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The Top Ten Wrestling Stories of the Week 2/19: WWE Elimination Chamber, Undisputed Era Implodes, Lacey Evans Pregnant, More

By Matthew Fowler • Published 19th February 2021

Welcome back TJR readers! Did you spend all day Friday hiding in your hotel to see if you were going to be impeached, and missed Smackdown? Perhaps you spent all day Monday shopping the Presidents’ Day sales 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. Bad Bunny Wins the 24/7 Championship

It didn’t take long for Bad Bunny to capture gold in the WWE. During Raw this week, Bunny and Damien Priest were being interviewed backstage when they were interrupted by Akira Tozawa, who pinned R Truth to capture the 24/7 title. While celebrating, Tozawa accidentally backed into Priest, who then threw Tozawa into a stack of production cases. Priest then told Bunny to pin Tozawa, causing Bunny to capture the 24/7 championship. Bunny’s entrance into the wrestling world truly has been impressive, as he is already a much better wrestler than he is a singer. (TJRWrestling)

9. Tully Blanchard to Wrestle on Dynamite

When it comes to having senior citizens wrestle, AEW is telling WWE to “hold my beer”. This week on Dynamite the 61-year-old Sting was powerbombed by Brian Cage to build towards the street fight between Sting and Darby Allen vs. Cage and Ricky Starks at AEW Revolution on March 7th. Sting will not be the only competitor in his 60’s competing for AEW however, as it was announced this week that the 67-year-old Tully Blanchard would be teaming up with FTR to face The Jurassic Express on the March 3rd episode of Dynamite. WWE has gotten a lot of slack over the years for using older wrestlers on their cards, but at least they are just having their senior citizens hook up with the female roster and not actually wrestle. (TJRWrestling)

8. Taya Valkyrie and Eli Drake Sign with WWE NXT

Two former Impact Wrestling Champions are headed to NXT. Former Impact Wrestling Knockout’s Champion, and wife of WWE Superstar John Morrison, Taya Valkyrie, signed with NXT this week. Valkyrie is the longest-reigning Knockout Champion in Impact history, holding the title for an impressive 377 days. Also during the pre-show to NXT Takeover Vengeance this past Sunday, former Impact Wrestling Heavyweight Champion Eli Drake made a surprise appearance. Drake, who is now going by LA Knight, gave a typical cocky heel promo on the show. Personally, I think Drake should have changed his name to BK Knights, so all the kids would think he was cool. (TJRWrestling)

7. The Miz Pulls Himself Out of the Elimination Chamber

The Miz will no longer be competing in the WWE Heavyweight Championship Elimination Chamber Match this Sunday. Raw opened this week with WWE Champion Drew McIntyre on MizTV with The Miz. McIntyre ended up head-butting The Miz before leaving the ring. After Drew left, Miz cut a promo and announced that he was removing himself from the Chamber match. The Miz then warned whoever wins either the WWE Heavyweight Championship or Universal Championship Chamber matches, as he planned on cashing in The Money in the Bank briefcase this Sunday. Later in the evening, Kofi Kingston defeated The Miz to earn the final spot in the Chamber. WWE may have wanted to use Goldberg in the final spot, but he was still too gassed from his Rumble match. (TJRWrestling)

6. Seth Rollins Attacks Cesaro

Seth Rollins made his official return to Friday Night Smackdown this week. Rollins came down to the ring to his old “Burn it Down” entrance music, as much of the Smackdown locker room surrounded the ring. Rollins then proceeded to state that he could be the great leader Smackdown needs, asking the roster to embrace his vision for a better tomorrow. By the time Rollins had finished speaking, most of the roster, aside for Cesaro, had left. Rollins then started to praise Cesaro for staying, before Cesaro just shook his head and began to leave as well. An angry Rollins then attacked Cesaro from behind, before Daniel Bryan finally came out to make the save. It is unclear what Rollins will have to do to get people to follow his crazy ideas, although Tweeting conspiracy theories about stolen elections has worked in the past. (TJRWrestling)

5. Winners of Both of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classics Crowned

Both the finals of the Men’s and Women’s Dusty Rhodes Classic took place this past Sunday at NXT Takeover Vengeance. On the women’s side, Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez defeated Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart to win the Tournament and earn a future WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship match. On the Men’s side, it was MSK continuing their dominance by defeating the Grizzled Young Veterans to take home the trophy. With both these incredible matches and the 12-tag matches AEW puts on Dynamite every week, it truly is a great time to be a fan of tag team wrestling. (TJRWrestling)

4. Lacey Evans Announces She is Pregnant

Lacey Evans will not be challenging Asuka for the WWE Raw Women’s Championship this Sunday at Elimination Chamber. During Raw this week, Evans teamed with Peyton Royce to face Charlotte and Asuka. During the match, Lacey continued to refuse to get in the ring with Charlotte, by refusing to be tagged by her partner Royce. When Royce finally did tag Evans, Evans left the ring and went and stood by her manager Ric Flair. Evans then announced that Charlotte will not be getting her hands on her, as she is pregnant. This announcement excited the 71-year-old Ric Flair, who shouted “Woo” repeatedly and told people to “call him daddy”. Evans really is pregnant with her second child from her longtime husband, and not Flair. We shall have to see if WWE keeps Evans on television, as well as continues the storyline with Flair as the father. If WWE does go that route then a lot of wrestling fans are going to go from shouting “Woo” to shouting “Eww”. (TJRWrestling)

3. Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley to Compete in an Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match

Fans of 1990’s FMW wrestling are certainly happy this week. After Jon Moxley, Lance Archer and Rey Fenix defeated Eddie Kingston and The Butcher and The Blade in the main event of Dynamite, The Good Brothers attacked Moxley. AEW Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega then came down to the ring to mock Moxley, and to let him know he can have his championship rematch at AEW Revolution on March 7th. Omega then told Moxley that he gets to pick the stipulation for the match, and had decided on an Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match with the hopes of ending the feud. Exploding Barbed Wire Death matches were made famous in the Japanese promotion FMW in the early 1990s, with Hall of Famers Mick Foley and Terry Funk competing in them. These matches are obviously very risky and violent, with perhaps the only match that is more dangerous being a triple threat with Goldberg and Nia Jax. (TJRWrestling)

2. Adam Cole Turns on Kyle O’Reilly

The greatest faction in NXT history is no more. After Finn Bálor successfully defeated Pete Dunne at NXT Takeover Vengeance, Bálor was attacked on the stage by NXT Tag Team Champions Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch. This led to Dunne, Burch and Lorcan triple-teaming Balor in the ring. Undisputed Era members Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong then came down to the ring to save Bálor. Takeover then seemingly was going to go off the air with Bálor and The Undisputed Era standing tall when suddenly Cole super kicked Bálor. This visibly upset O’Reilly, who suddenly was also super kicked by Cole. Cole then left the ring while a shocked Roderick Strong stood over both O’Reilly and Bálor. Cole continued the breakup on NXT this week, attacking O’Reilly so bad that he had to be stretchered out. This shocking turn of events actually is now officially the 8,778,478,379 worst breakup to have ever occurred on Valentine’s Day. (TJRWrestling)

1. Elimination Chamber to Take Place This Sunday

WWE’s next PPV Elimination Chamber is scheduled to take place this Sunday, February 21st at 7PM ET. So far only four matches have been announced for the event, including Bobby Lashley defending the WWE United States Championship against Keith Lee and Matt Riddle. Drew McIntyre will try to defend the WWE Heavyweight Championship inside the Chamber against Jeff Hardy, Randy Orton, AJ Styles and Sheamus. On the Smackdown side, it will be Kevin Owens vs. Jey Uso vs. Sami Zayn vs. King Corbin vs. Cesaro vs. Daniel Bryan inside the Chamber, with the winner getting the opportunity to face Universal Champion Roman Reigns later that night. WWE will obviously have to book some more matches including women’s matches for this show, but they may be making sure no one gets knocked up by a grandpa or hurts their hole before they do. (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 I swear more than a weatherman in Texas.)