Welcome to the weekly Rumor Look Back , where we take a look at the rumors from six months ago and see how they played out. But before we get to this week, there are a couple of outstanding rumors I’m going to take care of first.
There’s an outstanding rumor from December 10, 2014 that I had not come back around on.
Variety had an article on Destination America doing a deal with Netflix. Because of that, there’s speculation that TNA could be on Netflix.
This was one of those rumors that we kind of knew wasn’t going to be true, like the Sheamus in Star Wars one from a ways back, but now that TNA is officially off Destination America, I will mark this as incorrect. (0/1)
And there’s this one from April 17, 2015:
Apparently Bray Wyatt being cryptic about whom he is cutting promos on is something that will stick around.
Bray doesn’t do the "Who is he talking about?" promos any more. Now he just sends his family to attack the people he wants attack. (0/1)
Now onto this week's rumors.
WWE has removed Hulk Hogan from the Hall of Fame portion of the website, but it is unclear if that means he is actually out of it. The word going around is that no one is talking about it, and the impression is that he’s out.
It didn’t take more than six months for the rumors to start hinting that Hogan is on his way back soon. I don’t know his official "Hall of Fame" status, but I’m sure that will make itself clear eventually. I’ll put this in the outstanding column.
That idea of the big push for Lana as the next female star in WWE is likely dead.
These are tough to grade because of the "How much time do we give it?" aspect of these open ended rumors. I think a year is a good enough to time give an open rumor prior to grading it. The fact that the words "Nuclear heat" are most associated with her now than "Top diva" makes me think that this rumor will end up being correct.
The issues on Twitter between Alberto El Patron and Myzteziz ahead of TripleMania are not a work.
While this is most likely true, it’s tough to know for sure they weren’t planning some seeds for a possible thing down the road.
Sting apparently got into awesome shape for a match at SummerSlam before being told he wouldn’t be used. He may still be on the show in a non-wrestling capacity though.
Sting was not on the show at all, but he was on Raw the next night. (1/1)
WWE is hoping that Roman Reigns will get a big babyface reaction teaming with Dean Ambrose at SummerSlam.
Yeah, that did not work. They clearly don’t fully understand that some these more hardcore crowds will not cheer Reigns.
WWE is now looking for a Latin female to be a star for the company, wrestling or otherwise, according to the Observer.
I don’t know whom they have in the wings at the Performance Center, but no one fitting that bill has made their debut on NXT yet.
WWE is expecting John Cena to be ready to fight at SummerSlam for the WWE title. It is possible that they have to protect him some in the match, but the match should happen.
The match went forward, and it didn’t look like Cena was protected at all during the match. He went all out for it. (1/1)
The "Beef Mode" gimmick with Adam Rose and Brad Maddox they are working at house shows is something they are trying out ideas to use them in the tag division if things go well.
Unfortunately, it never got off the ground and we never got to see Maddox on WWE TV prior to his release, though we did see him in a turkey suit taking a tombstone from the Undertaker on the Tonight Show. What a weird thing to type. (0/1)
The plan now is for Undertaker to get his win back at SummerSlam against Brock Lesnar and this match could be what leads to another match at WrestleMania.
This match did feature Undertaker getting a win over Brock Lesnar. While a Lesnar/Undertaker match it Mania is not completely out of the question (though probably will not happen), the fact of the matter is that the SummerSlam match lead to their Hell in a Cell rematch. (1/2)
It does look like Stephen Amell and Stardust will happen at SummerSlam, though they’ll probably add parts to help with the booking.
This is true on both accounts. They added Neville and Barrett to make it a tag match so Amell didn’t have to work as much in the match. However, for what it’s worth, he handled himself very well in there. (2/2)
Bayley was teasing a Raw appearance last night ahead of the show in her hometown of San Jose. Also, the fact that Emma and Dana Brooke were the ones working WWE house shows lead to speculation Brooke could be transitioned out of full sail to let fitness model Eva Marie be the fitness model fighting for respect on NXT.
Bayley never appeared on Raw, even in a dark segment. Dana Brooke is still in NXT and Eva is playing heel anyway. (0/2)
Reports of that marathon set of tapings TNA finished up mentioned Jeremy Borash interviewing a man in a gorilla suit. There are rumors that could either be an inter-promotional thing with Destination America’s big foot shows but there are also reports of a wrestler wearing that as part of a potential angle.
I don’t recall JB interviewing anyone in a gorilla suit. It certainly wasn’t part of an angle but then again, there weren’t any angles during that marathon set of tapings.
The word is Undertaker is scheduled for some television dates post SummerSlam.
While he worked the Hell in a Cell PPV, he was not on television at all to build the match. (0/1)
It looks like Charlotte will be the first NXT call up getting a shot at Nikki Bella’s title.
That is correct. She faced her on the Raw prior to Night of Champions and did not win the title and then won it at Night of Champions. (1/1)
WWE badly wants ZZ eliminated from Tough Enough, and they’ve edited the footage from the show in such a way that viewers will feel the same way.
If they did, it didn’t work because ZZ made it all the way to the finale until he lost to Josh Bredl, who already has heat. WWE couldn’t have hated ZZ that much because they signed him anyway and he was on Breaking Ground.
There’s some speculation the winner of the SummerSlam title vs. title match between John Cena and Seth Rollins will vacate the US title.
Seth Rollins won the match and kept both titles. However, he lost the US title back to John Cena at Night of Champions. (0/1)
It looks like WWE will do a deal where Neville wrestles for Stephen Amell against Stardust and Amell just gets involved somehow.
Nope. Amell went all out and wrestled in the match.
My biggest issue with this segment is that Amell rushed his entrance instead of doing the slow Green Arrow walk. It was probably nerves but his entrance felt rushed. (0/1)
Apparently the long term plan for Lana is for her to drop the Russian accent, though they do not know how they will do it.
As of now, she is still Russian. I’ll put this on ice for about six months and we’ll revisit it then.
Morale in Lucha Underground is really high after the success of Ultima Lucha. That said there are still obstacles for season two and it’s unclear if a deal will get done.
I just put that in so we can all joyously look back at the uncertainty and then think about how now we get to watch this fabulous wrestling show every week again.
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This Week: 6/13 - 46%
July 2015: 48/86 - 56%
Overall: 656/1232 - 52%
Have a great week, everyone.