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The Top Ten Wrestling Stories of the Week 11/6: Jey Uso Turns Heel, AEW Full Gear Preview, Vince McMahon Documentary and More

By Matthew Fowler • Published 6th November 2020

Welcome back TJR readers! Did you spend all day Friday practicing to draw a spider on your kid’s head so he could have a rush for Halloween, and missed Smackdown? Perhaps you got in line really early to express your right as a citizen and missed RAW. Worry not, for I have returned with another edition of The Top Ten Wrestling Stories of the Week to catch you up.

10. Walter and Ilja Dragunov Have a Match of the Year Contender on NXT UK

It is not often that a NXT UK match makes this list, but the match this week between Walter and Ilja Dragunov was that special. In an over twenty-five minute match, Walter and Dragunov went to war. In the end, Walter won the victory in this absolutely brutal match, continuing his over 580-day reign as champion. Our very own John Canton gave this match ****3/4 stars, whereas Dave Meltzer gave it 5 stars, or 7 stars if it was in Japan or AEW. (TJRWrestling)

9. Braun Strowman Qualifies for the Men’s RAW Survivor Series Team

The men’s RAW Survivor Series team added another new member this week. Braun Strowman defeated both Keith Lee and Sheamus in a Triple Threat Match to earn a spot on the team. Four of the five RAW team spots have been announced, with Strowman joining Lee, Sheamus and AJ Styles, who all earned their spots last week. On the Smackdown side, Kevin Owens and Jey Uso both earned a spot on their team, with the other three spots yet to be decided. It is not yet known how the rest of the team members will be decided, but hopefully it won’t involve counting anything in Pennsylvania. (TJRWrestling)

8. WWE NXT Announces Two Title Matches for Next Week

Two big title matches were announced for NXT next week. For the NXT Tag Team Championships, Breezango will try to regain the titles against Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan. Also, Johnny Gargano appeared in a segment this week playing the game of Life from his kitchen table. Gargano was shown to be playing the game with the mystery attacker from last week, who was still wearing the Scream Costume. During the segment, Gargano announced that he would be defending his North American Championship against a mystery opponent next week, because, of course, the one thing people need right now is more uncertainty. (TJRWrestling)

7. PAC Returns on AEW Dynamite

After a seven-month absence, PAC broke his silence this week on AEW Dynamite. In a video message, PAC claimed that he is a “causality of this rotten world”, and is getting faster and stronger as each day passes. PAC then warned that, “lads, I see everything”, as Eddie Kingston’s voice played in the background. When PAC was last seen, he was apart of the Death Triangle stable with The Lucha Bros, who are now in Kingston’s stable. We will have to wait to see what impact PAC now returning may have on Kingston, who has an AEW Championship Match this weekend. One thing is for sure that after this year if being a causality of a rotten world makes you stronger and faster, then we are all going to be Olympic athletes. (TJRWrestling)

6. Cody Gets His Last Name Back

While WWE is shortening their superstars’ names, one AEW star has lengthened his…again. WWE agreed to drop their claim on the trademark of the name “Rhodes” this week, allowing Cody to once again use the last name his late father made famous. In return for the last name, Cody agreed to abandon his trademark applications for Slamboree, The Match Beyond, Superbrawl, Bunkhouse Stampede and Battlebowl. This week during Dynamite, Cody gave a promo, stating that he “went to war with the empire and came out victorious.” WWE still owns the rights to Cody’s old name, Stardust, with that trademark worth an estimated $2.46. (TJRWrestling)

5. WWE Superstars Start Shutting Down Twitch Accounts

Over a month ago it was reported that WWE was going to force its superstars to stop using third-party platforms, such as Twitch and Cameo. Several wrestlers attempted to change WWE’s mind on this edict, but were unsuccessful. Subsequently, several WWE Superstars, including Mia Yim, Aleister Black, Zelina Vega (Black and Vega are married), Cesaro and AJ Styles all announced that they will be suspending their Twitch stream accounts. One superstar who has not shut down her stream is Paige, who went on an expletive-ridden rant on the topic instead. During her rant, she proceeded to say she can’t deal with WWE anymore, blame them for her career-ending neck surgery and even threatened to talk to a unionization lawyer.

“People don’t realize I’m outspoken as f–k. I will say how I feel. I don’t care who you are. I will say how I feel because I don’t like being walked all over. … You know what? I’m gonna start looking more into unionization. I’ve been learning about it by a unionization lawyer.“

It is yet to be seen if Paige will eventually comply and shut down her stream, but with comments like that, Paige will unquestionably be Fighting with her Family again real soon. (TJRWrestling)

https://twitter.com/realpaigewwe/status/1321931843655004161?s=21

4. WWE and Netflix to Produce Series on Vince McMahon

Vince McMahon is about to join the ranks of Joe Exotic very soon. It was announced this week that Netflix will be producing a four-part Docuseries on Vince McMahon. The series will be directed by Fyre Festival Director Chris Smith, with Bill Simmons of The Ringer, along with WWE Studios, producing the film. From starting out as a poor child growing up in a trailer park, to becoming the multi-billionaire owner of the WWE, McMahon has an incredible story that should make for a great series. This is reportedly going to be the most expensive docuseries that Netflix has ever put on, with it still unknown how many more employees WWE will have to fire during the pandemic to produce the series. (TJRWrestling)

3. Murphy and Aalyah Mysterio Kiss on Smackdown

Love was in the air this week on Smackdown. The 32-year-old Murphy and 19-year-old Aalyah Mysterio came down to the ring walking arm-in-arm this week. Murphy then attempted to call out both Rey and Dominic Mysterio, to apologize to them for his actions. Instead, Seth Rollins came to the ring and attempted to recruit Aalyah and Murphy, stating that he would accept their relationship. Rollins then proceeded to insult Dominic, causing Dominic to come to the ring and attack him. Rollins began to get the upper hand on Dominic before Murphy made the save and sent Rollins to the floor. Dominic then proceeded to attack Murphy, while Aalyah pleaded with them to stop. Rey Mysterio then came down to help his son as they both went for a 619 on Murphy. Aalyah got in the way, however, preventing the move and saving Murphy. Aalyah then professed her love for Murphy, before hugging and kissing him. Many wrestling fans find a 13 year age gap to be unacceptable unless of course you’re the King of Memphis Tennessee or the President of the United States. (TJRWrestling)

2. Jey Uso Turns Heel

Jey Uso chose to “fall in line” this week on Smackdown. At the beginning of the show, Roman Reigns gave Uso until the end of the night to accept Reigns as the new Tribal Chief. At the end of the night, Uso faced off against Daniel Bryan to earn a spot on the men’s Survivor Series team. After Uso defeated Bryan, Reigns came to the ring. Uso then claimed that he is with Reigns and that Reigns is now the “head of the table.” Uso then proceeded to beat down Bryan while Reigns looked on. Although some may disagree with Reigns and Uso’s actions, it is nice to see that a Tribal Chief election is a lot less violent than a U.S election. (TJRWrestling)

1. AEW Full Gear to Take Place This Saturday

AEW Full Gear is set to take place this Saturday night November 7th at 8PMET. MJF will try to become a member of the Inner Circle, by defeating Chris Jericho. Matt Hardy and Sammy Guevara will try to settle their differences in an Elite Deletion Match. And in what should be an amazing match, Hangman Adam Page and Kenny Omega will meet to decide who the new number one contender is for the Heavyweight Title. Also, every AEW championship will be on the line, including Nyla Rose once again trying to capture the AEW Women’s Title from Hikaru Shida. Cody will attempt to defend his TNT Championship against Darby Allen. FTR and The Young Bucks will finally meet for the AEW Tag Team Championships. And finally, for the AEW Heavyweight Championship, Jon Moxley will defend against his long time friend Eddie Kingston in an “I quit” match. So make sure to check out this great card this Saturday night on PPV. I also highly suggest you go and read John Canton’s review, as John turned the ripe old age of 40 this week and may not have many more reviews left. (TJRWrestling)

That will conclude another edition of The Top Ten Wrestling Stories of the Week. As always, if you like what I do, please follow me on Facebook and Twitter @BackseatBookers and listen to my podcast The BackseatBookers. (Please be aware that it is explicit as it would take Pennsylvania six months to count all my swear words.)