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Welcome to the weekly Rumor Look Back, where we look at rumors from six months ago and see how they ended up playing out. Before I get to this week’s rumors, I need to make a correct from this edition.
On May 18, there was a rumor about Sunny being involved in pornography that I marked as incorrect. In light of recent news regarding her being involved in adult films, I will add the point that it deserved. (+1)
Now on to this week’s rumors.
Undertaker will be on Raw next Monday, and it’s likely to build his SummerSlam match. That match will likely be against Brock Lesnar.
This rumor was prior to Battleground when Undertaker officially returned. After costing Brock Lesnar his WWE title match at the PPV, Undertaker smoked a carton of cigarettes and returned to Raw to explain his actions. He did face off against Lesnar at SummerSlam. (2/2)
Jack Swagger deleted his twitter accounted recently, fueling speculation he is leaving WWE soon.
Jack Swagger is still with the E and he even defeated Rusev this year! He currently has a twitter. (0/1)
The idea was thrown around that the NXT women would come up and completely supplant the WWE Divas roster save for a few key names who can keep up, such as Paige, and those who would need to be kept around for Total Divas.
This rumor implies that they thought about it and did not go with it. However, they kind of did. Who is around who isn’t an NXT woman or isn’t on Total Divas. I suppose you can say Naomi and Tamina aren’t officially on Total Divas any more, though they are still on the show on occasion. Every one is either an NXT woman or on Total Divas.
For that matter there is still fear that this change regarding the women will crash and burn. Triple H and Stephanie are both behind the new Divas outlook so it is expected that they will give this time.
While it was a bumpy start, the women do have the best storyline in WWE right now so that’s something.
According to the Observer, there are a lot of "significant" moves being made behind the scenes involving Ring of Honor and NXT and they’ll be made evident soon.
It isn’t clear what this is referring to. At first I thought it would be regarding using Ring of Honor as a feeder system. But the rest of this week as rumors regarding WWE being angry at Ring of Honor. Either way, nothing was ever made evident. (0/1)
It is possible Nikki Bella vs. Paige and Rusev vs. Cesaro will be added to Battleground.
Neither match happened. Cesaro and Rusev weren’t even on the card. Since the Divas Revolution started with a ton of pointless matches, there was a random triple threat between Charlotte, Brie Bella, and Sasha Banks instead. In their defense, Nikki was nursing an injury at the time. (0/2)
There’s a mentality that SmackDown on SyFy is a lame duck show, which is why it’s been so creatively bankrupt as of late. That may change when it goes to USA.
I’ll put this one ice, but asides from Mauro Ranallo, I haven’t been that much more impressed with the new SmackDown.
Special Battleground Edition
There are whispers that Sting may make his first appearance in WWE since March, likely involved in the Bray Wyatt/Roman Reigns match.
Sting was not on this show. (0/1)
The NXT women are on hand on the show, despite no having match yet booked for the women.
This isn’t really a rumor of the match but just that they were there. The women were eventually involved in a triple threat match.
It is possible that Seth Rollins will be added to the rumored Brock Lesnar vs. Undertaker match to make it a triple threat match for the title.
Seth Rollins had a match with John Cena at SummerSlam instead. (0/1)
Rumors continue to swirl that Roman Reigns will recruit Sting in his battle against Luke Harper and Bray Wyatt at SummerSlam.
He just turned to his brother Dean instead. Sting was not at SummerSlam but returned soon after for Night of Champions. (0/1)
Apparently WWE wants to take Ring of Honor out for starting the trend of running shows WrestleMania weekend and taking business away.
While I can kind of understand their frustration, there are enough rabid fans WrestleMania weekend to fill up an NXT show and a Ring of Honor show.
WWE has banned the name ‘Wade’ as it relates to King Barrett
I mean I suppose that’s correct because they never call him that. It’s weird that they’d "ban" it. (1/1)
With Hernandez and MVP gone from TNA, Kenny King is likely going to leave the company soon too.
He did leave, going to Ring of Honor and reforming the All Night Express with Rhett Titus. (1/1)
According to the Observer, the original plan was for Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, and Sting to go up against the reunited Wyatt family. However the injury to Erick Rowan changed that. They could still be going with a 3 on 3 by adding on a new Wyatt family member.
Rowan was out since June with his injury, but it’s possible they had something planned in advance with regards to Sting.
Word is that the reason they want Reigns in a tag match at SummerSlam is because the show is in Brooklyn and they don’t want Reigns to get booed too much. We’ll see how that goes.
I don’t believe they booed him too badly at SummerSlam, but my memory could be deceiving me.
In addition to the two-hour live TakeOver special in Brooklyn, WWE is thinking about taping an episode of NXT there as well.
They did. They did the same thing for London. I bet destination TakeOvers will always taped an hour of story light TV for the following Wednesday. (1/1)
WWE has been doing more apron bumps, which is a direct response to Ring of Honor.
I actually had to look this up to see what they were even talking about. Apparently, as part of being angry at Ring of Honor for trying to leach off their fans at the big shows, they are doing apron spots like ROH does to show people they can do them too. I think? You would think WWE wouldn’t concern themselves with ROH that much.
It is possible that Triple H is now playing a babyface because Stephanie introducing the Divas Revolution is a face move they may not be able to do a face/heel wife and husband.
While he’ll certainly skirt that line, Triple H has still always been heel within the main parts of the story. (0/1)
It looks like Kevin Owens has been dropped from the US title scene to the midcard. He also won’t have a featured match at SummerSlam.
I would say these are both true. He dropped from the US title scene to the midcard. I also wouldn’t consider Cesaro vs. Owens a "featured" match, especially because it got the death spot right before the main event. (2/2)
The Rock’s cousin Lina Fenene may be debuting at the next set of NXT tapings in August.
Lina Fenene is better known as Nia Jax. She did not debut on TV until October, which was included the August taping. (0/1)
Apparently, Ring of Honor is not worried about NXT poaching their talent. They feel the talent they have aren’t that coveted by WWE anyway and are confident in their talent scout Hunter Johnston.
I can’t gauge if Ring of Honor was worried or not, but they did not lose any talent (after Samoa Joe) to NXT. They are likely right that they don’t have anyone WWE really desired. They did lose Maria Kanellis and Michael Bennett to TNA.
According to the Observer Newsletter, the Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar match at SummerSlam will "play a part in the storyline for one of the major matches at the next WrestleMania."
I’ll put this in the outstanding column, but I highly doubt it will be accurate. They had the third match at Hell in a Cell, and I cannot imagine they will be having a fourth at WrestleMania. But we’ll see.
For what it’s worth, it is also being said that Undertaker will get his win back, whether it be at SummerSlam or WrestleMania 32.
He did get a win back at SummerSlam, though he did also tap out. (1/1)
Brian Alvarez noted that there will be a new member of the Wyatt family that will make us long for Erick Rowan.
There was a new member of the Wyatt family. I don’t know if anyone was ever "longing for Erick Rowan" though. (1/1)
Speaking of, that new member is likely the storyline that leads to introducing Sting into the story.
Braun Strowman wasn’t introduced until after SummerSlam and Sting was never involved with that angle. (0/1)
Bully Ray is still pushing to return to the WWE, but the company is currently not interested right now and likely won’t be interested in anything asides from one shots like at last year’s Royal Rumble.
This is incorrect. They signed him and Devon Dudley back full time to job to the Wyatts. (0/1)
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This Week: 9/20 - 45%
Overall: 638/1190 - 54%
Have a great week, everyone.