AJ Styles Removed From All Live Events Until After Christmas, Styles On Injury And If He’s Cleared

As noted, AJ Styles has not wrestled since sustaining an ankle injury at last week’s TLC pay-per-view. Styles’ ankle injury occurred when he took an over-the-top rope backdrop from Dean Ambrose during their match.

WWE was hoping that Styles would be able to return to action on last night’s SmackDown and defend the WWE Championship against James Ellsworth, however plans were changed. Styles ended up not wrestling on the show, and Dolph Ziggler defeated Dean Ambrose, Luke Harper and WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz in a Fatal 4 Way Elimination Match to become the new #1 contender for the WWE Championship. Ziggler will face Styles for the WWE Championship on the December 27th SmackDown from Chicago. The storyline reason given was that James Ellsworth was too sick to face Styles. WWE SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan noted on Talking Smack that Ellsworth will still get a WWE Championship opportunity in the future.

Styles has been removed from all upcoming SmackDown live events until the December 26th show at Madison Square Garden in New York. Styles is scheduled to defend the title against Ambrose and the returning John Cena in a triple threat match at the event.

Styles appeared on Talking Smack last night and dodged questions about if he was cleared to wrestle, but said that he “could go.”

“Health-wise I’m ready to rock, I was ready to go with Ellsworth tonight and then he got sick,” Styles said. “I’m ready to go… listen, I can go.”

Source: WrestlingINC

UFC Creates First Female Featherweight Title Fight

The UFC announced late Tuesday night the first-ever female featherweight title fight, and Cris “Cyborg” Justino is not part of it. After Cyborg turned down bouts with Holly Holm and Germaine de Randamie, the promotion decided to pair Holm and de Randamie at UFC 208 to crown a champion at 145 pounds.

Cyborg, the reigning Invicta FC featherweight champion, stated in previous interviews that she could not cut down to 145 pounds within the timeline the UFC set before her. She was sworn in as an American citizen on Tuesday in Los Angeles.

Holm is a former UFC bantamweight champion, but is coming off back-to-back losses to Miesha Tate for the title and to Valentina Shevchenko. De Randamie sports a 4-1 record over her last five fights, falling only to current UFC champion Amanda Nunes.

Source: WrestlingINC

Cyborg did issue a comment on her Twitter page, calling out both the UFC and Bellator MMA.

205 Live Preview 12/13/16

WWE 205 Live takes place tonight on WWE Network at 10PM ET. Due to the tapings of the Tribute to the Troops special airing Wednesday on USA Network that will take place prior to Smackdown Live tonight in Washington, DC, 205 Live was taped prior to last night’s RAW TV Tapings in Philadelphia, so it will not be a live broadcast this evening.

Scheduled for tonight:

WWE Cruiserweight Champion Rich Swann vs. TJ Perkins in a Non-Title Match

Lince Dorado vs. Mustafa Ali

Jack Gallagher vs. Drew Gulak.

SmackDown Live Preview 12/13/16

WWE Week will feature Styles vs. Ellsworth in a WWE Championship Match

Battle Royal tonight to determine SmackDown Tag Team Championship #1 Contenders

Is Nikki out to get Natalya or Carmella?

Who will look to unseat The Miz?

Comedian Gabriel Iglesias to appear tonight on SmackDown Live

Source: WWE.com

Rock The Troops Special Tonight On Spike TV

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Military men and women are honored in this tribute concert hosted by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson airing tonight on Spike TV at 9/8C. The show was filmed on Oct. 22 at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. The show features Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Terry Crews, Matthew McConaughey  and retired Marine Rob Riggle, with music from Lynyrd Skynyrd, Nick Jonas, Flo Rida and Tenacious D, featuring Black and partner Kyle Gass.

For more information on Rock The Troops visit http://www.spike.com/shows/rock-the-troops

News On CM Punk Possibly Fighting In UFC Again

CM Punk recently appeared on The MMA Hour and revealed that he recently met with UFC President Dana White and said that he wants to fight again. He noted that they’ve been going back and forth, and that an announcement may be coming soon.

Punk’s coach, Duke Roufus, also recently appeared on The MMA Hour and said that it was “looking hopeful” that Punk would fight in the UFC again, possibly as soon as “four to five months.”

“Yeah, definitely, I believe he and Dana are talking,” Roufus said. “I just talked to Punk on Monday before that, and things are looking hopeful. I can’t say yes or no, but they’re looking hopeful. We’re going to see. Dana’s always got a good recipe of what he’s going to create, and what’s best for the sport, and what’s best for Punk and everyone else.”

Punk suffered a one-sided loss in his UFC debut to Mickey Gall at UFC 203 in September. Gall submitted Punk in just 2 minutes and 45 seconds of the first round with a rear-naked choke. Roufus noted that Punk didn’t perform the way that he would have liked against Gall, but said that he was getting better.

“He’s going to get better,” Roufus said. “Obviously, he didn’t perform the way we wanted to perform. We had some things he was doing really well with, he just didn’t happen. It’s just going to take time. But the great thing is he has an incredible attitude, and he’s very thankful for the opportunities. He’s getting better, he’s back in training and right after this fight I’ll picking up big time with him.”

Source: WrestlingINC

Matt Hardy Invites Current And Former WWE Superstars To ‘Apocalypto’ Match This Thursday

TNA Tag Team Champion Matt Hardy tweeted the following invitations to RAW Tag Team Champions The New Day, SmackDown Tag Team Champions Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt, DX, Evolution, The Rock ‘n’ Sock Connection, Edge & Christian and legendary tag team The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express for Thursday’s “Apocalypto” match during the Total Nonstop Deletion edition of Impact Wrestling.

As noted, several tag teams are expected for the match but obviously no WWE talents will be appearing.

Source: WrestlingINC

Erick Rowan Posts New Teaser Video

Erick Rowan has posted another teaser video that shows him doing away with his old sheep mask and revealing a new one. Rowan posted this latest teaser to his own YouTube channel. Rowan has been out of action since late September with a torn rotator cuff.

Source: WrestlingINC

Matt Sydal Is Back In The U.S. & No Longer Working For NJPW

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Matt Sydal is back in the United States … and the man formerly known as Evan Bourne says the arrest has sadly caused him to lose his job with NJPW.

Sydal tweeted a photo Monday morning upon his return and included the caption, “Back from Japan – ‘Let’s meet in the USA’ .”

As we previously reported, Sydal was arrested in September at Kansai International Airport while trying to enter Osaka with a small amount of liquid marijuana — aka weed cartridges for a vape pen.

Sydal says, “It’s all finished. I received probation, which applies only if I’m in Japan. So no actual punishment. I was just held until they had the trial. I wasn’t ever in jail either, only police detention centers and the Osaka immigration detention center.”

As for his job with his New Japan Pro Wrestling … Matt says, “I’m no longer with NJPW. I still love the Japanese people, but I won’t be working there in the near future.”

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet

The New Day Makes History

Last night on WWE RAW, The New Day made history by becoming the longest reigning WWE Tag Team Champions. The record was previously held by Demolition They accomplished by winning 2 different Triple Threat Tag Team Title matches. First they defeated, Gallows & Anderson and Sheamus & Cesaro. In the main event they defeated, Kevin Owens & Chris Jericho and Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns.

The New Day posted about their big night on Twitter: