Tuesday 18 December 2018 09:55, UK
Six new superstars will be added to the WWE roster as part of Vince McMahon's shake-up of Monday Night Raw.
While it was not specified whether the half-dozen NXT call-ups will be on Raw or SmackDown, the announcement was made during Monday night's show that Nikki Cross, Lacey Evans, EC3, Lars Sullivan and the tag team Heavy Machinery will all be moving up from the developmental brand.
McMahon spoke about WWE's ability to "change with the times" but also that he could no longer continue to be in sole charge of the company, introducing his children Shane and Stephanie, and Triple H to the ring.
Stephanie admitted the company had been "suffocating its superstars" and how that would stop, while Triple H said the quartet will be "taking back" both Raw and SmackDown and that in the coming weeks, fans could expect to see "new faces, new superstars and new match-ups".
Natalya earns Rousey title shot
One such unprecedented match-up will take place next week and sees Natalya challenge Ronda Rousey for her Raw women's championship.
Natalya earned that right after coming through an eight-woman gauntlet match which featured the top singles competitors from Monday night's women's division.
Bayley began the match strongly, disposing of Alicia Fox and Dana Brooke before succumbing to Mickie James, who herself was then knocked out by Ember Moon.
Moon did well against Natalya but ultimately lost, as did Ruby Riott, before the Queen of Harts forced Sasha Banks to tap out in the final bracket of the contest to earn her shot at best friend Rousey.
Ambrose makes successful title defence
Dean Ambrose was pushed to the limit by Tyler Breeze after announcing an open challenge for the Intercontinental title he won from Seth Rollins at TLC.
The new champion had first demanded The Kingslayer acknowledge that Ambrose correctly predicted his collapse on Sunday and when that failed, he tried to lure him to the ring with a non-title open challenge.
He finally opted to put the title on the line if anyone other than Rollins stepped up, a move which brought out Breeze for a match in which Ambrose had to dig deep for the win, eventually getting it with a Dirty Deeds.
Of course, the champion really wanted Rollins, and he made a point of taking his rival to task for failing to show up. But it turned out Rollins had been there all along, in disguise as one of Ambrose's masked SWAT heavies, and he attempted to sneak-attack Ambrose only for the champion to beat a hasty retreat.
