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The Top Wrestling Stories of the Week 8/28: Roman Reigns Returns to WWE, Many Title Changes, Keith Lee to Raw, More

By Matthew Fowler • Published 28th August 2020

Welcome back TJR readers! Did you suddenly have an urge to play a game of Guess Who and missed Smackdown? Perhaps you went and got your teeth whitened 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. Wade Barrett Does NXT Commentary

A familiar face was brought in to do commentary on NXT this week. With Mauro Ranallo missing this week’s tapings due to a personal matter, former WWE Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett was brought in to take his place. As of right now, Barrett was only scheduled to work this week and next week’s shows, with no plans for Barrett to return full-time. It is unknown if Barrett is brought back on a permanent basis in the future or if he will be changing his name to 2020 Barrett. (TJRWrestling)

9. Brodie Lee Wins TNT Championship

Cody Rhodes’ almost three-month reign as TNT Champion came to an end in a little over three minutes this past Saturday on AEW: Dynamite. In what was basically a squash match, Brodie Lee defeated Cody to become the new TNT Champion. After the match, Cody had to be placed on a stretcher, just to have it tipped over and be further attacked by Lee and the Dark Order. Arn Anderson, along with Brandi Rhodes, QT Marshall and Dustin Rhodes, were all also laid out by Lee and the Dark Order after trying to come to Cody’s aid. Lee then revealed the old TNT Championship belt, which Lee had shattered into many pieces. Now if Lee could just get his hands on the 24/7 title, the wrestling world would be a better place. (TJRWrestling)

8. New Champions Crowned in NXT

Not one, but two new champions were crowned at NXT Takeover XXX this past Saturday night. Damian Priest was able to climb the ladder and defeat Johnny Gargano, Bronson Reed, The Velveteen Dream and Cameron Grimes to win the vacant North American Championship. And in the main event, Karrion Kross was able to defeat Keith Lee to become the new NXT Heavyweight Champion. The news turned bad for Kross, however, as he suffered a separated shoulder during the match and was forced to vacate the NXT Championship on Wednesday. The title changes didn’t stop there, as Breezango finally captured gold when they defeated Imperium to become the new NXT Tag Team Champions this past Wednesday. This was Breezango’s first championships in over five years of teaming together, giving Marty Jannetty hope that it’s not too late for The Rockers to have a run with the straps. (TJRWrestling)

7. A 4-Way 60-Minute Iron Man Match to be Held This Tuesday to Crown a New NXT Heavyweight Champion

After newly crowned champion Karrion Kross had to relinquish the NXT Heavyweight Championship due to a torn shoulder, a plan was made on how to crown a new champion. NXT GM William Regal announced that this week, on a special Tuesday night edition of NXT, there will be a 4-Way 60-Minute Iron Man Match to decide the new champion. The four competitors in this match will be Johnny Gargano, Adam Cole, Finn Bálor and Tommaso Ciampa. An hour-long match between four of the greatest wrestlers in the world right now has match-of-the-year candidate written all over it; plus we won’t have to watch hours of bad political ads before we vote for it. (TJRWrestling)

6. Keith Lee Debuts on RAW

Keith Lee didn’t wait long to make an impact after losing the NXT Championship. Lee came out with new music and attire to interrupt a promo by Randy Orton. Lee went on to face Orton later in the night, in a match that only lasted about five minutes before Drew McIntyre caused a disqualification. Lee will get another shot at Orton, however, as he is scheduled to face him this Sunday at Payback. To the surprise of no one, some wrestling fans were upset with Lee’s debut, saying that they ruined his entrance music and dressed him like someone who is about to play a women’s doubles match at Wimbledon. Lee responded to these criticisms on Twitter, telling wrestling fans to “have some patience.” Wrestling fans suddenly having patience is about as likely as one of The Marine movies winning an Oscar. (TJRWrestling)

5. Jeff Hardy Wins the Intercontinental Championship

It only took one night for history to be made inside the new ThunderDome. This past Friday on Smackdown, thousands of virtual WWE Fans looked on as Jeff Hardy was able to defeat AJ Styles to become the new WWE Intercontinental Champion. It is interesting to note that WWE decided to have this match and title change take place on Smackdown and not at SummerSlam two days later. WWE was trying to have as big of an impact with thousands of wrestling fans watching on their computers as Sunny did during her first Only Fans session. (TJRWrestling)

4. Asuka Wins WWE Women’s Raw Championship

Asuka was 50% successful this past Sunday at SummerSlam. After losing to Bayley in the Smackdown Women’s Title match by the ROLLUP OF DEATH~! earlier in the night, Asuka was much more successful in her second bout. Asuka was able to make Sasha Banks tap out to the Asuka Lock to become the new WWE Raw Women’s Champion. Overall being successful half the time is not a bad percentage, as it is way better then I did with any of my pickup lines at the bars back in the day. (TJRWrestling)

3. ”The Fiend” Bray Wyatt Wins WWE Universal Championship

“The Fiend” Bray Wyatt is once again the WWE Universal Champion, defeating Braun Strowman during the main event of Summerslam to win the title. During the match, Strowman decided to cut away the ring canvas and padding to expose the wood underneath. This plan backfired on Strowman, however, as Wyatt was able to hit Sister Abigail on Strowman onto the exposed wood and get the win. With this result, Strowman just became one of a large number of men throughout time that got himself in trouble by exposing wood. (TJRWrestling)

2. WWE Payback to Take Place This Sunday

Just one week after SummerSlam weekend, WWE is holding another PPV event. WWE Payback will take place this Sunday at 7pm ET from the Amway Center in Orlando Florida. As of this writing, only four matches have been announced for the show. Apollo Crews will defend the United States Championship against Bobby Lashley. The unlikely team of Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler will attempt to become Women’s Tag Team Champions when they go against Bayley and Sasha Banks. In a rematch from Raw, Keith Lee will face Randy Orton. And finally “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt will try to defend his newly won Universal Championship in a No Holds Barred Triple Threat Match against Braun Strowman and Roman Reigns. Having so much wrestling in such a little time may risk burning out the average wrestling fan, and permanently crippling John Canton’s hands. (TJRWrestling)

1. Roman Reigns Returns at SummerSlam

A more fit and brighter teethed Roman Reigns made his return this past Sunday at SummerSlam. Reigns came out after the Wyatt and Strowman Universal title match, preceding to viciously beat down both men. Reigns has not been seen on WWE television since before WrestleMania, when he pulled out of his scheduled Universal Championship match with Goldberg due to health concerns. Reigns will now go on to face both Wyatt and Strowman this Sunday at Payback in a No Holds Barred Match for the Universal Championship. Hopefully now with Reigns back in the fold, WWE is finally over the Crest of this whole crisis. (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 no amount of whitening strips will clean up my mouth.)