Biggest Winners And Losers Of The Week — 5/18/2026

Another week has gone by in the world of professional wrestling, and that means it's once again time to determine Wrestling Inc.'s weekly winners and losers! We have a lot to draw from this week — in addition to the standard WWE and AEW shows on offer, we also had a big ROH event in the form of Supercard of Honor, and of course, there continues to be fallout from WWE Backlash (which we covered somewhat last week) and progress toward AEW Double or Nothing.

Which wrestlers inspired the WINC crew this week, and which ones made us lose some faith? What championship got the biggest boost over the past seven days, despite the overall wrestling landscape in which it resides looking a little barren of late? Here are your WINC winners and losers for the week of 5/18/26!

Things haven't been the greatest for WWE overall since WrestleMania 42 night one first got underway, and one of the most underwhelming aspects of the product has been the women's division, specifically the top title pictures on both "WWE Raw" and "WWE SmackDown." WrestleMania saw Rhea Ripley become the new WWE Women's Champion and Liv Morgan take the World Women's Championship, and neither one has done much of anything over the last month. As WWE hurtles toward both Saturday Night's Main Event and Clash in Italy, the lack of really anything in the women's top title scenes has become much more noticeable.

Ripley, at least, has been involved with Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss on the blue brand, standing up against Fatal Influence, and now, they're set to take on current champion Jade Cargill, Michin, and B-Fab in a six-woman tag match at SNME. Which is fine, but it's not Ripley defending her title. Cargill called out Ripley for a match at Clash in Italy on the latest edition of "SmackDown," but the champion was not even at the show to respond, so the match wasn't made official.

Morgan has seemingly zero challengers right now on "Raw," which is likely because former champion Stephanie Vaquer was injured and needed some time off. She might have been Morgan's Backlash opponent, or perhaps her opponent at one of the upcoming events. However, WWE didn't even bother to pivot to have Morgan face anyone else, and she's just been involved in Judgment Day business rather than anything of her own. There haven't been many women, if any, who have called out Morgan, which seems very strange and doesn't make for an interesting women's division on the red brand.

The latest report has Vaquer possibly back in the mix for Clash in Italy, but it doesn't seem likely that WWE will have both Ripley and Morgan defend their titles at the premium live event. Neither champion has had a title defense since WrestleMania.

While this currently feels like a much bigger problem in WWE, AEW isn't exempt from the "loser" aspect of women's wrestling when it comes to its top title, either. The AEW Women's World Championship match pitting three former women's champions against Thekla feels rather thrown together, no matter how good Kris Statlander, Hikaru Shida, and Jamie Hayter are. AEW failed to establish a new challenger for Thekla going into one of their biggest events of the year, and the title picture just hasn't recovered since Toni Storm was taken out back at the end of March.

Women's wrestling fans are currently big ol' losers right now, and hopefully both companies get things back on track for their top titles very soon.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Despite having to defend her title in the first-ever women's Survival of the Fittest match — a six-woman no-DQ elimination bout — Athena once again left the building as ROH Women's World Champion. That's good for her, obviously, but it's also good for the title.

First of all, the women main-evented Supercard of Honor 2026, which is not a new experience during Athena's reign but should nonetheless be noted. Second, for those who care about this kind of thing, Athena has now been champion for 1,255 days as of this writing, meaning she's about two months away from eclipsing Roman Reigns' 1,316-day reign as WWE Universal Champion. She is probably going to beat Reigns' number, and while ROH is undoubtedly a less widely-viewed platform, that's still a major accomplishment for both Athena and the title. It really can't be overstated how much prestige this three-year run has given the ROH Women's World Championship, and if does become the longest major title reign in modern wrestling history, that will only add more.

Finally, if you're less into kayfabe numbers and more into storylines, it's a very good thing that Athena didn't lose her title this past Friday. Such a reign deserves to be ended in a one-on-one contest with a challenger who's been built up to take down Athena's ultimate villain character, not a six-person plunder match involving the likes of Zayda Steel (no offense). It can be argued that Athena's reign should have ended months, if not years ago, but since that didn't happen, it needs more time to ramp up to a proper big finish. Maybe Billie Starkz finally does it; maybe Maya World is the Athena protege to take the gold; either way, the historic reign and the title itself will benefit from a proper ending, rather than a loss in Survival of the Fittest.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

So John Cena announced the inventively named "John Cena Classic" which would be a tournament, an event, a show, with a title waiting for the winner, to be voted on by the fans. 

My colleague opined that the concept was rushed in the announcement, didn't really explain what it really was going to look like, and even what was revealed about fans voting for the winner felt a little undermining to the concept of wrestling. That is a sentiment I agree with and it really played out much the same this week, with Cena himself having to address the fact that the idea is still in development, and said that it will be an exhibition instead. 

That is not what he said during the announcement and the announcement being made before the idea is even shaped vindicates some of the scrutiny it has come under. All kinds of words were being used to sell the idea that is apparently being shaped by backlash to the words used to sell the idea, so the announcement was essentially "We are working on a thing" while also made out to be a huge deal. Which is fine and all, but as said, it was called a tournament, it was called an event, and there would be a title at the end that would be decided by a vote. 

Even walking that back to any extent highlights that the announcement was just not ready to be made. It really does feel as though the company mishandled Cena's retirement and now his post-retirement, with him being wheeled out as effectively a celebrity host putting his name to a half-baked idea. He now has to deal with the scrutiny of that decision and answer for why it's the way it is, and evidently he does not have the answers. Maybe because there are none at the present moment.

Written by Max Everett

Royce Keys may have lost his number one contendership match against GUNTHER on "WWE SmackDown" on Friday, but him just being in the match was a major victory for the former Powerhouse Hobbs. His involvement in the Undisputed WWE Championship scene, albeit for a brief moment, was entirely unexpected, and was one of the most interesting things to happen on the blue brand in quite some time. It wasn't something that leaked ahead of the show, making for a genuine moment that was fun for fans, and a big win for Keys.

After GUNTHER argued he wasn't going to go down to the ring and sign the contract for the Clash in Italy match champion Cody Rhodes presented to him, Keys' music hit, and he sauntered out to square up to the "Ring General." He told GUNTHER that if GUNTHER wasn't going to sign the contract, he would, and nearly had the pen to paper after he stormed down to the ring. A match was made between GUNTHER and Keys for the main event, which Keys held his own in, which was something fans of his already knew he could do.

GUNTHER didn't put Keys to sleep, but rather, the finish was kind of wonky with Solo Sikoa getting involved. He attempted to help Keys score the victory, but instead ate a chair thrown at him by Keys, and GUNTHER nailed the 2026 Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal winner with a powerbomb for the victory.

While the storyline with Sikoa trying to recruit Keys into the MFTs, or whatever he's trying to do, isn't exactly the most interesting, the fact Keys got the surprise main event spot around the title, before delving further into a feud with Sikoa, was a major victory for him. Sure, he won the Andre ahead of WrestleMania, but he wasn't on the 'Mania card and hasn't exactly had a lot of big matches since making his WWE debut at the Royal Rumble back in January. This "SmackDown" match and brief angle felt necessary.

Keys has been seen in a few backstage segments in previous weeks with Jacob Fatu, so he could very well be getting involved in something Bloodline-adjacent between this impending Sikoa feud and Fatu vs. Roman Reigns. Even if that turns out not to be the case, there's no way Keys is losing to Sikoa, and the fact he was in this spot on Friday seemed to solidify that. Despite his loss to GUNTHER, Keys was a big winner of the week, and it was a surprise from out of nowhere.

Written by Daisy Ruth

I am something of a known Will Opreay hater, so it should come as no surprise that I'm not exactly on board with either his current AEW storyline or his match with Ace Austin on this week's "Dynamite." In essence, count me on board with those who don't think Ospreay should be going 15 minutes with a guy like Austin (no offense) en route to presumably becoming AEW World Champion at Wembley Stadium this summer. Not only did the match run long (it was an AEW match, after all) but Ospreay spent large portions of it being worked over, not exactly what you want to see when you're re-establishing your next top babyface. He just didn't look like that guy — the guy you strap the rocket to, the guy fans get behind in droves and power forward toward the top title.

Now look, maybe none of this matters. The "Dynamite" audience was still reasonably behind Ospreay during the match, so maybe losing matches to the Mark Davises of the world and then coming out and looking shaky against Austin won't effect Ospreay's popularity with the AEW crowd. But to me, the storyline is confusing; does Ospreay have an injured neck or doesn't he? AEW can't seem to decide — one minute commentary is spending an entire match talking about his neck, the next minute Ospreay himself is acting like his neck is completely fine. And if Ospreay really is changing up his style following his very real injury, what will be the long-term ramifications? Ospreay is a guy who relies on his athleticism to an absolute fault, and he's not somebody you pay to watch wrestle like ... well, like Jon Moxley.

Does Ospreay have what it takes to stay over without his high-flying style? Maybe we'll find out, maybe we won't. Either way, this is not how I would have started gearing Ospreay up for a big hometown world title win.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

I am an admitted "Lemon Pepper skeptic" — of both the wing flavor and Trick Williams. While I still believe lemon pepper has some merit as a seasoning, but that we as a society must be more reasonable with its usage, I no longer think there is anything unreasonable about the hype surrounding Trick Williams. The man is a star.

This week's "SmackDown" opened with the WWE United States Champion making an entrance alongside rapper Lil Yachty and Cocky, the mascot for Williams's alma mater, the SCU Gamecocks. Even before Williams and his entourage entered, the hometown crowd was absolutely rabid for Trick, chanting "Whoop That Trick" at a decibel level that has not been heard for a US Champion since John Cena was having weekly showcases with the former Cesaro. It is very clear that WWE has something special on their hands with Trick Williams. It feels as organic as anything that was created in that weird Performance Center laboratory can be. I don't think the segment or match that followed were perfect by any means, but having Trick tangle with someone like The Miz is another step in getting him into rarified air.

I used to believe that Trick Williams' offense looked a little light. I didn't quite believe his brash, over-the-top character. The name still feels a little forced. I just wasn't sure that he was "The Guy." I've done some thinking, and I'm pretty sure that, had I been around back then, I would've been saying the exact same things about Rocky Maivia, and Friday's response has me believing that Trick's ceiling could reach as high as Rocky's.

Written by Ross Berman