media

This is the Fight Size Update for the evening of April 11th.
– Pro Wrestling Unlimited discusses the Undertaker's next match in the video at the top of this page.
– The Rock appeared on the HQ app today in a trivia contest for $300,000
Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) hosts our biggest game EVER tomorrow afternoon for $300,000.
Keep your phone close –https://t.co/BO0wmgD0FS pic.twitter.com/PGOtHDe88J
— HQ Trivia (@hqtrivia) April 11, 2018
– WWE released this video of Mauro Ranallo's reactions to the in-ring action of NXT Takeover: New Orleans.
– TMZ Sports uploaded a video of Mojo Rawley chopping a fan's chest.
– Bobby Lashley's former boss commented on Twitter about his WWE return. Lashley replied with a “thank you.”
Dang. Kudos to @wwe for getting @fightbobby. A total BEAST!!! One of my absolute faves.
— Dixie Carter (@TNADixie) April 10, 2018
– There was an episode of WWE Now about Chris Jericho's return to WWE at the Greatest Royal Rumble event.
-..

The Smackdown after WrestleMania supported higher ratings.
Leading up to WrestleMania 34, Smackdown had a dip in ratings. Three weeks ago, the show had the highest ratings since last year's Superstar Shakeup with 2,888,000 viewers on average. Over the next two weeks including the last show before WrestleMania, the ratings took a hit but then this week they went back up to 2,952,000 average viewers according to ShowBuzz Daily
Raw also supported great ratings this week with over 4 million viewers for the first two hours.
Smackdown beat all other cable original shows in the 18 to 49 year old demographic by averaging 980,000 viewers in that demographic. The show also averaged a higher viewership than every show in the same time slot besides Hannity and Rachel Maddow Show.
Three videos on the WWE YouTube from Smackdown had more than one million views. Those videos were Paige being announced as General Manager, Daniel Bryan versus AJ Styles, and Carmella winning her first Smackdo..

This is the Fightful.com live coverage for tonight's episode of WWE NXT. Tonight Aleister Black begins his reign as NXT champion after defeating Andrade Almas at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans this past Saturday. Kairi Sane faces Lacey Evans, Heavy Machinery takes on Tino Sabbatelli and Riddick Moss and much more so be sure to come back here at 8PM EST for all of the action!
Kairi Sane vs Lacey Evans
They lock up to start the match before Kairi hits a huricanrrana into a dropkick for a quick two count. Lacey cat he's Kairi coming in and hits a slingshot elbow drop for a quick two count, then drops her with a roundhouse kick before Kairi rolls her up for a near fall. Lacey chops Kairi in the corner and chokes her in the ropes before playing to the crowd as we go to commercial.
Lacey is in control as we come back from commercial, hitting a bronco buster for a quick two count before Kairi comes back with a series of chops only for Lacey to hit a shoulder breaker for a near fall. K..

Do not look any further if you do not want to see the matches that are on tap for tonight's set of NXT TV tapings.
Coming off of a scorching hot NXT TakeOver: New Orleans event it is now time for the yellow-and-black brand to regroup and start the train towards the next TakeOver which is in Chicago during 'Money In The Bank' weekend. Tonight, NXT will have tapings for upcoming episodes of the show and Fightful.com has obtained the match listing/script. It includes who is producing matches and promo segments.
The script for tonight’s NXT TV Tapings: pic.twitter.com/d7XzXKwKh5
— (@ADThompson__) April 11, 2018
Fightful will have the complete spoilers for tonight's NXT TV tapings and also, NXT will be airing their pre-TakeOver: New Orleans taping on the WWE Network.

The following are the matches and segments filmed during the April 11th taping of NXT.
Segment 1: Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae come out to the ring to talk about the events of NXT Takeover: New Orleans. A match between Zelina Vega and LeRae is created.
Match 1: Lio Rush defeats Chico Adams
Match 2: Ricochet defeats Fabian Archer
Match 3: War Raiders defeat Metro Brothers.
Match 4: Lars Sullivan defeats Killian Dain
Match 5: Candice LeRae defeats Zelina Vega
supremely powerful imagery pic.twitter.com/8QhehzKAPp
— sarah —- (@heeIneville) April 11, 2018
Segment 2: Johnny Gargano challenges NXT Champion Aleister Black to a championship match.
Segment 3: Roderick Strong is announced as a NXT Tag Team Champion replacing the injured Bobby Fish.
Scoop #18: Undisputed Era out, Roddy announced as one of the Tag Champs with Kyle pic.twitter.com/sJ5LjcJwnj
— Jacob Cohen (@MrJacobCohen) April 11, 2018
Match 6 North American Championship: Adam Cole defeats Oney Lorcan
Match 7..

Following UFC 223, Khabib Nurmagomedov is your new undisputed lightweight champion, dethroning former champion Abeyance Iaquinta. It was a competitive fight in the eyes of Joe Rogan and came down to a razor close 50-43 decision on the judges scorecards.
Following the bout, Nurmagomedov issued a challenge to Georges St-Pierre for no real reason. There brief talks that St-Pierre could drop to 155, but those rumors were silenced when logic intervened. Despite missing weight a handful of times, Khabib has never opening discussed moving up to 170 lbs.
All of this is to say, nothing was settled at UFC 223 in the lightweight division.
The long-awaited and highly-anticipated bout between Nurmagomedov and former interim undisputed champion Tony Ferguson fell apart for a fourth time. The UFC will need to book the bout at least one more time to see who wins the best of five series. Featherweight champion Max Holloway stepped up in Ferguson's place, but was deemed unfit to compete by the..

Chris Jericho is coming back to WWE for at least one night.
On April 27th, WWE will be hosting The Greatest Royal Rumble which will feature seven championship matches including a steel cage match between Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns, Triple H and John Cena in a singles match, and a 50-man Royal Rumble. On Tuesday, WWE announced 15 more names who will enter that Royal Rumble match including Chris Jericho and Raw General Manager Kurt Angle.
The following are the names of wrestlers added to the Greatest Royal Rumble:
Kurt Angle
Baron Corbin
Chris Jericho
Big E
Xavier Woods
Kofi Kingston
Shelton Benjamin
Sin Cara
Elias
Chad Gable
Goldust
Apollo
Titus O’Neil
Mojo Rawley
Dolph Ziggler
JUST ANNOUNCED: 15 Superstars have been added to the 50-MAN #RoyalRumble Match at @WWE Greatest Royal Rumble in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Friday, April 27, at 7 p.m. AST.! #WWEGRR https://t.co/HMiQow0e17
— WWE (@WWE) April 10, 2018
The event takes place at the King Abdullah Sports City Stad..

Former UFC Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor and a gaggle of friends attacked a bus full of UFC stars this past Thursday, allegedly trying to get their hands on UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Joe Rogan took part of the UFC 223 broadcast alongside Jon Anik and Jimmy Smith, offering the following about the bus attack by the Irishman and cohorts.
“It’s crazy,” Rogan said during the broadcast. “It’s pathetic, it’s disgusting. I hate it. I hate that it happened. And I hate that it happened, caused by a guy I love. I’m a giant Conor McGregor fan, and to see him step out this badly just really, really upsets me.”
The attack by the Irishman and pals lead to the cancellation of three bouts at UFC 223, including Anthony Pettis versus Michael Chiesa, Artem Lobov versus Alex Caceres and Ray Borg versus Brandon Moreno.
Smith was also a part of the UFC 223 broadcast and he stated the following about the bus attack.
“It’s taken something that was supposed to be about the fighter..

As the curator of the Fightful MMA Rankings, I wanted to give everybody a heads up to a major change in the rankings system for 2018. Just to see what each weight class would look like, all fighters who haven't competed in over a year (excluding champions) were removed from the rankings. This is going to be done like this all year and fighters will get added back to the rankings when they compete again.
Note: Rankings are organized and maintained by David Tees
Ultimate Fighting Championships (Top 15)
Heavyweight Division
Champion: Stipe Miocic
1. Francis Ngannou
2. Junior Dos Santos
3. Alistair Overeem
4. Curtis Blaydes
5. Alexander Volkov
6. Fabricio Werdum
7. Derrick Lewis
8. Mark Hunt
9. Alexei Oleinik
10. Shamil Abdurakhimov
11. Andre Arlovski
12. Stefan Struve
13. Marcin Tybura
14. Tim Johnson
15. Tai Tuivasa
Light Heavyweight Division
Champion: Daniel Cormier
1. Alexander Gustafsson
2. Volkan Oezdemir
3. Glover Teixeira
4. Mauricio Rua..

Below is an ongoing resource list featuring confirmed contract expirations, reported by respected news outlets or the talent themselves. You can also find Fightful's constantly updated injury report at this link.
WWE
Brock Lesnar: August 2018
Mauro Ranallo: June 2019
Daniel Bryan: September 1 2018
Paige: 2019
Mandy Rose: Late 2020
The Miz: 2022
Stephanie McMahon – October 7, 2019 (as on-screen talent)
Mojo Rawley- 2020
NJPW/ROH
Young Bucks: Through 2018
Kenny Omega: January 2019
Jim Ross: January 2019 (with AXS)
Josh Barnett: January 2019 (with AXS)
Jay Lethal: Through 2018
Flip Gordon: Spring 2018
Michael Elgin- January 2020
Kota Ibushi- Working as freelancer

Impact Wrestling:
Moose- July 2020
Eli Drake- May 2018
If you have any information on confirmed contract end dates. Contact us and provide a link to the talent going on record about their status.

This is the Fight Size Update for the evening of April 10th.
– In the video above, Pro Wrestling Unlimited discussed Chris Jericho returning to WWE for the Greatest Royal Rumble.
– Paige expressed gratitude for the response by fans and wrestlers to her retirement.
Completely overwhelmed with the love and support. Thank you everyone. Seriously means so much to me. This isn't the end though. Just the beginning of something special. #ThankYou #ThisIsMyHouse pic.twitter.com/WUhEKdXfMd
— PAIGE (@RealPaigeWWE) April 10, 2018
– The WWE Hall of Fame did 665,000 viewers on the USA network and the WrestleMania 34 Kick Off had an average of 762,000 viewers.
– In this video, The Revival talk about facing Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt next week for a chance at the Raw Tag Team Championship.
– SEScoops' Damon Martin reports Bobby Lashley is still under contract with Bellator MMA.
– After his debut, No Way Jose was interviewed backstage about his match and the Superstar Shakeup.
-..

Raw after WrestleMania 34 improved ratings on top of a good month of viewership in March.
The Raw after WrestleMania performed better than any other episode in recent years outside of the 25th Anniversary of Raw. According to ShowBuzz Daily, Raw averaged more than 4 million viewers for the first two hours and dipped to 3.5 million viewers in the third hour. This comes after a straight month of all three hours averaging more than 3 million viewers.
Hour 1: 4,069,000 viewers with 1.5 million in the 18-49 year old demographic.
Hour 2: 4,098,000 viewers with 1.49 million in the 18-49 year old demographic.
Hour 3: 3,597,000 viewers with 1.40 million in the 18-49 year old demographic.
Raw out performed every other original cable show in both viewership and the 18 to 49 year old demographic. News shows like Sean Hannity and Rachel Maddow have beat Raw in recent weeks in viewership but not this week.
On YouTube, WWE had more videos receive more than one million views than usual. The ..