What were the top stories last week?
Big D and I just recorded an episode of FGB Radio covering the Royal Rumble and the latest WWE news.
Let’s get to the stories that didn’t quite make the top five.
Pro Wrestling
– Sting is the first inductee into this year’s WWE Hall Of Fame.
– Daniel Bryan is chomping at the bit (we’ll have more below).
– Dixie Carter shared Impact’s Pop TV debut so you can watch it in case you don’t have the channel.
– Why James Storm was back on Impact rather than NXT.
– Dave Meltzer is receiving a prestigious award from the National Wrestling Hall Of Fame.
MMA
– Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather are “feuding.”
– Our friend Ben Miller wrote a column on the relationship between Ronda Rousey and Dana White, including some interesting tidbits on her movie career.
– Royce Gracie is in the news for tax reasons.
Boxing
– Showtime has been putting up old boxing footage, including this Evander Holyfield vs Dwight Muhammad Qawi rematch we wrote about.
– Terence Crawford has a date for his next fight.
– The date is set for Canelo’s next fight, but he’s currently without an opponent.
And now, the top five…
5. Ronda Rousey is hosting Saturday Night Live.
Anyone miss Ronda Rousey’s butt the other day?
I know I sure didn’t. But that wasn’t the biggest Rousey news of the week. She’s set to host Saturday Night Live on January 23rd.
It’s fantastic publicity for her and gives her newfound stardom some credibility away from the cage. She’s also the first MMA athlete to host the show. While I’m not sure she’ll be as quality as her buddy The Rock, she only has to be better than Michael Jordan and Joe Montana. If not, it could get ugly.
4. Chris Jericho returns, again.
This may not be big news to some, but it is to this Jericho-holic. I thoroughly enjoy Chris Jericho, even as he ages and grows old with us. He’s Uncle Jericho now.
His return against the New Day wasn’t historic in any way, but it was fun and silly. What I’m most excited about is that Jericho is going to be back for WrestleMania, which means that he’ll be involved in a quality wrestling match with any number of guys.
3. UFC 197 features two big title matches.
In somewhat of a surprise, the UFC announced two big title matches for UFC 197. Conor McGregor goes up to lightweight to challenge Rafael Dos Anjos for his 155 pound title. And Holly Holm defends her title for the first time against Miesha Tate.
That is now a huge show and sets the tone for UFC 200.
Oh, by the way, what happened to that Brazil show Dana?
2. John Cena is injured and probably out for WrestleMania 32.
WrestleMania 32 might be cursed. Seth Rollins is out. Randy Orton may be out (though based on his recent Instagram post, he could be back). The Rock is probably not wrestling. And now John Cena is having shoulder surgery and is probably also not wrestling on the show.
That leaves both the Undertaker and Brock Lesnar without natural big name opponents unless things change. If Cena does miss, it will be his first WrestleMania not wrestling since XIX.
Though, would you be surprised if he healed like the bionic man that he seems to be and made the show? Nope, me neither.
1. NJPW stars defect to WWE.
In news that took the pro wrestling world by storm, Shinsuke Nakamura, AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, and Drew Gallows are all coming to WWE.
All four men gave notice to New Japan and should be in WWE soon. Will they show up at Royal Rumble? I think it would be quite the coup. I’m especially interested in seeing what they do with Nakamura considering they don’t usually book international stars well.
See you next week.
