This Week in Wrestling 2024 Week 17

Brian Damage

It’s Saturday and today we have ’This Week in Wrestling’, the 17th of 2024. Today Brian goes around the world of pro wrestling and talks about the latest things making news and shares all the best wrestling content from this week. (WARNING!!! Some NSFW content inside)

Becky Hogan and other odds and ends.

This past Monday on Raw, we saw Becky Lynch win a battle royal to become the brand new WWE Women’s World Champion. This of course, was due to the untimely injury to Rhea Ripley. After Lynch’s title victory…the term ‘Becky Hogan’ was trending on social media. It of course, was a dig at Lynch comparing her to Hulk Hogan and the numerous pushes he received due to his name and backstage politicking. While I wasn’t exactly thrilled with Lynch winning the title, I wouldn’t go as far as comparing her to Hogan in terms of wrestling politics.

Keep in mind, that Becky was scheduled to take some time off from the ring. It wasn’t until Ripley’s injury that this title switch had to happen. In my opinion, Becky is nothing more than a transitional champion until Triple H can formulate a storyline to build up a new longer term champ. I am in no way an “insider” so it is more speculation than anything else…but seeing Triple H in action in creative…I wouldn’t be shocked if that was going on right now. Becky is simply keeping the title warm for someone else (Liv Morgan?) they just need to get to that point. Too many fans expect things a certain way and easily turn on someone they once loved if they don’t see things their way. Let’s see how this plays out.

On AEW’s front…another sensational pay per view in Dynasty. The matches were all top notch, with Will Ospreay versus Bryan Danielson the ultimate highlight reel. Swerve Strickland was crowned AEW world champion by defeating Samoa Joe. This made sense for a variety of reasons, but first and foremost Strickland is one of the more over stars the company has right now. As good as Dynasty was, there were a few tidbits I’d like to address. First off, Brian Cage took a shot at Cody Rhodes on X/Twitter by writing I don’t care what story you finish. That was the match of the year. @WillOspreay vs @bryandanielson #OspreyVsDanielson #AEW #AEWDynasty. It was a slight shot, but to me seemed unnecessary to post. Secondly, Toni Storm during the post show media scrum….made an off handed joke about no many how many matches she wins…she will never invite Tony Khan into the ring with her. Another shot at Cody, who you may remember invited Triple H to the ring after winning the WWE title at Wrestlemania. It just came off very amateurish, especially since Cody was a big reason that company exists today.

Speaking of AEW, is their relationship with New Japan strained at all? Probably not considering Jon Moxley is the IWGP champion….but New Japan star Yota Tsuji didn’t stop from criticizing Moxley and AEW. Yota’s main gripe was Moxley randomly defending the IWGP world title on Dynamite against Powerhouse Hobbs. Yota questioned the relationship between the two companies and if Moxley was lowering the standards of what the IWGP champion should be doing. Also, New Japan president Hiroshi Tanahashi went and praised WWE and in particular NXT for their ability to create new stars in a short amount of time. Take whatever you will from all of that…probably nothing…but who knows?

Over at TNA, there was a pay per view this past Saturday called Rebellion. Nothing monumental came from the show which was said to be solid from fans who caught it. I guess the biggest stuff to talk about was the surprise returns of ‘Broken’ Matt Hardy, Mike Santana and Sami Calihan. All were with TNA/Impact in the past and returned for this show. There have also been reports/rumors that TNA is interested in bringing back Tessa Blanchard. Tessa is one of the more talented female wrestlers not signed to a major promotion (and for some valid reasons). If Tessa rejoins TNA Wrestling, what if anything will be the fallout?

Lastly, going back to WWE, it looks as if TKO (WWE’s parent company) are tightening their belts. It was reported that they held back on pyro for this year’s Wrestlemania. Add to that, they released several wrestlers due to budget cuts such as Jinder Mahal, Cameron Grimes, Xia Li, Von Wagner and Indus Sher. Not to mention on going contract talks with Drew McIntyre and others where it seems the company is being a bit frugal with spending money. Read into that what you will. WWE has been making money hand over fist in recent months, yet appear on the surface at least to be monetarily stingy.

Photo Gallery

Congrats to Swerve…but if you know, you now!

NXT’s Cora Jade and Nikkita Lyons

Stardom’s Mina Shirakawa

Former WWE interviewer Charley Arnolt

Mickie James

Samantha Irvin

Thunder Rosa

Nikkita Lyons

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Video Gallery

This advertisement is from 1994, during the baseball strike. It was the WWF’s attempt to get more people to watch their product.

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NSFW Viewer Discretion is Strongly Advised.

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Jenni

Mina Shirakawa

Lacey Evans

CJ Perry

More…JN

Mandy

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Safety!!!

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