Another week has gone by in the wild world of professional wrestling, and as always, that means it's time for the Wrestling Inc. staff to name some winners and losers!It's been an eventful seven (technically six) days across the industry. In WWE, no fewer than two world championships changed hands, with Sami Zayn defeating CM Punk for the WWE title on "SmackDown," while Stephanie Vaquer won the Women's World Championship in her home country of Chile over the weekend. Meanwhile, AEW had heavier things on the mind, putting on a pair of heart-wrenching tribute shows for Tanea "Rebel" Brooks and Andy "The Butcher" Williams.Which performers (and promotions)does the WINC staff see standing tall after the past week of wrestling, and who looks a little worse for wear? That's what we're here to find out! Here are your WINC winners and losers for the week of 9/14/2026!
To say this week has been an emotional one for everyone in All Elite Wrestling would be the understatement of the century.Even before our previous instalment of Winners and Losers, both AEW and the rest of the wrestling world lost Andy "The Butcher" Williams, atruly tragic passing that happened just days before what many people had already predicted would be a potential tearjerker of an "AEW Dynamite" episode with the Rebel Heart special. How were AEW going to balance The Butcher's passing with an episode dedicated to Tanea "Rebel" Brooks and her ongoing battle with ALS while also raising awareness about the disease? The answer was give Rebel the spotlight on "Dynamite," The Butcher the spotlight on "AEW Collision," and hope everyone has enough tissues to make it through the week because you knew there would be a fair few tears shed along the way.Without sounding morbid, AEW has mastered the art of the tribute show. Brodie Lee's Celebration of Life is not just one of the greatest wrestling shows ever aired, but is genuinely one of the most beautiful pieces of television of the modern era. The company did right by Jay Briscoe immediately after he passed away, and now the September 12 episode of "Collision" joins that club of wonderful shows where everything is handled with class and you really feel the weight of the person we've all just lost. Combine that with everything Rebel was involved with on Wednesday, and you really see the part of AEW that its most die-hard fans resonate with the most: it's a human company.In an era where major American wrestling companies are openly using AI-generated content to cut a few corners and save a few dollars, AEW gave us some of the realest television you will see anywhere over the past seven days. AEW was dealt one of the most challenging hands as a company that it's ever had, and everyone involved knocked it out of the park.I did have one nitpick on Wednesday about the AEW All Out 2026 not receiving as much build as it maybe should have considering how close we are to that show, but I take that back. When all is said and done, this week wasn't about wrestling in AEW, it was about Andy Williams and Tanea Brooks, and my word did they get the flowers they so rightfully deserved. Strip away all of the theatrics, the costumes, the pyro, everything in between, and we're watching humans. We're watching real people do unreal things, and when it comes to honoring those very real people, AEW does it better than most.Written by Sam Palmer
Zilla Fatu has quickly fallen down the card on "WWE NXT," through no fault of his own. The star made his debut in the WWE Performance Center on August 11, jumping right into the top title picture, and shortly after, it was revealed his "contract" that his first match in the company would be a title match. He was added to the bout for the NXT Championship pitting Tony D'Angelo against Grayson Waller and Cruz Montana at "NXT" Heatwave.Fatu lost the match, and two days later on "NXT" when he basically cut a promo to say he'd eventually win the NXT Championship one day, seemingly in no terrible hurry, he was confronted by mid-carder Tristan Angels. Fatu won their bout, and afterward was confronted by a group of mid-carders when Charlie Dempsey appeared to offer him a spot in BirthRight, which Fatu turned down immediately.Last week after denying BirthRight once again, and after a clunky promo from Dempsey where he basically admitted BirthRight was not taken seriously on "NXT," Dempsey still called out Fatu and told him the faction could "help him." Fatu turned them down again, but Uriah Connors told the young star they weren't asking, and Fatu was beaten down by the faction. Dempsey, Connors, Channing "Stacks" Lorenzo, and Lexis King sent him crashing through the commentary desk, and that's the last fans saw of Fatu for the evening.Going from an immediate shot at the NXT Championship, one apparently so necessary it required Fatu be added to make the Heatwave bout a four-way match, to a storyline with BirthRight is quite the fall in "NXT," albeit one that does make some storyline sense as Fatu is the son of Umaga, and the whole "nepo baby" thing is BirthRight's schtick. Fatu wasn't involved in the six-man tag team main event to determine the next match, a triple threat, to decide who will be the next number one contender.It's possible that Fatu won't be spending too much time in "NXT" before being called up to join the Bloodline, with some fans speculating that it could be as soon as WWE Survivor Series: WarGames. If that's the case, a simple storyline with BirthRight would make sense, but that doesn't dull the impact of his sharp decline down the card following his hot debut.Written byDaisyRuth
There is not a whole lot in WWE that is keeping me hooked beyond the requirements of my job. It's been a cold, antiseptic product for much of the TKO era, and especially as the company is hobbled by corporate austerity.But Sami Zayn has held the WWE title twice this year. Not the World Heavyweight Championship, or the Universal Championship, or any of the other ersatz "world" titles that WWE has made to fill out its immense TV time, but the true blue WWE title that goes back to Austin and Hogan and Sammartino. Sami Zayn holds the title that Dwayne "The RocK" Johnson and Bob Backlund held. The title of Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, and John Cena now rests on the waist of internet darling Sami Zayn for the second time. That's pretty f***ing cool.Do I think this reign will last much longer than his truncated reign over the summer? No. Do I get the feeling that someone in the world title scene didn't want to put someone else over? Yes, I very much did. Was the ending a chaotic mess of run-ins and other late-style WWE bad habits? Absolutely. But life is short, earth is boiling, and Sami Zayn is a 2x WWE Champion. We have to enjoy these little moments.Written byRoss Berman
At the risk of sounding dramatic or over the top, Liv Morgan may have had one of the worst title reigns in WWE history, and now that it's over, you really have to stand back and admire how much of a terrible job the company did with her run as Women's World Champion.Cast your minds back to January and the first Premium Live Event of the year, WWE Royal Rumble 2026. After being involved in literally every women's Rumble match since the first one in 2018, Morgan finally got her hand raised and bagged herself a world title match at WWE WrestleMania 42. As we all know, she would choose to go after Stephanie Vaquer and the Women's World Championship, and after an elaborate entrance that felt like it lasted longer than the match itself, Morgan clinched the title once again. Away from the Rhea Ripley feud that dominated her reign in 2024, this felt like a fresh start for Morgan, but then the reign happened, and oh dear.Morgan dropped the title back to Vaquer at a WWE house show on September 12 in Vaquer's home country of Chile, bringing the curtain down on this current run at 147 days. In those 147 days, absolutely nothing of note happened and you can't convince me otherwise.Wait, that's right, she made it to the finals of the Queen of the Ring tournament, that's something right? Well, when you consider that the winner of the tournament gets a world title shot, actually having the champion in the tournament makes even less sense now than it did when it was announced, and all it did was make Morgan look inferior to Ripley, who was the other world champion but wasn't in the tournament because that would be a terrible idea.It wasn't until WWE SummerSlam 2026, four months after she won the title, where Morgan would have her first title defense against IYO SKY in a match that was actually quite good. One would think that giving her more chances like this to shine, especially as a world champion, would be the way to go, but no. Instead, she would coast along for another month, end up feuding with Vaquer again, and lost the title in a match that wasn't even on television.Sure, Becky Lynch played a part in her losing the title, but at this point, who really cares? Morgan has been spinning her wheels for six months as a champion, which wasn't entirely her fault, and now she's going to be spinning those same wheels without a title. Do better WWE, this wrestling thing isn't difficult.Written by Sam Palmer
Stephanie Vaquer is once again WWE Women's World Champion, and the women's division on "WWE Raw" is going to be all the better for it. "La Primera" captured the gold from Liv Morgan in her home country of Chile, a shock win during a WWE live event over the weekend. The match, the way it was revealed to fans, at least, was a last minute addition to the show, with the red brand's general manager Adam Pearce making it official.Vaquer has been vocal over the years about how proud she is of her heritage and the fact she's the first Chilean woman to win a title in WWE, back when she first captured the Women's North American Championship in "WWE NXT." Prior to Saturday's show, it had been seven years since WWE had visited Chile, so Vaquer getting to win in front of a hot crowd in Santiago was extremely special. Those within WWE always love to tell fans they're about making moments, and even though Vaquer's win wasn't televised, it was certainly a moment for both the star and all the Chileans cheering her on.Thanks to the power of social media, fans around the globe still got to witness Vaquer's triumph from all angles via clips on X (formerly Twitter) and there's no doubt that WWE will play the footage on "WWE Raw." It was also the first time a title has changed hands on a live show since 2019, with the time before that occurring in 2017. Both times, it was the United States Championship, and not a top title in either division.Though it might have been obvious to some fans with Vaquer competing in her home country, WWE going through with the surprise title change also benefits the company. It occurred right after Sami Zayn's Undisputed WWE title win on "WWE SmackDown." Both wins help the old adage that "anything can happen in WWE," and not just at major events like WrestleMania or SummerSlam.Morgan and Vaquer's rival for the gold, Becky Lynch, served as the special guest referee. Various clips to X show Lynch arguably counting rather fast in Vaquer's favor, which is only going to be helpful for the trio's feud on "Raw" going forward. Morgan held the Women's World Championship hostage for over 100 days after defeating Vaquer at WrestleMania 42, and now, the championship finally feels like it means something again.Written byDaisyRuth
