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Top 10 Wrestling Stories This Week 8/20: New WWE IC Champ, Christian Beats Omega, More

By Matthew Fowler • Published 20th August 2021
shinsuke nakamura intercontinental title

Welcome back TJR readers! Did you spend all day Friday trying to avoid Jason Voorhees and missed Smackdown? Perhaps you spent all day Monday praying for everyone in Afghanistan and missed Raw. Worry not, for I have returned with another edition of the Top Ten Wrestling Stories of the Week.

10. Crowd Sings Chris Jericho’s Entrance Music

For months now AEW crowds have sung along with Chris Jericho’s entrance song “Judas” when he came down to the ring. This past Wednesday on Dynamite, however, was the first time that they did it a capella. Jericho faced MJF in the fifth labour of Jericho, with the stipulation that he couldn’t use his finisher the “Judas Effect” or have his entrance music. This did not slow down the live crowd in Houston, Texas, however, as they loudly all sang the song together anyways. Unfortunately for Jericho, the rest of the night did not go as well, as he ended up losing the match by tapping out to The Salt of the Earth armbar. In other unfortunate news, upon seeing Jericho’s entrance Vince McMahon fired WWE’s entire music department.

9. Ric Flair Appears for AAA

It did not take long for Ric Flair to get booked after leaving WWE. This past Saturday, Flair accompanied his future son-in-law Andrade El Idolo at AAA TripleMania for Andrade’s AAA Mega Championship Match against Kenny Omega. Flair even ended up getting physical in the match by stopping Omega from hitting Andrade with the belt, chopping and punching Omega and then putting Omega’s cornerman Konnan in a Figure Four Leglock. Despite the assistance by Flair, Andrade ended up losing the match to Omega. The 72-year-old Flair was just released by WWE two weeks ago, and recently uploaded an old promo from 2007 on Twitter stating that he will never retire. This statement may be alarming to some fans but not nearly as much as it was for Vince McMahon, who now has to figure out how to convince Flair to come back before the next Saudi show. (TJRWrestling)

8. Baron Corbin Steals the Money in the Bank Briefcase

Baron Corbin may have found a solution to his financial problems. This past Friday on Smackdown, Corbin came down to the ring to explain how he is financially bankrupt. Corbin then asked everyone in the crowd to donate $1000 to help him get back on his feet. Corbin was then interrupted by Kevin Owens, who made a deal with Corbin that if he can defeat him in a match that he would give Corbin $1000 himself. Unfortunately for Corbin however, he lost that match and therefore was still broke. Kayla Braxton then attempted to interview Corbin backstage, but Corbin suddenly noticed Big E’s Money in the Bank briefcase and proceeded to steal it. Later in the evening, WWE posted a video showing Corbin ranting about how he is going to be champion and rich. Hopefully, this plan will work out for Corbin, but if it doesn’t he can always talk to Sunny about starting an OnlyFans account.

7. RK-Bro Reunite on Raw

Finally, it appears that WWE’s version of the odd couple is once again on the same page. This past Monday’s Raw opened with Randy Orton coming down to the ring. Orton then began to explain why he hit Riddle with an RKO the previous week when Riddle then came down to the ring. Riddle then stated that he knew that Randy was just trying to teach him the proper way to hit an RKO and that he still wanted to team with him. Both of them were then interrupted by AJ Styles and Omos, which eventually led to Styles and Riddle having a match. Orton left Riddle to fend for himself in the match, leading to him losing when he was distracted by Omos. Later in the evening, Orton would face Omos. That match only went a few minutes, when Styles interfered, causing the DQ. Styles and Omos then proceeded to beat down Orton, until Riddle came down and made the save. Orton then proclaimed that Riddle had earned his respect, and that RK-Bro was back. Riddle then announced that RK-Bro would be challenging Styles and Omos for the Raw Tag Team Championships at SummerSlam. It is unclear what made Orton suddenly have a change of heart, but perhaps Orton just finally realized how high he and Riddle can go together. (TJRWrestling)

6. Sting Wrestles on TNT for the First Time in 20 Years

After 20 years, Sting once again competed in a match on TNT. This past Wednesday on Dynamite, Sting and Darby Allin defeated 2.0 (Matt Lee and Jeff Parker). This was Sting’s first match on the TNT television network since defeating Ric Flair on the last episode of WCW Nitro on March 26, 2001. The 62-year-old Sting looked good in the match and actually was powerbombed through a table, but no-sold it and jumped right back up. He then got the victory by applying a double Scorpion Deathlock on both Lee and Parker. Seeing both Flair and Sting back in the ring personally motivated me at 40 to pursue wrestling even more, until at least I hit the mat and realized that I am still old and fat. (TJRWrestling)

5. NXT Planning to go Back to Pre-taping Shows

As was reported last week, WWE is planning on making major changes to the NXT brand. This week it came out that one of those changes is set to begin this coming Monday and Tuesday, when NXT will begin taping shows ahead of time. NXT has not pretaped shows regularly since moving to the USA Network in September of 2019. The USA Network is reportedly not happy with this news, stating that “a taped show is not what we paid for.” Part of the reason for the taped shows is because WWE wants to refurbish the Performance Center to make it look nicer on television. Personally, I don’t understand why USA is suddenly upset about not having a live show, as Raw has been dead for years. (TJRWrestling)

4. Christian Cage Wins the Impact World Championship

It may have taken 5207 days, but Christian Cage is once again Impact World Champion. This past Friday during the debut episode of AEW Rampage, Cage defeated Kenny Omega to once again capture the title. The finish of the match saw The Young Bucks slide a chair to Omega to use, while Don Callis distracted the referee. Omega attempted to then hit The One Winged Angel on the chair, but Christian reversed it and then hit his Killswitch finisher onto the chair for the win. Christian and Omega are not done with each other, however, as Christian will now challenge for the AEW World Championship at All Out on September 5th. To put it in perspective of how long it has been since Cage was last Impact Champion, both John Cena and Bobby Lashley were main eventing in WWE. (TJRWrestling)

3. NXT Takeover 36 Taking Place This Sunday

NXT Takeover 36 is scheduled to take place this Sunday at 8 PM ET. There are currently five matches scheduled for the night, including Raquel Gonzalez defending the NXT Women’s Championship against Dakota Kai. LA Knight will defend the Million Dollar Championship against Cameron Grimes. If Grimes loses the match then The Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase will have to be Knight’s butler. In a rematch of the 2020 Johnny Award Match of the Year, Walter will defend the NXT UK Championship against llja Dragunov. Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly will settle their feud in a three stages of hell match. The first stage will be a regular match, the second will be a street fight and the final stage if needed will be a cage match. Finally, Samoa Joe will compete in his first match since February of 2020, when he challenges Karrion Kross for the NXT World Championship. Interestingly only Dragunov and Grimes are under 30, meaning that Takeover 36 will feature two superstars who have the potential to be box office attractions someday. (TJRWrestling)

2. King Nakamura Wins the WWE Intercontinental Championship

History was made this past Friday on Smackdown. King Shinsuke Nakamura was able to defeat Apollo Crews for the WWE Intercontinental Championship, pinning him clean after the Kinshasa. It has been a very good summer so far for Nakamura. In addition to winning the Intercontinental Championship, he also captured the King of the Ring crown in June. And if that wasn’t enough, he also found out just last week that he is officially tall enough to be a box office attraction. (TJRWrestling)

1. SummerSlam to Take Place Tomorrow

WWE’s biggest event of the summer is scheduled to take place this Saturday at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. SummerSlam will feature a total of ten matches, with seven of them being title matches. Damian Priest will try to capture his first singles title on the main roster when he faces Sheamus for the United States Championship. RK-Bro will try to stay on the same page long enough to capture the Raw Tag Team Championships when they face A.J Styles and Omos. The Usos will attempt to defend the Smackdown Tag Team Championships against Rey and Dominik Mysterio. Nikki A.S.H will defend her Raw Women’s Championship against Charlotte and Rhea Ripley. Bianca Belair and Sasha Banks will face off in a rematch of their WrestleMania 36 match for the Smackdown Women’s Championship. Goldberg will once again get a shot at the WWE World Championship when he faces Bobby Lashley. And finally, in the main event, John Cena will try for his 17th World Championship when he faces Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship. This is the first SummerSlam to not take place on a Sunday since SummerSlam 1994, which actually took place on a Monday. Vince McMahon may have chosen the Saturday date this year so he would have an extra day to fire superstars before Raw on Monday.

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 if CM Punk did not appear for AEW tonight, then feel free to listen to my brand new podcast The Smark and the Noob and follow me on Twitter @Fowlerwrestlin1 as well.