WWE Smackdown Rating, Audience Down For Post-Thanksgiving Episode

In an interview with Busted Open Radio (via Fightful), Austin Theory revealed he didn’t know Vince McMahon would have a match at Wrestlemania 38 until the night before. He also spoke about how his onscreen pairing with McMahon began. McMahon had a surprise match at night two of Wrestlemania, defeating Pat McAfee after McAfee beat Theory.

WWE has announced matches for next week’s episode of Smackdown, including a Women’s Championship match and more. The company announced the following matches for next week’s show, which airs Friday night on FOX:. * Smackdown Women’s Championship Match: Charlotte Flair vs. Sonya Deville. * Smackdown Tag...

– PWInsider has a report on some NXT Superstars who were brought into San Antonio for this weekend’s WWE Royal Rumble event. According to report, the following talents from the NXT women’s division were brought in:. * Indi Hartwell. * Ivy Nile. * NXT Women’s Champion Roxanne Perez...

– Speaking to Ariel Helwani with BT Sport ahead of today’s WWE Royal Rumble event, Bayley discussed the controversy over her Raw cage match with Becky Lynch being cut from last Monday’s Raw due to time constraints. Since the trial of Sami Zayn angle ran too long, Damage Control beat down Becky Lynch instead.

Brock Lesnar made quite the statement on WWE Smackdown, laying out Bobby Lashley and announcing his entrance into the men’s Royal Rumble match. Friday night’s show saw Bobby Lashley come out to interrupt a segment with Austin Theory, Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods and The Miz, running through everyone before Lesnar came through the crowd and F5’d Lashley. Lesnar then told Lashley he’d see him tomorrow at the Rumble.

AEW has an updated card for next week’s episode of Dynamite including a TBS Championship match. The company announced the following lineup for next week’s show, which airs Wednesday night on TBS:. * TBS Championship Match: Jade Cargill vs. Red Velvet. * TNT Championship No Holds Barred Match:...

– WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus announced yestreday that she will be unable to make her scheduled appearance for today’s WrestleCon pop-up event in San Antonio, Texas as her little girl is not feeling well. However, she did not that she’s hoping to make some appearances on the road to WrestleMania 39 in Los Angeles. You can see the video she posted on the announcement below:

Commentators: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Excalibur, Chris Jericho. We’re still in Kentucky and in this case, that means it’s time for Hangman Page to face Wheeler Yuta on his way to next week’s showdown with Jon Moxley. Other than that, Jamie Hayter is in a Women’s Title eliminator match and we should be in for a treat there. The show continues to be up and down, but maybe they can make it work this week. Let’s get to it.

T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach, anchors at the afternoon extension of ABC's "Good Morning America," are leaving the network.

– Becky Lynch will be appearing on today’s broadcast of The Kelly Clarkson Show to talk Royal Rumble topics and more, and was featured in a preview excerpt from the interview on their YouTube channel, described as:. “I thought professional wrestling would get me on the straight and narrow.”...

Wardlow lost a match (and his ponytail) to Samoa Joe a month ago but hasn’t been seen on AEW TV since then. According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the reason that Wardlow has not been on TV is because he’s dealing with an injury. The attack from Joe after their match was done to write him off of TV. However, it’s believed he won’t be gone long.

– WWE Hall of Famer The Undertaker appeared in a Complex video with Joe La Puma to do some sneaker shopping at Concepts in Boston. The Undertaker his discussed his Nike collab with LeBron James, his love for New Balance, and his first pair of Adidas sneakers. Undertaker said the following on LeBron James homaging him with his line of GS sneakers:

Hulk Hogan was out of toilet paper on Wednesday, and he sent a plea to all of Twitter to help him. The WWE Hall of Famer took to his Twitter account today to send what appear to be inadvertent tweets, writing:. “Help”. “I ran out of toiler paper brother,help!!!!!!!!”. Hogan...

As previously reported, this past Wednesday’s episode of AEW Dynamite had over a million viewers for the first time since October, with ratings also up. The show had 1,003,000 viewers and a 0.32 rating (421,000 viewers) in the key 18-49 demographic. It also had an 0.22 in 18-34. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter has more details on the numbers including a look at each individual quarter-hour.

Well everyone, this is it. The full on go home show for the Royal Rumble which takes place tomorrow. This is episode of Smackdown is the WWE’s last chance to convince you to watch, and after last years Rumble sucked out loud they need a good one this time around. The tag team tournament continues this week with Drew McIntyre and Sheamus taking on Hit Row, please don’t let it go long, and the much better on paper Legado del Fantasma taking on Imperium. Karrion Kross will battle Rey Mysterio in a bout I’m rather interested in, and Kevin Owens looks to build momentum going into his uWu title shot at the Rumble when he meets Solo Sikoa. Might be as good a time as any to get that first loss on Sikoa’s record, he can still be the badass enforcer but if they run that streak too much the weight of it might limit his options. Brock Lesnar will be here, because reasons, or at least he’s been advertised. A bunch of Rumble related shenanigans will likely take place as well. Anyway that’s the preamble, let’s get to the action.

– WWE has announced the launch of Roman Reigns’ personal TikTok account. His TikTok channel is now live and released its first video, showing Reigns arriving to San Antonio, Texas for tonight’s Royal Rumble 2023 event, which you can view below. Roman Reigns has landed on TikTok. The...

– WWE Undisputed Universal Champion Roman Reigns joined The Tonight Show last night ahead of today’s Royal Rumble event. During the appearance, he was asked by host Jimmy Fallon about rumors on a possible matchup with his cousin Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Below are some highlights and clips of Reigns’ appearance:

– In a post on her Instagram, WWE NXT Superstar Nikkita Lyons announced that she suffered a torn ACL and meniscus. You can read her post below:. “ACL & Meniscus are torn.🦵🏼This comeback is personal. Thank you to all who consistently show love & genuine support every week. You have no idea how much it means to me. Those of you who don’t see the vision, thank you too. Stay ya a** right there. This is just another lesson life needed to teach. Love, Light, & Positivity always.”

– During last night’s AEW Rampage, Women’s World Champion Jamie Hayter defended her title against Emi Sakura. Excalibur had high praise for the match on Twitter, writing, “20 years ago, @jmehytr & @EmiSakura_gtmv was the type of match I would be thankful to see a 6th generation VHS copy of. Not only did I get to watch it in HD on TV, I got to call it as well. Hell yeah.” You can see that tweet below:

– During a recent edition of his Hall of Fame podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Booker T discussed working with The Nasty Boys in the 1990s and said he wants to see the tag team in the WWE Hall of Fame. Below are some highlights (via WrestlingInc.com):. Booker T on...