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Top 10 Wrestling Stories of the Week 1/24: Multiple Title Changes, Final WWE Royal Rumble Build, More

By Matthew Fowler • Published 24th January 2020
TJR Wrestling

Welcome back TJR readers, were you sitting by the phone hoping to get the call to be apart of Donald Trump’s legal team and missed Smackdown? Perhaps you are a mourning Tennessee Titan or Green Bay Packers fan and missed RAW. Whatever the reason you missed wrestling this week, The Top Ten Wrestling Stories of the Week have returned to catch you all up.

10. NXT Women’s Championship gets a Name Change

According to sources, the NXT Women’s Championship will no longer be going by that name. The NXT Women’s Championship will now be referred as just the NXT Championship, losing the gender-specific designation. The change has already begun with Mauro Ranallo not saying Women’s Champion on NXT this week, and wwe.com referring to Rhea Ripley as the NXT Champion. It is yet to be seen if the Smackdown and RAW Women’s Championships will follow suit, or if they will also change the name of the Cruiserweight Title in fear of body shaming larger wrestlers. (TJRWrestling)

9. John Morrison Wrestles First Match in WWE in Over Eight Years

The over eight-year hiatus that John Morrison has had from a WWE ring was ended this past Friday night when he wrestled Big E on Smackdown. Morrison, with the help of his long time friend and partner, The Miz, was victorious in the match. If “The Dirt Sheet” is correct Morrison’s victory along with The Miz defeating Kofi Kingston the prior week, should be setting up a Tag Team Title match between Miz and Morrison and The New Day very soon. (TJRWrestling)

8. Mixed Tag Match Main Events Monday Night RAW

This week’s edition of Monday Night RAW was a jam-packed show, with it not only being the last RAW before the Royal Rumble, but also featuring two title matches as well. So what would WWE choose to main event such a big and important show? Neither title match nor a storyline with obvious Royal Rumble implications was chosen to close RAW, with WWE deciding to have Rusev and Liv Morgan vs. Bobby Lashley and Lana as the main event. Lashley and Lana were victorious in about four minutes when Lana grabbed Rusev’s foot allowing Lashley to hit the spear, almost guaranteeing that this never-ending feud will continue. Perhaps this year whoever wins the Rumble will get to go on to Wrestlemania and compete for the WWE Heavyweight Title…. right before the main event of Lana and Lashley vs. Liv Morgan and Rusev. (TJRWrestling)

7. New Stipulations Added to Matches at the Royal Rumble this Sunday

Last Friday on Smackdown, two big stipulations were added for matches this Sunday at The Royal Rumble. After defeating Robert Roode in a tables match, Roman Reigns was allowed to pick any stipulation he chooses for his match against King Corbin. Reigns decided on a Falls Count Anywhere match against Corbin at the Rumble. Also after attacking “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt with a little help from his old tag partner Kane, Daniel Bryan challenged Wyatt to a strap match. Wyatt and Bryan will be strapped together by a long leather strap that they can use as a weapon during their Rumble match. My hopes are seemingly dashed however for Bryan and Wyatt to compete at the Rumble in a “Leave all the Damn Lights On” match. (TJRWrestling)

6. Humberto Carrillo Challenges Andrade for the United States Championship

After defeating Rey Mysterio in a highly entertaining ladder match on RAW, Andrade attempted to do further damage to Mysterio by attacking him on the exposed concrete outside of the ring. Before Andrade could finish the attack however, Humberto Carrillo returned to RAW and prevented the attack from occurring. Carrillo has been out of action since Andrade gave him a Hammerlock DDT on the exposed concrete over a month ago. Later in the evening, Carrillo formally challenged Andrade to a match for the US Title at the Royal Rumble this Sunday which Andrade accepted. This may be due to them both realizing that they are far too underweight to be a threat to win the actual Rumble match itself. (TJRWrestling)

5. Jon Moxley Defeats Pac to Become the Number One Contender for the AEW Heavyweight Title

Despite having one eye completely covered due to an attack last week from Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley was still able to defeat Pac and become the number one contender for the AEW Heavyweight Championship. Moxley will now go on to face Chris Jericho for the title at the next AEW PPV Revolution that takes place on February 29th. It is unknown if Moxley’s eye will be healed by then or if he will have to embrace his inner pirate, either way, we ARRRR in for a hell of a match. (TJRWrestling)

4. Keith Lee Wins the NXT North American Title

Few wrestlers have had a better last couple of months than NXT Superstar Keith Lee. Since looking dominant during the NXT invasion of RAW and Smackdown last November, Lee has been on the rise up the roster of NXT. This rise continued in a big way this week when Lee defeated NXT North American Champion Roderick Strong to win his first championship in NXT. Lee has been so impressive lately that this week on WWE Backstage, CM Punk picked Lee to win the Royal Rumble. This pick may have just been due to the sheer size of Lee however, with nobody being able to throw someone that big over the top rope. (TJRWrestling)

3. Hangman Page and Kenny Omega win the AEW Tag Team Championships

AEW Dynamite was held aboard Chris Jericho’s Cruise this week, and it proved to be rocky waters for AEW Tag Team Champions SCU. Despite obvious tension between Hangman Page and Kenny Omega, they were able to defeat SCU and become the new AEW Tag Team Champions. After the win, fellow Elite members The Young Bucks came out to celebrate with Page and Omega, but Page blew them all off choosing to go drink with the crowd instead. We will all have to wait and see if Page and Omega’s title run will be smooth sailing or a Titanic disaster. (TJRWrestling)

2. Seth Rollins and Buddy Murphy win the RAW Tag Team Titles

RAW Tag Team Champions the Viking Raiders came out at the beginning of RAW to help Kevin Owens and Samoa Joe against AOP, Seth Rollins and Buddy Murphy. To the surprise of many this lead to the Viking Raiders defending the Tag Titles later in the night against Buddy Murphy and Seth Rollins and not the established Tag Team of AOP. In what was another shocking moment, Murphy and Rollins defeated the Viking Raiders to become the new RAW Tag Team Champions. It is unclear why AOP were not chosen to compete in this match, but it may be that they are both concentrating on preparing for the Rumble match this Sunday as they both meet the weight requirements to be a threat to win. (TJRWrestling)

1. The Royal Rumble to Take Place This Sunday

It is that time of the year again when 30 men and 30 women compete to decide who will go on to wrestle for their respective heavyweight championships at Wrestlemania. On the Men’s side, the Rumble match is stacked with superstars from both brands, including WWE Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar entering at number one. As for the Women’s Rumble match…… only five wrestlers have been announced as of this writing. Either WWE is going to announce a lot of NXT and Main roster women at the last minute, or they are going really deep into the Rolodex for surprise entrants this year. What is Eva Marie up to these days? (TJRWrestling)

That will conclude another edition of The Top Ten Wrestling Stories of the Week. Like always if you enjoy 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 swore 6 times alone last year at the Rumble when Virgil wasn’t a surprise entrant.)