018

The post Alicia Fox’s Replacement on Mixed Match Challenge Revealed 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.

Russo opens today’s show speaking about the ongoing controversy surrounding the severity of Paige’s neck/back injury. He points out that PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that Paige’s in-ring career was definitely over, and then all the other dirt sheets ran with that news.

WWE failed to announce Paige’s in-ring retirement last week and Russo thinks Johnson should have been 100% certain before running with this news. Johnson needed to have sources and evidence proving that Paige’s career was over before he published that story in Russo’s opinion.

Speaking about Dave Meltzer’s 5-star rating system, Gilbertti says the one ingredient that can be found in every 5-star match is that the two competitors look like they’re actually fighting. Gilbertti thinks there’s a misconception out there that being a good worker means you can do all kinds of crazy offensive moves. In reality, being a good worker means you can make your opponent’s offence look good.

He urges all young wrestlers today to watch Bret Hart versus Steve Austin from WrestleMania 12 because that was the best match of all time in his opinion, and both guys looked like they were actually fighting each other.

Given the way wrestlers work today, Gilbertti isn’t even sure how writers are supposed to write good promos for them. Promos can only work if the in-ring action looks like a fight, and when wrestlers go in the ring and work choreographed flip-flop matches, it’s impossible to take any of their promos seriously.

The post Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – EC3’s WWE Status, Secret to Being A Good Worker, Being Patient With “Woken” Hardy, More! appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

While appearing on Booker T’s Heated Conversations podcast, Samoa Joe discussed his recent injury and how long he’s expected to be out of action for.

“Anytime you miss one of the “Big 4” shows or, really, just shows in general it’s always sad to say. A younger version of me would definitely be stressing out and probably making this situation a lot worse. For me right now, I know what I need to do to get back and be healthy. I understand the time table and what I need to do to exceed that time table. I am more accepting of the process because I realize it’s unavoidable. Now it’s just about concentrating just getting back and being healthy.”

He continued, “As of right now it’s kind of a week to week thing. With these injuries sometimes these things can heal earlier and sometimes later. They are going to do a little bit of an ultrasound every week. They’re going to be giving me treatments. It’s not something that requires surgery. It’s basically a lot of time, rest, elevation and letting it heal. It just depends how quickly it’s going to heal. Hopefully it will be sooner than later. Obviously we’re going to be past the Rumble but I don’t know how much further past that.”

The post Does Samoa Joe Need Surgery for Recent Injury? appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Bobby Roode will face Jinder Mahal on next week’s episode of SmackDown Live. The winner of that match will be crowned the new WWE United States Championship title. Roode defeated Mojo Rawley and Jinder Mahal defeated Xavier Woods to earn the opportunity at the championship.

Update: Daniel Bryan announced after Roode’s victory that the new United States Champion will be crowned on tonight’s show.

The #USTitle Tournament Finals transpiring tonight? Now, THAT calls for a YES! chant! #SDLive @REALBobbyRoode @WWEDanielBryan @JinderMahal @SinghBrosWWE pic.twitter.com/QCasK3MvAm

— WWE (@WWE) January 17, 2018

The post New WWE United States Champion To Be Determined on SmackDown Tonight 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.

As seen on WWE television this week, Goldust wrestled a cruiserweight match on RAW and then again on this week’s episode of 205 Live.

Dave Meltzer discussed Goldust’s status on today’s installment of Wrestling Observer Radio and indicated that Goldust will be working 205 Live events moving forward, even though he doesn’t meet the weight requirements and clearly isn’t a cruiserweight. The belief is that any established RAW talent working 205 Live has more chances of bringing in viewership and increasing ticket sales than someone who only works the 205 Live shows.

The post WWE Permanently Moving Goldust to 205 Live? appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

It was revealed in a Fallout video that WWE published to their YouTube channel that The Ascension will face The Bludgeon Brothers on next week’s episode of SmackDown Live.

No other matches or segments have been announced for next week’s show.

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

Bobby Roode defeated Baron Corbin and Jinder Mahal defeated Tye Dillinger to advance in the US Title tournament on this week’s episode of SmackDown Live.

WWE Has announced that Zack Ryder will face Mojo Rawley and Aiden English will face Xavier Woods in the remaining tournament matches. The winner of Ryder vs. Rawley will face Roode and the winner of English vs. Woods will face Mahal.

The post Final Matches for the WWE United States Championship Tournament Revealed appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

It was announced on Monday’s episode of RAW that a Fatal 4 Way will take place on next week’s show with the winner facing Rich Swann for a chance to become the new #1 contender for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. Enzo will then defend against the winner of that match the following week.

While WWE has not confirmed the participants for next Monday’s Fatal 4 Way match, it looks like the bout will feature Cedric Alexander, Tony Nese, Drew Gulak and Mustafa Ali.

The post Possible Participants for The Cruiserweight Fatal 4 Way on RAW Next Week appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

While Dave Meltzer reported earlier this week that there are currently no plans for WWE to have a Women’s Royal Rumble match, The UK Sun have confirmed that they have heard differently.

According to The Sun’s report, WWE is beefing up the women’s roster on both brands, which is the reason why the company brought up several talents from NXT this past week. The Sun speculates that Ronda Rousey may be factored into the plans for The Rumble match and could possibly be the soul survivor of the match to go on to challenge Charlotte at WrestleMania for the SmackDown Women’s Championship.

Speaking of The Rumble, the UK Sun also mentioned that it’s very likely that the match will feature less women in comparison to the male’s traditional Royal Rumble match.

The post Plans for WWE to Announced First-Ever Women’s Royal Rumble Match appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.