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Top 10 Wrestling Stories Of The Week 9/10: Huge AEW Debuts, CM Punk Wrestles, More

By Matthew Fowler • Published 10th September 2021

Welcome back TJR readers! Did you spend all day Friday trying to find your old demon paint and missed Smackdown? Perhaps you spent all day Monday in labor and missed Raw. Worry not for I have returned with another Top Ten Wrestling Stories of the Week.

Before I get into the Top Ten this week I would like to send best wishes to Paul Levesque for a full and speedy recovery from his cardiac event this week.

10. Minoru Suzuki Debuts for AEW

The forbidden door was once again opened this week in AEW. After Jon Moxley defeated Satoshi Kojima at AEW All Out, Japanese Legend Minoru Suzuki came to the ring and laid out Moxley. This altercation led to Suzuki and Moxley having a match against each other this past Wednesday on Dynamite. In what was a hard-hitting match, Moxley was able to hit the Paradigm Shift and defeat Suzuki. Moxley is clearly making his way through the NJPW locker room, with a match with Hiroshi Tanahashi likely in the future. Moxley could have tried to go through the entire AEW locker room, but he does not have 30 years left in his career. (TJRWrestling)

9. Gable Steveson Signs With the WWE

WWE has added another Olympic Gold Medalist to its ranks. Olympic Games 2020 Gold Medalist Gable Steveson tweeted this week that he has signed with the WWE. Gable’s contract is WWE’s first-ever NCAA NIL (names, image, likeness) deal, as he will join the WWE roster while still defending his NCAA Title as a Senior for the University of Minnesota. Steveson captured the Men’s Freestyle Wrestling Gold Medal in the Heavyweight Division after defeating reigning World Champion Geno Petriashvili in the final seconds of their bout. Steveson will now try to follow in the footsteps of fellow gold medalist Kurt Angle and have a legendary career that ends by getting beaten by Baron Corbin in six minutes at WrestleMania. (TJRWrestling)

https://twitter.com/gablesteveson/status/1436002485584412674?s=21

8. The Demon Possibly Returning To WWE

It looks like Finn Bálor may be looking for a body painter once again. This past Friday on Smackdown, Bálor faced Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship. Before the match could even begin however, Bálor was attacked by the Usos. Bálor still gave a strong effort in the match, but in the end, was defeated by Reigns. After the match, Reigns and Paul Heyman started walking up the ramp. Suddenly Reigns music was interrupted by a red light and the sound of a heartbeat. It was then announced yesterday that Balor will once again be challenging Reigns for the title at Extreme Rules on September 26th. This has led to many fans speculating that Balor will be bringing back his Demon persona at Extreme Rules to face Reigns. Bálor has not donned the Demon paint since WWE Super ShowDown from Saudi Arabia in 2019. It is unknown if Bálor put on the paint for that Saudi show just because the Saudi Prince asked for The Ultimate Warrior. (TJRWrestling)

7. NXT Revamp to Start This Tuesday

This past Tuesday’s episode of NXT was the end of a era. Starting this week, NXT will be getting a completely new revamp with the new logo and new theme song. Also starting this week, Vince McMahon and Bruce Pritchard will officially begin producing the show. NXT is also reportedly going to be featuring younger talent, with a report coming out this week that veteran talent could be being released soon. WWE has already announced two big matches for this weeks live revamped episode of NXT, with Raquel Gonzalez defending the NXT Women’s Championship against Franky Monet. Also their will be a Fatal 4 Way to determine the new #1 contender to NXT Champion Samoa Joe. The participants in the match are LA Knight, Tommaso Ciampa, Pete Dunne and Kyle O’Reilly. The Jury is still out if this revamp will be a positive thing or if half the NXT roster will now be dressed in weird gladiator outfits. (TJRWrestling)

6. Several Title Matches Announced for WWE Extreme Rules

WWE’s next PPV on September 26th titled Extreme Rules began to take shape this week. Bianca Belair will get her rematch against Becky Lynch for the Smackdown Women’s Championship. Also this past Monday on Raw, Sheamus was able to defeat Drew McIntyre to earn a match against United States Champion Damian Priest at Extreme Rules. Alexa Bliss also pointed to the Raw Women’s Championship and therefore earned a title shot against Charlotte at Extreme Rules. Finally, it was announced that Bobby Lashley will be defending the WWE World Championship against WWE Raw Tag Team Champion Randy Orton at the event. Orton and his partner Riddle will actually be defending the Raw Tag Team Titles against Lashley and MVP this Monday on Raw. Interestingly, as of this writing, every match announced is just a normal match with none actually having “Extreme Rules.” This could be due to the fact that Vince McMahon is considering making every match on the card a “Loser Leaves the WWE” match. (TJRWrestling)

5. Kevin Owens Teases Going to AEW

Another week passed and another story of a huge name possibly jumping from WWE to AEW. This week it was reported that Kevin Owens’s contract is set to expire this January. Owens has changed his location on Twitter to “Almost There” and also tweeted and then deleted the coordinates for Mt. Rushmore. Mt. Rushmore was the name of a faction that Owens was in with AEW wrestlers Adam Cole and The Young Bucks in their PWG days last decade. After this week there is no longer any doubt that AEW is closing the gap with WWE, and adding Owens will only close that gap more. As a longtime wrestling fan, I have not seen anything like this since the Monday Night Wars in the late 1990’s. We will have to see if Vince McMahon once again can turn the momentum back in his favor or if this will finally be the thing that KO’s the WWE once and for all. (TJRWrestling)

4. Ruby Soho Debuts for AEW

The Women’s Casino Battle Royal Match at AEW All Out ended with a big debut. After the previous 20 women entered the ring, Ruby Riott entered in the “Joker” spot. Riott. now going by Ruby Soho. then went on to win the Battle Royal, earning her a future shot at AEW Women’s Champion Britt Baker. Soho was released from WWE on June 2nd, meaning her 90-day no-compete clause actually ended just a few days before her debut. Soho got her name and entrance music from the punk band Rancid, which coincidentally is also how WWE booked her. (TJRWrestling)

3. The Lucha Bros Win the AEW Tag Team Championship

The Lucha Bros are the new AEW Tag Team Champions. The Lucha Bros were able to defeat The Young Bucks inside a steel cage at AEW All Out to capture the titles. The match saw many incredible spots including Matt Jackson using a sneaker with thumbtacks on the bottom of it. After being with AEW since 2019, this is the Lucha Bros first title reign. This was a truly amazing match that was given five stars by John Canton. Dave Meltzer will likely give the match a high rating as well after he buys himself a new pair of pants. (TJRWrestling)

2. CM Punk Wrestles His First Match in Over Seven Years

The chants of wrestling fans were finally answered this past Sunday at AEW All Out. After over seven years, CM Punk once again wrestled a match. In a match that went over 16 minutes, Punk showed no ring rust going against the much younger Darby Allin. In the end, Punk was able to hit the GTS and get the win in what was a very good match. After the bout, Punk shook hands with Allin as well as Allin’s mentor Sting.

Punk then appeared this past Wednesday on Dynamite and appeared to start a feud with Team Taz. The confrontation started with Punk giving a promo in the ring. Taz then interrupted Punk from commentary and told him he was sick of the “bullshit love fest” and to never mention Team Taz. Punk then used Taz’s own catchphrase, saying that Taz can send Powerhouse Hobbs, Hook and FTW Champion Ricky Starks and they can “beat me if you can, survive if I let you.” That was Taz’s catchphrase when he was a wrestler. If Punk does face Starks he will likely not care about winning the FTW championship, unless of course, they change the name to the FTWWE Title. (TJRWrestling)

1. Adam Cole and Bryan Danielson Debut at the End of AEW All Out

Perhaps not since WCW Bash of the Beach 1996 has a PPV had a bigger and more surprising ending than AEW All Out did. After AEW World Champion Kenny Omega defeated Christian Cage in the main event, The Young Bucks and Gallows and Anderson joined him in the ring and all started attacking Cage. Jurassic Express then attempted to make the save, but were beaten down as well. Omega then took the mic and stated: “The only people that would ever have the chance that would beat him are not here, they are retired or they are already dead.” Adam Cole then suddenly made his debut and confronted Omega and The Elite in the ring! Cole looked like he was going to face off with Omega, before shockingly super-kicking Jungle Boy of Jurassic Express and joining The Elite.

Cole did a promo stating that “There was no chance in Hell” (hi Vince!) that anybody was stopping The Elite, when all of a sudden Bryan Danielson made his debut! Danielson, Christian and Jurassic Express then brawled with the Elite and ran them out of the ring to end the show. Clearly, with Soho, Cole and Danielson all debuting on a show that already had CM Punk wrestling on it, AEW is going “All Out” to be the number one wrestling company in the world. Hopefully for Shahid Khan’s sake, however, “All Out” is not also what the bank teller will be telling him when he makes another withdrawal. (TJRWrestling)

That will conclude another edition of The Top Ten Wrestling Stories of the Week. Thank you for taking the time to read this each week. Although I often joke, I have recently started training to get in the ring at The Institute of Professional Wrestling and respect more than ever what wrestlers do every week. If you like what I do, despite my jokes being as bad as the line in catering at an AEW show, then feel free to listen to my brand new podcast The Smark and the Noob and follow me on Twitter @Fowlerwrestlin1 as well.