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The Top Ten Wrestling Stories of the Week 3/19: Eric Bischoff in WWE Hall of Fame, WWE Fastlane, WrestleMania Updates, More

By Matthew Fowler • Published 19th March 2021

Welcome back TJR readers! Did you spend all day Friday trying to find an out clause in your WWE contract, and miss Smackdown? Perhaps you spent all day Monday polishing your Grammy and missed Raw. Worry not, for I have returned with another edition of the Top Ten Wrestling Stories of the Week.

10. Charlotte Flair to Star in Walking Tall Remake

Charlotte Flair is about to try and follow in the footsteps of such legends as Hulk Hogan, Batista and The Rock. It was announced this week that Flair would be starring in a two-hour remake of Walking Tall that will air on the USA Network. Walking Tall was originally a movie from 1973, then remade once in 2004 by The Rock. Flair will hope to emulate the movie career The Rock has had, but if the movie does completely flop I suppose she could always star in Marine 7. (TJRWrestling)

9. WWE Postpones the On Sale Date for Tickets to WrestleMania 37

Just last week I wrote that WrestleMania 37 tickets were going on sale on March 16th, and WWE was planning on having 45,000 fans for each night of the event. Well as we all know “plans change pal.” This week, WWE postponed the on-sale date until this Friday because WWE was still finalizing seating arrangements. Also, it is now being reported that WWE will be having 25,000 fans inside Raymond James Stadium each night of WrestleMania. This must be a big disappointment for Vince McMahon, as he will now only be able to announce 65,000 fans each night in attendance. (TJRWrestling)

8. Edge to Wrestle on Smackdown for the First Time in 10 years

Edge will finally be competing again on the show that helped make famous. Tonight on Smackdown, Edge will be going one-on-one with Jey Uso. If Edge returning to the ring wasn’t enough, this match will also have a stipulation attached. Whoever wins between Edge and Uso will go on to be the special guest enforcer for the Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan match at Fastlane. Whoever wins the match on Smackdown will surely strive to be as fair and impartial at Fastlane as Dave Meltzer is every week. (TJRWrestling)

7. MJF’s Faction Gets a Name

MJF’s brand new faction was given a name this week on Dynamite. The group that is made up of MJF, Wardlow, FTR, Shawn Spears, and Tully Blanchard will now be known as The Pinnacle. MJF introduced the group on Dynamite this week and stated that when his career is done that he will be the G.O.A.T and not Jericho. He stated that his goal was to kill the Inner Circle and make a stronger group of his own. MJF decided to name the team The Pinnacle due to AEW Faction number 53 just not having a good ring to it. (TJRWrestling)

6. Finn Bálor to Face Karrion Kross at NXT Takeover: Stand and Deliver

Karrion Kross is finally going to get the opportunity to win back the title he never truly lost. It was announced this week on NXT that Kross will be challenging Finn Bálor for the NXT Championship at NXT Takeover: Stand and Deliver. Stand and Deliver is set to take place on both April 7th and 8th, with it being unclear which night the Kross and Bálor match will take place. Kross is a former NXT champion, as he won the belt last August by defeating Keith Lee. Kross, unfortunately, suffered a separated shoulder in that match, and was forced to relinquish the title four days later. Ironically, Bálor suffered a very similar fate when he won the Universal Championship, as he was forced to relinquish it the next day due to a similar injury. Hopefully both Bálor and Cross will put in a Joint effort and Shoulder the responsibility together to have a great match. (TJRWrestling)

5. WWE Denies Andrade’s Request for Release

Andrade is going to have to enjoy WWE catering for a little bit longer. It was first reported earlier this week that Andrade had asked for his release from his WWE contract. Andrade seemingly confirmed these reports by removing WWE from all his social media accounts. It was then reported later in the week that WWE had denied his release, choosing to keep him under contract. This was surely upsetting news to both Andrade and Tony Khan, who is now going to have to figure out how to put on a two-hour wrestling show with just the 125 wrestlers he has signed. (TJRWrestling)

4. Bobby Lashley Will Defend the WWE Championship vs. Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania 37

We finally know who will be competing for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 37. This week on Raw it was made official that Drew McIntyre will be getting his WWE Championship rematch at The Grandest Stage of Them All when he goes one on one with champion Bobby Lashley. This will be the second year in a row that McIntyre competes for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania, as he defeated Brock Lesnar to capture the title at WrestleMania 36. Lashley and McIntyre actually faced each other many times in TNA, with the 12 people who saw the matches all saying they were very good. (TJRWrestling)

3. The New Day Win Raw Tag Team Championships

The New Day once again made history this week on Raw. Kingston and Woods of The New Day were able to defeat the team of Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin of The Hurt Business, to once again capture the Raw Tag Team Championships. This is the fourth time that The New Day has held the Raw titles as well as a record 11th time that they have held tag team gold in WWE. Clearly, this is an amazing accomplishment that puts The New Day in the conversation as the number 1 WWE tag team ever, or somewhere around number 47 of the Wrestling Observer’s top tag teams. (TJRWrestling)

2. Eric Bischoff to Enter WWE Hall of Fame

Perhaps no one has had a stranger journey in the wrestling business over the last few years than Eric Bischoff. In June of 2019, Bischoff was hired as the Executive Director of Smackdown for WWE. That position didn’t last long for Bischoff however, as he was fired that October and replaced by Bruce Prichard. Since being fired from WWE again, WWE went on to announce that the NWO was going to be inducted in the 2020 Hall of Fame Class without Bischoff. Bischoff, for his part, has since appeared several times for AEW, with his last appearance being just a few weeks ago. All of this then made the announcement that Eric Bischoff was going to be part of the 2021 WWE Hall of Fame Class all the more surprising. Hopefully, Bischoff will actually show up for his induction, and not just spend the whole ceremony in catering. (TJRWrestling)

1. WWE: Fastlane to Take Place This Sunday

WWE’s next PPV titled Fastlane will be held this Sunday at 7PM ET on WWE Network and Peacock. Before Raw this week only three matches had been announced for the show including Big E defending the WWE Intercontinental Championship against Apollo Crews. Also, Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler will defend the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships against Smackdown Women’s Champion Sasha Banks and her WrestleMania opponent Bianca Belair. Finally, in the Main Event, Roman Reigns will defend the Universal Championship against Daniel Bryan. Monday Night Raw added two more matches to the card including Drew McIntyre and Sheamus wrestling one more time. Also, in what should surely be an interesting matchup, Randy Orton is set to face Alexa Bliss. Finally, Braun Strowman was supposed to face off against Shane McMahon, after McMahon poured slime on Strowman this week on Raw. This match unexplainably was removed from Fastlane a few days later; perhaps because someone Double Dared Vince to put it on the Mania card instead. (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 then a Leprechaun who got his gold stolen.)