12/27 PW Morning Report: Royal Rumble Head Count, Final Smackdown of 2017, Kendrick Injured, MSG & More

Tonight:

WWE NXT on the WWE NETWORK at 8/7c.
December 27, 2017

Ember Moon defends the NXT Women’s titleSanity responds to losing the tag titles last weekFatal 4-Way to crown a #1 contender to the NXT ChampionshipShayna Baszler set to make her debut

Full spoilers for tonight’s episode of WWE NXT.

WWE News

The final Smackdown of 2017 ran last night from the Allstate Arena in Chicago, following a Christmas Day WWE Raw in the same building the night before. Unlike last week’s holiday throwaway, Tuesday’s show delivered on some key storyline elements as we close out the year and head towards the Royal Rumble.

Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura both confirmed their spots in the 30-man bout, and Ruby Riott signed up on the women’s side joining Naomi and Asuka so far. A tournament was announced to crown a new United States Champion (details) after Dolph Ziggler’s mysterious walk-out, and both Bobby Roode and Jinder Mahal advanced to the next round (details). We also got a main event match between Kevin Owens and WWE Champion AJ Styles that furthered the ongoing program with Shane McMahon, plus an excellent 3-way tag team match to decide who challenges The Usos for the titles on the first Smackdown of 2018. (Full results from Smackdown Live)

While Smackdown held its final show in Chicago, the stars of Raw finished out their year at the world famous Madison Square Garden. Roman Reigns faced John Cena in a blockbuster main event, Finn Balor took on Samoa Joe, Woken Matt Hardy was in action against Bray Wyatt and even Enzo Amore made it on the card, defending the Cruiserweight Championship. (Full results from WWE at MSG.)

Perhaps the biggest non-results related piece of news so far this week, Brian Kendrick took a bad GTS from Hideo Itami on Monday’s WWE Raw and was reportedly taken to the hospital after their match. Results showed that Kendrick suffered a broken nose and a broken orbital bone that will put him out of action at least a couple of months, but we’ll likely know more soon (details).

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