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Welcome to the weekly Rumor Look Back, where we look at the rumors from six months ago and see which played out as originally predicted. Let’s get right to it.
- The decision to send Ryback home was reportedly made before Payback. There's been no communication between WWE and the Big Guy since he was sent home, and the company is expected to let his contract expire without reaching out or releasing him.
- That’s how it went down. His contract ended and he no longer worked for them. (1/1)
- Lillian Garcia was rumored to be on the cut list last Friday, but word is she's just been off television dealing with a family matter. She Tweeted she'll be back for Raw next week.
- She was back at Raw but ended up leaving to care for her ailing father soon after. (1/1)
- WWE is still interested in hiring Melissa Santos from Lucha Underground. One use for her, according to the Observer, would be to have her replace Ricardo Rodriguez as Alberto Del Rio's new personal ring announcer.
- She is still at Lucha Underground. Alberto is already gone from WWE anyway. (0/1)
- The Observer reports the original plan for Shane McMahon was just to have him on through WrestleMania but his match moved tickets enough to keep him around for a while longer. He likely won't be a permanent television character.
- Seems like he’s a permanent TV character. And he’s wrestling tonight! (0/1)
- Brock Lesnar is expected to return to WWE television in August to build to his next match at SummerSlam.
- It was on August 1 and it had that sweet RKO outta nowhere. (1/1)
- AJ Styles is not expected to miss any television time while dealing with the back injury that will keep him off this weekend's house show run.
- Styles was pretty much on TV full time. (1/1)
- Apparently Bayley hasn't been called up to the main roster yet because there is no babyface woman on the NXT roster to take her place, according to the Observer.
- To be honest, there still isn’t. That’s why they had to get Mickie James for last night. But that is the entire point of developmental.
- John Cena will return on May 30 and other stars who have been off television, like Seth Rollins and Randy Orton, could return on the June 6 episode of Raw, according to PW Insider.
- Rollins returned first at Extreme Rules. The Cena return was already announced so not a rumor. Orton returned at Battleground on July 24. (0/2)
- It’s expected that William Regal will announce a major stipulation for Joe vs. Bálor at TakeOver.
- It was NXT’s first cage match. (1/1)
- The situation with Lilian Garcia is apparently that there were so many people within WWE who were saying she would be released, that's how it got out and around that she would be.
- We’ll never know. But as mentioned above, she left on her own pretty soon after.
- CM Punk's lack of media and low profile of late may be indicative of his future in MMA and the UFC in particular, according to the Observer. Not surprisingly, many believe he'll never have a single fight.
- He actually had a fight. It was not pretty. (0/1)
- PW Insider notes that Nick Jackson has multiple broken ribs and will miss time because of it while Matt Jackson has a broken hand.
- They both ended up missing Best of Super Juniors due to injury. (1/1)
- Alberto Del Rio is said to be unhappy with WWE because he was promised a main event push when he came back.
- Yeah, he’s already gone.
- Triple H is rumored to be the guy keeping Del Rio from a top spot. He apparently isn't a fan, and told his father-in-law the Mexican star's ego would be a problem if he was around the title scene.
- There’s obvious no confirmation to this.
- More Del Rio drama... the former WWE champ had a fling with Charlotte before he started seeing Paige, which has lead to heat between the two women backstage.
- Well, at least the drama stopped here. (OK, so it definitely didn’t.)
- Because he likes using real tension in angles, Vince McMahon has reportedly told writers to pitch him angles to restart a Charlotte/Paige feud for after the Women's champ finishes with Natalya.
- That never happened, possibly because Paige was injured at the time. She’s been suspended twice since this rumor as well. So she hasn’t been on TV even if Vince wanted to run this. (0/1)
- John Cena vs. Roman Reigns has apparently been talked about as a possible headlining match at SummerSlam this year.
- Cena faced AJ Styles (and lost clean) while Roman and Rusev ended up just being a brawl. The two are on different brands currently but I expect they’ll meet up eventually. (0/1)
- Apparently the pregnancy the Bella Twins teased for their reality show recently is in relation to their brother.
- I think this is the case though Brie is currently with child. (1/1)
- Not surprisingly, Apollo Crews has gotten lost in the shuffle on the main roster and, not unlike Baron Corbin, there are no big plans for him at this time.
- Apollo Crews is absolutely creatively lost. Corbin has a bit more direction, but he was still removed from the men’s Survivor Series team for Shane McMahon. (2/2)
- There's some renewed talk that TNA may not be on Pop TV much longer.
- They’re still on Pop TV and there hasn’t been any word of them getting the boot. TNA has had a bumpy ride as of late though. (0/1)
- The Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles match at Extreme Rules is expected to be the last match in their feud, at least on pay-per-view. It's at least possible that the direction going forward will be Styles opposite Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson and that's how they transition out of it.
- That was their last match. Styles was not opposite Gallows and Anderson and instead they teamed together, until they got split in the draft. (1/2)
- It looks likely Seth Rollins will be a heel when he returns to WWE television.
- He did return as a heel, though he’s been turning face. (1/1)
- According to the Observer, Steve Lombardi, better known as Brooklyn Brawler, was released by WWE at least partially due to a "small mistake he made that gave them cause for letting him go." Whatever that means.
- There was later speculation that it was because he called into the Taz Show, but we don’t have any word from the man himself.
This week: 11/20 - 55%
Overall: 1,182/2,206 - 53.6%
Have a great week, everyone!