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Top 10 Wrestling Stories of the Week 12/16: Mandy Rose Fired By WWE, Vince McMahon Wants WWE Return, New ROH Champions, More

By Matthew Fowler • Published 16th December 2022
mandy rose wwe face hand

Welcome back, TJR readers! Did you spend all day Friday getting the heck out of Russia, and missed WWE Smackdown? Perhaps you spent all day Monday swimming naked in a pool and missed Raw.

Worry not for I have returned with another edition of the Top Ten Wrestling Stories of the Week.

10. ROH Weekly Show to Debut on ROH Honor Club

If you are tired of all the free wrestling on television, then I have some great news for you. This week Tony Khan announced that ROH Honor Club will be returning, and a weekly ROH television show will air on the service. Honor Club will cost $9.99 per month and include ROH’s back catalog as well. ROH’s PPV events will not be available on the service until 90 days after they air. A fee of $9.99 a month seems a little high to me for this service, especially figuring for a mere $20 more you can see Mandy Rose naked. (TJRWrestling)

9. Gable Steveson Debuts on Smackdown

Two Olympic gold medalists appeared on television together. This past Friday on Smackdown, WWE celebrated Kurt Angle’s 54th birthday. Angle did not show up to his birthday party alone, as fellow Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson arrived at the arena with Angle. The last segment of the show saw Angle come out for his birthday celebration before it was interrupted by Chad Gable and Otis. Otis and Gable then proceeded to berate Angle, before Steveson drove a milk truck into the arena. Angle and Steveson then sprayed Otis and Gamble with milk to end the segment. We will have to see if Steveson will wrestle soon for the WWE, or if they are going to milk his in-ring debut a little longer. (TJRWrestling)

gable steveson kurt angle smackdown wwe

8. Bryan Danielson Confronts MJF at the End of AEW Dynamite

It appears that we now know who will be the next challenger for MJF’s AEW World Championship. This past Wednesday on Dynamite, MJF successfully defended his AEW Championship against Ricky Starks in the main event of the show. After the match, MJF began walking down the aisle before Bryan Danielson’s music suddenly played in the arena. Danielson then came out, with MJF quickly jumping over the barricade and running away. Danielson will now likely challenge MJF for the title, unless of course, he has to go coach his kid somewhere instead. (TJRWrestling)

7. Bobby Lashley “Fired” From the WWE for a Day

Tony Khan may have tried to get Bobby Lashley’s number this week. This past Monday on Raw, Bobby Lashley challenged Seth Rollins for the WWE United States Championship. The finish of the match saw Lashley have Rollins pinned, but the referee had been taken out and could not count the pin. Rollins then ended up hitting the Pedigree to get the win. An irate Lashley began yelling at the referee, before inadvertently hitting another one. This brought out WWE official Adam Pearce, who began yelling at Lashley. Lashley then proceeded to argue with Pearce, with him shoving him at one point. A very angry Pearce then responded by shockingly firing Lashley to end the show. The following day on Twitter, Pearce took back his comments, stating that Lashley will be punished but not fired. Getting fired would have been very bad news for Lashley, as he never wrestled for NXT so Triple H can rehire him. (TJRWrestling)

6. Multiple ROH Title Changes Including Claudio Castagnoli Regaining ROH World Title

ROH Final Battle was held this past Saturday, with the show seeing multiple title changes. Athena defeated Mercedes Martinez to capture the ROH Women’s Championship. The Embassy defeated Dalton Castle and The Boys to capture the ROH Six Man Championships. Wheeler Yuta captured the ROH Pure Championship, by defeating Daniel Garcia. The Briscoes defeated FTR in an absolutely brutal Double Dog Collar Match, to capture the ROH Tag Team Championships. Finally, Claudio Castagnoli defeated Chris Jericho to regain the ROH World Championship. Castagnoli actually won the title by making Jericho tap out to the Giant Swing. This is actually the complete opposite of Tony Khan, who couldn’t swing an ROH television deal. (TJRWrestling)

5. Matt Riddle Fails Second Drug Test

On the December 5th edition of Raw, Matt Riddle was stretchered out of the arena after an attack by Solo Sikoa. It was later revealed after the attack, that Riddle would be out of action for at least six weeks. It was reported this week that Riddle will indeed miss six weeks of action, but not because of an attack. It has been reported that Riddle has failed a second drug test, and was told to either enter rehab or be suspended. Riddle has chosen the rehab option, with him checking into one this week. It is unknown what substance caused the drug failure, but it should be noted that WWE no longer tests for marijuana. Hopefully, Riddle can overcome whatever addictions he has, and just go back to smoking weed like a responsible member of society. (TJRWrestling)

Matt Riddle

4. Chris Jericho Loses to Action Andretti on AEW Dynamite

It ended up being a very bad week for Chris Jericho. This last Wednesday on Dynamite, Jericho attempted to get back to his winning ways, after losing the ROH championship to Claudio Castagnoli at ROH Final Battle. This appeared at first to be a pretty easy task, as Jericho’s opponent was virtually unknown wrestler Action Andretti. Andretti ended up being a lot more challenging than Jericho expected however, with Andretti battling Jericho for over ten minutes before shockingly rolling him up for the win. Andretti defeating Jericho immediately drew comparisons to The 123 Kid defeating Razor Ramon on Raw way back in 1993. Comparisons were also made to the LA Rams defeating anybody this year. (TJRWrestling)

3. John Cena to Appear on the Last Smackdown of 2022

WWE is looking to end 2022 in a big way. This week it was announced that John Cena would be appearing on the December 30th episode of Smackdown. This will be only the second time that Cena has appeared on WWE television this year, with the first time being last June on an episode of Raw. Interestingly, if Cena does not surprisingly wrestle a match on Smackdown, it will be the first year since his debut in 2000 that he has not wrestled at least one match. Interestingly if Cena does wrestle on the 30th, he will have competed in more television matches than 25% of AEW’s roster. (TJRWrestling)

2. Vince McMahon Reportedly Wants to Return to the WWE

If an exploding limousine couldn’t take out Vince McMahon, did you think a few sexual misconduct allegations could. This week it was reported by the Wall Street Journal that even more allegations had been levied against McMahon. Both former WWE referee Rita Chatterton and former California spa manager both accused McMahon of sexual assault. Despite these new allegations however, The Wall Street Journal also reported that McMahon wants to return to the WWE. With so many sexual allegations against McMahon, it seems unlikely that he will return to the WWE and likely that he will become President of the United States. (TJRWrestling)

Vince McMahon open mouthed

1. Mandy Rose Released From WWE

This past Tuesday on NXT, Roxanne Perez shockingly defeated Mandy Rose to capture the NXT Women’s Championship. Before losing to Perez, Rose had previously held the title for over 400 days. The following day Rose’s week went from bad to worse, when she was suddenly fired from the WWE. Rose had posted explicit photos on her Fantime page, which breached her WWE contract and led to her release. Prior to her release, Rose had been a part of the WWE since 2015 as a Tough Enough contestant that was hired after the show ended. As of this writing, Rose’s Fantime page is still active for a mere $30 dollars a month. On a related note, TJRWrestling’s John Canton has asked all his family members for $30 in cash for Christmas. (TJRWrestling)

Mandy Rose

That concludes another edition of The Top Ten Wrestling Stories of the Week. Although I often joke, I have recently started refereeing with NYCW and FCWA, and respect more than ever what wrestlers do every week. I wrote an article all about it all right here. If you like what I do, despite my jokes being almost as bad as a censored Mandy Rose photo. Then follow me on Twitter @Fowlerwrestlin1. Thank you for taking the time to read this each week.