Backstage update on NXT tournament, Royal Rumble, more

WWE Royal Rumble starts at 7:30pm EST

As reported earlier, Alex Riley is part of the 30-man Rumble, which means that he will not be present in the Royal Rumble pre-show. As his replacement, Byron Saxton is set to join the panel alongside Renee Young, Booker T, Corey Graves. The pre-show starts at 7:30pm EST and will stream live on WWE Network, WWE.com, the WWE App, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and Pheed.

This week’s WWE NXT will begin with a No.1 Contenders Tournament that includes Finn Balor, Hideo Itami, Baron Corbin, Bull Dempsey, Curtis Axel, Tyler Breeze, Adrian Neville and Tyson Kidd as the participants. The winner will face the current NXT Champion Sami Zayn in a title match on a scheduled day later.

As reported, Ryback tweeted earlier about getting his job back and thanked both John Cena and Sting. Now, the other ‘fired’ Superstars, Erick Rowan and Dolph Ziggler, have tweeted about their return to WWE. They posted, 

LIVE FROM NEW YORK, ITS MONDAY NIGHTS... again *cue Bischoff music* #RAW @nbcsnl

— Dolph Ziggler (@HEELZiggler) January 20, 2015

Hostility awaits, yet I smile

— Erick Rowan (@ERICKROWAN) January 20, 2015