Sesugh Uhaa, known to pro wrestling fans as Uhaa Nation, one of the best independent prospects in the world, has officially agreed to terms with WWE.

As noted recently, Uhaa had participated in a WWE tryout camp and afterwards, sent out word to promoters that he wasn’t going to be accepting any independent dates after a certain point, so his coming to terms with WWE was ultimately expected.

BACKSTAGE NEWS Regarding The Idea Behind RYBACK’S Promo From Monday’s RAW

(Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)

WWE taped this week’s episode of SmackDown on Tuesday night from the Laredo Energy Arena in Laredo, Texas. Here are the complete spoiler results:

Dark match

* Luke Harper defeated Justin Gabriel

* Los Matadores defeated Tyson Kidd and Cesaro

WWE SmackDown

* SmackDown kicks off with an in-ring promo from Seth Rollins, Joey Mercury and Jamie Noble. Roman Reigns interrupts to a big pop. Reigns ends up clearing the ring but Big Show comes out. Big Show and The Authority vs. Reigns is announced for tonight and Reigns must find a tag team partner.

* Adam Rose makes his way out and The Authority are shown on the big screen. The New Day comes out and Big E defeats Rose.

* The Ascension cut a promo in the ring and squashed two local wrestlers.

* Alicia Fox defeated Naomi with her foot on the rope.

* The Usos defeated Goldust & Stardust and The Miz & Damien Sandow in a Triple Threat to retain their titles. Goldust got pinned.

* Sin Cara defeated Bad News Barrett clean in a non-title match. Barrett hit him with the Bullhammer after the match.

* Seth Rollins and Big Show vs. Roman Reigns and a partner is the main event. Nobody comes out for Reigns at first but finally the music of Dean Ambrose hits and out he comes. Ambrose and Reigns win when Reigns spears Rollins. This was the end of SmackDown.

* UFC Champion JON JONES Enters Rehab After Testing Positive For Cocaine

– WWE broadcast team member Scott Stanford will be back on the official WWE RAW pre-show on the WWE Network tonight. Stanford will join the regular RAW pre-show hosts Byron Saxton and Alex Riley in place of the usual third member of the team, Booker T.

– Ryback posted the following tweet to follow up on the “firing” storyline from last Monday’s edition of WWE RAW.

What was once my inspiration has now taken away my 1 love. Through hard work and positivity we will succeed. #Ryback pic.twitter.com/OBvKoxfY0g

— The Big Guy (@Ryback22) January 12, 2015

PHOTOS: CM Punk & AJ Lee In Their Private Time, Hanging w/ Celebrities, Partying & MORE! [View Here >>]

Kyle O’Reilly is getting another shot at Finn Balor’s NXT Championship.

O’Reilly defeated Pete Dunne on tonight’s episode of NXT to become the number one contender to Balor’s title. O’Reilly will challenge Balor for the NXT Championship at New Year’s Evil on Wednesday, January 6, 2021.

Near the finish of tonight’s match, Dunne snapped O’Reilly’s fingers and went to hit the Bitter End on the apron. But O’Reilly reversed and suplexed Dunne to the floor. O’Reilly then threw Dunne into the ring and hit a knee strike from the top rope to get the win.

O’Reilly was accompanied by Adam Cole & Roderick Strong for tonight’s match and Dunne was accompanied by NXT Tag Team Champions Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch. Killian Dain & Drake Maverick attacked Lorcan & Burch before the bell rang, then Breezango got involved and Lorcan & Burch, Cole & Strong, Dain & Maverick, and Breezango brawled to the back.

Paul “Triple H” Levesque tweeted after O’Reilly vs Dunne: “Unbelievable match. From start to finish @KORCombat and @PeteDunneYxB tore the house down. Ready to see #BalorOReilly2 for the #NXTTItle at #NXTNYE … THIS IS #WWENXT!!!! #WeAreNXT”

O’Reilly also challenged Balor for the NXT Championship in the main event of TakeOver 31 this October. Balor retained his title but suffered a broken jaw in the process. Balor broke his jaw in two places and has yet to wrestle since undergoing surgery for the injury. 

New Year’s Evil is the first NXT episode of 2021. It’s being hosted by Dexter Lumis and will air live on the USA Network at 8 p.m. Eastern time. Here’s what’s been announced for the show thus far:

NXT Champion Finn Balor defends his title against Kyle O’Reilly
Karrion Kross vs. Damian Priest

– WWE Hall Of Famer Booker T has a new radio show with CBS Houston, which debuted on Saturday night. The show airs on SportsRadio610.com, as well as on radio stations in the local market. The people involved with the show are still working on coming up with a name for the program, which is scheduled to air every Saturday at 7pm local time.

– Ryback is working his “firing” angle on social media, as he posted the following on Friday evening.

Thanks WWE for denying me access as a paying customer to the WWE Live event in Vegas tonight! The Big Guy will not forget this. #FeedMeMore

— The Big Guy (@Ryback22) January 18, 2015

Josh Mathews Takes Some STIFF Shots At Jim Ross, JR Fires Right Back At Him …

Over the weekend, we ran a report that WWE talent is frustrated that the wrestlers at NXT get much more time to wrestle during their matches and are much less restricted with what they get to do in the ring. WWE Divas The Bella Twins appeared at Comic Con in Indianapolis over the weekend and corroborated the sentiment.

When asked about the women in NXT wrestling lengthy matches while WWE Divas only get a few minutes to work each week, Nikki said that she and Brie were just talking about that the other day. Brie said:

“I was saying that. If I was in NXT I would not wanna come up to the main roster because you get so much time down there. If you come to the live events you’ll see we get a lot of time at the live events. When it comes to TV we get so frustrated because it’s hard to tell a story in 3 minutes and especially when they want an entrance. We want time to wrestle. Especially after watching NXT Rival pay-per-view and seeing them go 20 minutes, it’s like a dream. It’s something we’d love and we’re trying so hard to get more time. There’s a three hour Raw and you can’t give more time to the Divas? But, hopefully in the future.”

They also spoke about Total Divas, with Brie mentioning that she thinks its silly for WWE to have the storylines crossover to WWE RAW. Since Total Divas taped months in advance, its difficult to act like the events that took place on Total Divas occurred the night before.

* Editorial: Should WWE RAW Go Back To 2 Hours?