Andrade, Jay White, Kris Statlander, R-Truth, The Rock, M. Reed, Killer Kelly, Bryce Donovan, Samoa Joe, Jacob Fatu, Cena, Britt, Sasazaki, L. Garcia, Tokyo, SmackDown, NXT – Friday News (Updated)

Andrade

Andrade’s WWE contract reportedly had a ONE YEAR non-compete clause, allegedly the new standard for TKO Group since merging WWE and UFC together. (WO) You may have heard that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ruled non-competes were unenforceable, but the state of Texas has appealed that decision, so it’s still the wild West out there in the interim. If WWE can actually make it stick we won’t be seeing Andrade on AEW television again for a really long time. Notably during the WrestleDream conference call Tony Khan ducked the question about it multiple times.

He’s been out of action since March of this year due to a variety of injuries, but now Jay White seems to be teasing his return on social media. And that’s all it is — a tease — one word. “Ready?” It could mean anything or nothing at all.

In this interview Kris Statlander stated her goal was to take Death Riders down from inside: “I’ve been down the path of letting someone else tell me what to do and letting someone else kind of try and guide me, and it ended up not working out with me, and I don’t want to go through that again. They have been terrorizing everyone in AEW for quite some time now, and I try to find a way to see if maybe I can kind of play their game a little bit and maybe I can get a little more information on how to take them down.”

To make a long story short R-Truth says he’s abandoned his more serious wrestling persona.

Even though The Smashing Machine was a box office flop, The Rock is teaming with Benny Safdie again for a new movie called Lizard Music.

Myron Reed and Killer Kelly are now engaged. Congratulations to them both!

Bryce Donovan is the latest EVOLVE and/or WWE ID talent to announce they’ve left the company.

Samoa Joe on how he hopes to be remembered when he retires: “I just hope they had fun. I mean, that’s really the gist of it. I’m not trying to shape a narrative of who they think I should be or who I think I am. I just hope that when they watched, whether they loved or hated me, they had a good time in the process. And that really is the only thing that matters.”

According to Bodyslam, Jacob Fatu has a non-wrestling related injury that could keep him out of the ring “until well in 2026.” There’s no other confirmation nor any word on what the injury even is so take all of that with a grain of salt.

John Cena insists that his final wrestling match is December 13th no matter what.

Britt Baker has removed all mentions of AEW from her social media. (WO)

In one of the wilder headlines you’ll see today or for some time to come former Marigold referee Katsumi Sasazaki is dead FOLLOWING AN APPARENT BEAR ATTACK. No joke. My condolences to his friends and his family on this horrific event.

Here’s a new slew of live event dates. (WWE)

  • Friday, December 5 – Austin, Texas – SmackDown – Moody Center
  • Friday, December 12 – Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania – SmackDown – Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza
  • Monday, December 15 – Hershey, Pennsylvania – Raw – GIANT Center
  • Friday, December 19 – Grand Rapids, Michigan – SmackDown – Van Andel Arena
  • Friday, December 26 – Baltimore, Maryland – WWE Live Holiday Tour – CFG Bank Arena
  • Saturday, December 27 – Tampa, Florida – WWE Live Holiday Tour – Benchmark International Arena
  • Saturday, December 27 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – WWE Live Holiday Tour – PPG Paints Arena
  • Sunday, December 28 – Jacksonville, Florida – WWE Live Holiday Tour – VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena
  • Sunday, December 28 – Rochester, New York – WWE Live Holiday Tour – Blue Cross Arena
  • Monday, December 29 – Orlando, Florida – Raw – Kia Center
  • Tuesday, December 30 – Ft. Myers, Florida – WWE Live Holiday Tour – Hertz Arena
  • Tuesday, December 30 – Detroit, Michigan – WWE Live Holiday Tour – Little Caesars Arena
  • Thursday, January 1, 2026 – Syracuse, New York – WWE Live Holiday Tour – Upstate Medical Arena
  • Friday, January 2, 2026 – Brooklyn, New York – SmackDown – Barclays Center
  • Saturday, January 3, 2026 – Worcester, Massachusetts – WWE Live Holiday Tour – DCU Center
  • Sunday, January 4, 2026 – Bridgeport, Connecticut – WWE Live Holiday Tour – Total Mortgage Arena
  • Monday, January 5, 2026 – Buffalo, New York – Raw – Keybank Center

Lilian Garcia is the guest announcer again for Raw next week.

Live event WWE results from Tokyo are below. (WBS)

  • AJ Styles def. El Grande Americano and Ivar
  • Penta def. Kofi Kingston
  • WWE Women’s US Championship: Giulia (c) def. Bayley and Lyra Valkyria
  • WWE Women’s World Championship: Stephanie Vaquer (c) def. Raquel Rodriguez
  • Shinsuke Nakamura & Jey Uso def. Bron Breakker & Bronson Reed
  • Rhea Ripley & IYO SKY def. Kabuki Warriors (Kairi Sane & Asuka)
  • WWE International Championship: CM Punk def. Dominik Mysterio (c) by DQ

This is all that has been announced for SmackDown tonight. (WWE)

  • WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship Match: Alexa Bliss & Charlotte Flair vs. Sol Ruca & Zaria
  • Jacob Fatu vs. Drew McIntyre
  • Cody Rhodes appears

NXT did a 0.12 and 690K viewers this week. (PI)

Here are last night’s ROH on Honor Club results. (WO)

  • Sidney Akeem def. Alex Zayne.
  • Isla Dawn & Grizzled Young Veterans def. Carolina Cruz, Gabriel Aeros & Javi. The Premiere Athletes attacked the winners post-match.
  • Diamante def. Aleah James
  • Wheeler Yuta def. Oro
  • Blake Christian def. Shannon Moore
  • The Von Erichs def. The Frat House