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Top Ten Wrestling Stories of the Week 10/17: WWE Draft, Bischoff Gone, New Champions, Crown Jewel, More

By Matthew Fowler • Published 17th October 2019
TJR Wrestling

Welcome fellow wrestling fans! Were you so confused by the rules of the WWE Draft, that you just said, “screw it,” and didn’t watch? Maybe you missed some wrestling due to eye strain caused by staring at an obnoxious red light for too long. Whatever the reason you missed something in this ever-changing wrestling world, it’s no longer a concern. For I am back, once again, with the Top Ten Wrestling Stories of the Week, to bring you up to speed.

10. Nine-Team Tag Team Turmoil Match to Take Place at Crown Jewel to Crown the Best Tag Team in the World

Did you think you’d never have to hear “The Best in the World” after Shane McMahon lost a retirement match? Sorry to disappoint you, but The World Cup is back, in Tag form. The NINE teams that will be in this match are Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode, SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Revival, The New Day, the new RAW Tag Team Champions The Viking Raiders, Heavy Machinery, Lucha House Party, Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins, The OC, and The B Team. A tag team winning one match, and suddenly being called the “Best in The World”, is utterly ridiculous. This is especially true when you take into account that the Usos and AOP aren’t in this match, but a number of teams who haven’t competed on television in months are. At least Shane McMahon cannot somehow compete in this one and win it with Vince, right? That would never happen. (TJRWrestling)

9. WWE Replaces Eric Bischoff with Bruce Pritchard as Executive Director of Smackdown

After this week, Eric Bischoff is going to have a lot more time to dedicate to his podcast with Conrad Thompson; whereas Bruce Pritchard may have less time. Eric Bischoff, who started as the Executive Director of Smackdown only a few months ago, was fired and replaced with Pritchard. Why Bischoff was fired so quickly is Something he is going To have to Wrestle With for a long time. Let’s all hope that Pritchard can have a longer tenure as the new head of Smackdown, at least 83 Weeks or so. (TJRWrestling)

8. Smackdown Loses One Million Viewers in its Second Week on FOX

Before giving my thoughts on this story, I would like to share my experience being a Nielsen Family. In case you are unaware of the Nielsen Corporation, it consists of people who collect all the data about who’s watching what on television. One bright and sunny day, I received an envelope in the mail with a crisp, brand-new, one dollar bill, and a letter promising me thirty more dollars if I agreed to be a Nielsen Family! My love of dollar bills, and thirst for power to help dictate what is on television, had me quickly signing up. A few weeks later, the Nielsen people sent me a little blue book with a letter asking me to write down what I watched each day, and send it back in. I set this book aside and quickly forgot about it. A few weeks later I found the book, and still loving dollar bills, I quickly filled it in with random shows I didn’t even watch. I sent the book to the Nielsen Corporation and a few weeks later was told that my info had been recorded and was sent thirty bucks. I told you this long story to show you that viewer calculations aren’t exactly rocket science. However, losing a million viewers is never a good sign; especially when the network you’re on paid a billion dollars for your programming. Hopefully, the WWE can find a way to attract more viewers, or at least a procrastinating guy who loves money willing to write them in a little blue book. (Rajah)

7. The Viking Raiders Win the WWE RAW Tag Team Titles

The Viking Raiders captured their first tag team gold in the WWE on RAW this past Monday when they defeated Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode. This win makes the Viking Raiders the first team to win tag team gold in NJPW, ROH, NXT, and now the WWE. Of course, none of those accomplishments will matter if they fail to win the World Cup at the end of this month, as that is the only true judgment of who is the best tag team in the world. (TJRWrestling)

6. Bayley Regains the Smackdown Women’s Title

Bayley came out Friday night with a whole new look and new entrance music. She then proceeded to stab holes in her “Bayley Buddies” like a guy who got fired from the Trojan Condom factory. Bayley then went on to defeat Charlotte to regain the Smackdown Women’s title, that she just lost the previous Sunday at Hell in a Cell. Any time a title gets passed back and forth quickly it hurts it’s worth. Let’s hope, for the title’s sake, that the WWE does a better job of protecting it in the future. Maybe someone will carry it for about nine months or so. (TJRWrestling)

5. Santana and Ortiz Challenge the Young Bucks to a Match at Full Gear

AEW: Dynamite was another solid show last night. The show featured both the Lucha Bros and SCU moving on in the tag tournament and Chris Jericho defeating Darby Allen in the main event. Also on the show, the tag team of Santana and Ortiz challenged the Young Bucks to a match at AEW’s next PPV Full Gear. Full Gear, which sounds more like something out of a BlueChew commercial than a wrestling PPV, takes place on November 9th. Let’s hope the Young Bucks are up for the hard challenge that is put before them. (TJRWrestling)

4. Seth Rollins Burns Down the Firefly Fun House, will Face The Fiend Bray Wyatt at Crown Jewel

This past Monday on RAW, Seth Rollins committed arson, and possibly homicide, when he burned down the Firefly Funhouse. This illegal act committed on national television is leading to Wyatt and Rollins having a Falls Count Anywhere match at Crown Jewel for the WWE title. With the way this feud has been booked so far, my prediction is that the match will end in a count out. The color of the match lighting has not been announced yet; personally I’m hoping for a nice fuchsia. (TJRWrestling)

3. Tyson Fury vs Braun Strowman Announced for Crown Jewel

The WWE held a press conference on Friday to formally announce lineal boxing champion Tyson Fury vs. Braun Strowman at the Saudi Arabia show on October 31st. Why is the WWE putting a boxer with no formal wrestling training, against one of their biggest stars? Simple. Because the Prince of Saudi Arabia wants it, and the Prince pays the WWE a lot of money. This is the same Prince who last year asked for Yokozuna to wrestle at his event, so the WWE put a random Sumo Wrestler on the show (Wrestlinginc). So if this Prince wanted to see Strowman wrestle Soda Popinski, Cesaro would be coming out drinking bottles of Coke, trying to fool him. Let’s hope that all that sugar doesn’t rot the rest of Cesaro‘s teeth. (TJRWrestling)

2. Cain Velasquez to Face Brock Lesnar for WWE Title at Crown Jewel

Also at the press conference on Friday, the WWE announced that former two-time UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez will face Brock Lesnar for the WWE heavyweight title in Saudi Arabia, Crown Jewel. These two actually faced each other in the UFC back in 2010, with Velasquez defeating Lesnar by a first round TKO. The WWE has signed Velasquez, who has wrestled a few matches for AAA in Mexico, to a lucrative multi-year deal. Should any of this award Velasquez a shot at the heavyweight title in his first match for the WWE? Of course not, but when the WWE most likely asked the Saudi Prince who he wanted to wrestle Brock, he responded with “that’s gotta be, that’s gotta be Cain!” (TJRWrestling)

1. WWE Holds a Draft on Both Smackdown and RAW

The WWE held a draft on both Smackdown (TJRWrestling) and RAW (TJRWrestling) this week. The draft rules included RAW getting three picks for every two that Smackdown received, certain wrestlers being allowed to be drafted on certain nights, one sided trades, and lots of confused and frustrated fans. The only people who looked more confused and bewildered than the fans were the “executives” in the war rooms for both USA and FOX. These “executives” would comically overreact with joy or disappointment when each draft pick would be announced, clearly having no idea what was going on. At least none of the “executives” tried to select Yokozuna with the first pick, so that’s something.

That wraps up this week’s Top Ten Wrestling Stories of the Week. As always, thank you for taking the time to read my silly little article. If you enjoy what I do then please feel free to follow me on Twitter @BackseatBookers and listen to my podcast The BackseatBookers (it is explicit due to my affinity for four letter words).