THIS WEEK IN WRESTLING – OCTOBER 24, 2018

October 24, 2018

This week in wrestling has been dominated by the tragic news that Roman Reigns has been diagnosed with leukaemia.  Reigns was first inflicted with the disease eleven years ago, but it has come back, and all wrestling fans wish him a speedy recovery.  Reigns showed great bravery to open Monday Night Raw with the news, and was also forced to relinquish the Universal Championship.

That title will now be awarded to the winner of the match between Brock Lesnar and Braun Strowman at Crown Jewel on November 2, in what was originally a triple threat match.  The event itself remains under a cloud due to geopolitical issues between Saudi Arabia and the USA.

The other members of The Shield, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose, gained an emotional victory over Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre to win the RAW tag team titles.  However, after the match, Ambrose turned on Rollins after weeks of tension, and the future of the championship belts remains questionable.

On Smackdown, AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan had further tension after a second straight loss to the Usos.  The Miz clashed with Rey Mysterio, and Randy Orton beat Jeff Hardy as the WWE continued to build towards their World Cup tournament at Crown Jewel.

The first all-women’s pay per view, Evolution is on Monday morning (Australian time), but there was little in the way of storylines to advance the event.  Charlotte will attempt to regain her title from Becky Lynch, while Ronda Rousey will defend her belt against Nikki Bella.

Away from the WWE, the NWA celebrated its 70^th anniversary with the NWA 70 event.  In the main event, Nick Aldis defeated Cody Rhodes to recapture the NWA Heavyweight Title.