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The Top Ten Wrestling Stories of the Week 3/12: AEW Revolution Death Match Dud, Christian Cage to AEW, Molly Holly in WWE Hall of Fame, More

By Matthew Fowler • Published 12th March 2021

Welcome back TJR readers! Did you spend all day Friday buying sparklers for your big PPV event, and miss Smackdown? Perhaps you spent all day Monday planning how you were going to spend your big stimulus check, and missed Raw. Worry not, for I have returned with another edition of the Top Ten Wrestling Stories of the Week.

10. WWE NXT Takeover: Stand & Deliver to Take Place on April 7th and 8th

WrestleMania 37 will not be the only WWE event that will be held over two nights this year. This week on NXT, William Regal announced that NXT’s next Takeover event titled Stand and Deliver will be taking place on both Wednesday, April 7th and Thursday, April 8th. The April 7th show will be seen in NXT’s regular time slot on the USA Network (or wherever you watch it in other countries) whereas the April 8th show will air on Peacock/WWE Network. There have been no matches announced for the show, but it’s already promising to be more exciting then seeing both my kids be born as they were both delivered laying down. (TJRWrestling)

9. John Laurinaitis Back in Role as Head of Talent Relations for WWE

“People Power” is back in charge of Talent Relations in WWE. It was reported this week that John Laurinaitis has been rehired as the General Manager of Talent for WWE. Laurinaitis previously held the position from 2004-2012, before Triple H took over the role and started what is now known as NXT. Triple H has since taken over as the Executive Vice-President of Global Talent Strategy and Development, clearing the way for Laurinaitis to return to the position. Laurinaitis never actually left the WWE, as he has worked as a producer since 2012. Laurinaitis started working for WWE in 2001 after being in the front office of WCW. After the news of Laurinaitis’s rehiring, there has been a noticeable jump of bikini models and amputees at my local gym. (TJRWrestling)

8. NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships Introduced

NXT got a new set of titles this week. The NXT General Manager William Regal opened NXT this week by introducing the brand new NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships. Regal then presented the titles to the inaugural Women’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic winners Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez. Kai and Gonzalez did not get to enjoy the new titles for very long however, as they were immediately challenged to a match by Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart for later that night. Moon and Blackheart were able to defeat Kai and Gonzalez to win the championships, ending Kai and Gonzalez’s reign after about one hour. Kai and Gonzalez must be very disappointed with their title run, as when it comes to title runs, length does matter. (TJRWrestling)

7. WrestleMania 37 tickets to go on sale March 16th

Next week, WWE is planning to do something they haven’t done in almost a year. On March 16th, WWE will be selling a limited number of tickets to both night one and two of WrestleMania 37 on April 10th and 11th. Ticket prices will range from $35-$2500 dollars, with WWE planning on selling somewhere between 25,000 and 30,000 tickets. WrestleMania will be held this year in Raymond James Stadium, which was the same stadium that the Super Bowl was held in last month. Also, just like the Super Bowl, no Los Angelas Rams players will be appearing at the event. (Note from John: I’ll allow the Rams joke because Matthew is a Miami Dolphins fan and unlike his team, my team has been to the Super Bowl three times since the last time his team was there. Facts only!) (TJRWrestling)

6.MJF Turns on Inner Circle and Creates a New Faction on AEW Dynamite

MJF’s time in The Inner Circle has come to a end. This week on AEW Dynamite, The Inner Circle held a War Council to discuss the issues with the group. As the group discussed, Sammy Guevera showed up to reveal a video of MJF telling Jake Hager, Santana, and Ortiz it’s time to remove Jericho as the leader. MJF then attempted to get the rest of the group to attack Jericho, but they all sided with Jericho and kicked MJF out of the group. MJF then revealed that he had been secretly creating his own faction, as the lights went out in the arena. When the lights came back on, FTR, Wardlow, Shawn Spears and Tully Blanchard were in the ring. The new faction then proceeded to destroy The Inner Circle, with Wardlow Powerbombing Jericho off the stage to end the show. With AEW adding another faction, they now just need a few more smaller wrestlers and YouTube shows to have everything they need. (TJRWrestling)

5. WWE Network to Launch on Peacock on March 18th

If you currently reside in the good ol’ USA, the WWE Network is about to change. Starting March 18th, the WWE Network will officially be launching on Peacock . The current WWE Network will end on April 4th in the United States, meaning that Peacock will be the only place to see WrestleMania 37 for those fans. All of the content on the WWE Network will not immediately be available on Peacock, with Peacock/WWE hoping to have everything migrated over by SummerSlam. This understandably has upset many fans, who are furious that they will have to wait to August to watch old Great Khali matches. (TJRWrestling)

4. WWE Hall of Fame to be Held on Tuesday, April 6th on Peacock/WWE Network, Molly Holly to be Inducted

The WWE Hall of Fame is about to get a bunch of new members. The 2021 Hall of Fame Ceremony will be held on Tuesday, April 6th on Peacock/WWE Network. The entire class of 2020 will be inducted which included Batista, The nWo, The Bella Twins, JBL, British Bulldog and Jushin “Thunder” Liger. Along with the 2020 class, a whole new set of inductees for 2021 will be announced. WWE has already announced the first member of the 2021 class, which is no other then Molly Holly. The two time Women’s and one time Hardcore Champion, Holly is a long-overdue addition to the Hall of Fame. We will have to wait and see who else makes up the 2021 class, but I personally hope it is a certain 7 foot tall Punjabi Playboy’s year. (TJRWrestling)

3. Daniel Bryan to Face Roman Reigns at WWE Fastlane

Roman Reigns will have to go through one more challenger before facing Edge at WrestleMania 37. This past week on Smackdown, Daniel Bryan defeated Jey Uso inside a Steel Cage for the chance to face Roman Reign for The Universal Championship at Fastlane. Bryan was able to make Uso tap out to Yes Lock, while a disappointed Reigns watched from ringside. Betting on Bryan to win that match and go on to face Edge at WrestleMania would probably not be the best use of $1400 dollars. (TJRWrestling)

2. Christian Cage and Ethan Page Debut for AEW

Tony Khan added even more wrestlers to his already very large roster this week. This past Sunday at Revolution, former two-time Impact Wrestling Tag Team Champion Ethan Page was revealed to be the mystery sixth man in the Face of the Revolution Ladder Match. Page was not victorious in the match, as it was Scorpio Sky who was able to climb the ladder and grab the giant brass ring that was hanging above the wrestling ring.

Khan didn’t stop there, however, as wrestling fans who have been holding out hope for a Edge and Christian reunion are going to be waiting a while. This past Sunday at AEW: Revolution, Christian Cage was revealed to be the “Huge Signing” for the company. Christian was last seen before Sunday as a surprise entrant in the WWE Royal Rumble at the end of January. After that appearance, many thought Christian may re-sign with the WWE, making this past Sunday even more surprising. Christian is now going by his old TNA name Christian Cage, and has a new catchphrase of “Out Work Everyone.” Christian may want to reconsider his new motto, after seeing how much writing John Canton will be doing during WrestleMania week. (TJRWrestling)

1. Ending of the Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match Disappoints

Kenny Omega was able to defeat Jon Moxley this past Sunday at AEW Revolution in an Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match. The match was as violent as you would imagine, with many crazy spots and both wrestlers bleeding profusely. The ending of the match saw The Good Brothers come down, and help Omega secure the victory. After the match, The Good Brothers and Omega handcuffed Moxley and continued the attack, as the timer to when the ring “completely exploded” ticked close to zero. Before the timer could hit zero, Moxley’s former friend Eddie Kingston ran down to the ring and laid on top of Moxley to guard him from the “huge explosion.” Unfortunately for everyone involved, the explosion turned out to be what looked like a couple of sparklers and bottle rockets, and not the dangerous explosion that was hyped throughout the match. Clearly Tony Khan’s father told Tony that he had already bought him a Christian and Big Show, and wasn’t getting him explosives as well. (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 my language is way more explosive then any death match.)