According to the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio and PWInsider, former IWGP and ROH Tag Team Champions War Machine, Raymond Rowe and Hanson, are currently undergoing their WWE Medical Examinations in preparation for signing with the company. The pair seemingly gave their farewell to ROH this past weekend. They’re booked for NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom 12 on January 4 in the NEVER 6-Man Tag Team match, but their NJPW deals are expected to wrap up following the event. The plan is for War Machine to head to NXT in January, where they will feud with the likes of SaNitY and the Undisputed Era‘s Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish, formerly reDRagon in ROH and NJPW. The arrival of another brute tag team likely indicates that former NXT Tag Team Champions Authors of Pain will be heading to either Smackdown Live or Raw in the next month or so.
In other rumored new WWE recruits, former Impact Wrestling and UK star Rockstar Spud was backstage at last night’s Raw and is expected to debut with 205 Live sooner rather than later. It could happen as early as tonight. While most North American fans only recognize Spud from his work on Impact, he had an 10-year career on the UK indies prior to joining TNA in 2013, working for such promotions as IPW:UK, SWE, PCW, and Fight Club: PRO.
Finally, PWInsider is also reporting that word coming out of the WWE Performance Center is that Ricochet’s WWE deal is all but done and he will be reporting to the PC in January, most likely to debut with NXT as well. Ricochet has long been rumored to join the WWE at some point, but with his Lucha Underground no-compete close wrapping up in a few weeks, he’ll be free to begin on WWE television by the end of January.
