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Welcome the Rumor Look Back, where we look at rumors from six months ago and see which turned out to be true. Before we get to this week's, there were a few of rumors about the locale of WrestleMania 33 that were outstanding. Now that it’s been announced it will be in Orlando, we can grade these:
1/22/15: WrestleMania 33 could be held in Philadelphia. (0/1)
4/4/15: Minneapolis is still talked about the most likely spot for WrestleMania in 2017. (0/1)
6/26/15: It looks like Orlando is the frontrunner for WrestleMania 33. (1/1)
Now onto this week's rumors.
To add to the confusion of Randy Orton’s upcoming schedule, the Observer reports he will be on Raw and SmackDown next week. There are other reports saying he will only work dark matches those shows. He is not schedule yet for the Night of Champions card but there is a storyline in place leaving the possibility open for him to team with Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose against the Wyatt Family.
He was not on TV for either show and, according to ProFightDB, he didn’t wrestle at all those days, which means no dark matches. He also didn’t wrestle at Night of Champions, but that wasn’t a rumor as much as pointing to what the storyline gave options to do. (0/2)
Rey Mysterio recently tweeted to his followers that he has a "good understanding" with WWE, though expressed commitment to "other directions" right now. It is seen as a good sign for possible future business with WWE including a possible Hall of Fame berth.
This isn’t as much a rumor as it is analyzing a tweet. There have been "Mysterio to WWE" rumors, though that will need to be after his Lucha Underground run if it happens. There’s little doubt in my mind that Mysterio will be a WWE Hall of Famer.
There was a photo of a scantily clad woman that popped up on Kevin Nash’s Twitter timeline with a location of Blackpool, England where Nash was at the time it posted. It was promptly deleted, though still showed on WWE.com’s page. He claimed his account was hacked but there are some at corporate angry over the situation.
I don’t recall this at all. Feels like I’m hearing about this for the first time. If it’s not a hack, at least Nash is a bit more discreet about it unlike Scott Hall, who used to just post random pictures of scantily clad (at best) girls and then be like "So what?" if anyone called him out.
If recent house shows are any indication, we could be in for an El Torito push. He even had his own music (George Thorogood’s Bad to the Bone.)
There was no El Torito push whatsoever. I hope they didn’t buy the rights to that song just for him. (0/1)
Dave Meltzer noted that "If Charlotte doesn’t win (the title on Raw) then it’s probably the influence of John Cena." Charlotte did not win.
Man, more of these rumors?
That being said, expectation is that Charlotte will win the Divas title at Night of Champions.
So was the prior rumor saying John Cena would be willing to step in just to preserve the record but not her title reign? Or do these two rumors just contradict completely? (1/1)
There’s still talk that John Cena/Seth Rollins will go on last at Night of Champions.
It was second to last to Sting/Seth Rollins, in what was Sting’s final match as a wrestler. (0/1)
Also, it looks like Seth Rollins will defeat Sting to retain the WWE Championship but lose the US Championship back to John Cena.
That was the way things went. (2/2)
No matter how Full Sail reacts, WWE is apparently steadfast in pushing Eva Maria to the NXT Women’s Title, possibly by the end of 2015 or beginning of 2016.
Bayley is still champion and defending her title against Asuka at TakeOver: Dallas. Eva Marie does not look like she’s on some title collision course. (0/1)
Now that WWE has gone head and broken AJ Lee’s record of longest reigning Divas Champion, there’s rampant speculation that CM Punk’s WWE title reign of 434 days will be broken as well, possibly by Roman Reigns.
The thought of the current iteration of Roman Reigns, the one with half the fans rejecting him, as champion for over a year straight is almost painful.
With TNA’s uncertain future, there’s continue talk that the Hardy Boyz could make a return to WWE.
It hasn’t happened yet, but I’ll put it in the outstanding column. TNA found a new home on PopTV and both men are in prominent positions there. Jeff is always a top babyface while Matt is the top heel currently.
Apparently there are some in WWE who don’t think Chad Gable is big enough to be a top guy according to the Observer.
The man is 5’8" and Daniel Bryan, who was the poster guy for being a small wrestler, is billed at 5’10". Given that this is WWE, this wouldn’t be a surprising thought.
What is surprising is that this was already being discussed even though Gable and Jordan were only starting to get hot at the time of this rumor.
Some rumors are floating around that WWE may be interested in Jay Lethal. He told TV Guide magazine hat he is honored of that were true.
Lethal going to WWE would be interesting but I feel it won’t ever happen. Right now, he’s still Ring of Honor champion so it’s no time soon if it ever does.
There’s now talk of the Rock being Roman Reigns on mystery partner of Night of Champions. (But don’t count on that one.)
He surely was not. It ended up being Chris Jericho. (0/1)
The Observer reported there’s serious talk of ending the Rusev, Summer Rae, Lana, and Dolph Ziggler’s storyline since the angle has only hurt Rusev and Lana and they are better together anyway.
It was about 3-4 weeks later that they ended the storyline, but because of the leaked news of Rusev and Lana’s real engagement. Just prior to that, they had just started an angle where Summer proposed to Rusev and he said he needed gold first.
So this is a tougher rumor. The story did end, but it looked to be for different reasons than this rumor implies. I think I will grade it as correct in the end, but you can let me know your opinions in the comments. (1/1)
With Sheamus not booked on the Night of Champions card, there is new speculation that he will cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase to win the title. If that happens, Sting will likely win prior to give him a WWE championship victory.
Sheamus did not cash in his briefcase until Survivor Series. Sheamus tried at this PPV, but Kane interfered as he’s wont to do. (0/1)
According to PW Torch, WWE was already fed up with dealing with Hulk Hogan. They didn’t want to deal with him even before the racism stuff came up, so, ultimately, it was an easy call then when the tape was leaked.
I’m sure they are glad they cut ties before the Hogan trial because they don’t want to be associated with any of that.
The Young Bucks are close to signing a new deal with Ring of Honor according to the Observer.
They signed an exclusive deal at the end of October. (1/1)
It is at least possible that Sting will win the WWE title, and he and Rollins will have a rematch at Hell in Cell where they will swap back.
That did not happen. Sting lost to Seth Rollins and then Rollins went ahead and fought Kane at Hell in a Cell. (0/1)
The Observer has reported that WWE has told their talent, even those who don’t wrestle but are affiliated with WWE, to avoid contact with Hulk Hogan.
"Why is no one returning my calls, brother?"
There’s talk now that Chris Jericho will be the mystery partner for Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose at the PPV.
This is the first time that I came across a rumor about Jericho and the show was only two days away. (1/1)
WWE may be interested in bringing back Carlito.
If they were, they have not. At least not yet. I’ll give it another 6 months.
The Observer notes that WWE has signed Amanda from Tough Enough and she will be replacing Naomi on Total Divas.
Those are both true statements. (2/2)
It looks like the plans for Night of Champions is for John Cena to beat Seth Rollins, Rollins to beat Sting, and for Sheamus not to cash in his briefcase.
That’s exactly how it went down. Right after SummerSlam, rumors were pretty off about this PPV but then they quickly settled in to being correct. Perhaps it’s a sign that WWE wasn’t sure the plan right after SummerSlam but quickly figured out what they wanted to do . (3/3)
There may still be plans for El Torito to paired with the Lucha Dragons as had been rumored month ago.
That never happened. (0/1)
WWE and Evolve are apparently still in talks to work out a deal to work together.
The deal did come to pass. WWE gets to use Evolve as a place to keep talent they are interested and they get to use guys like Tommaso Ciampa on NXT. Evolve gets guys like William Regal or Sami Zayn to come appear at their shows. Plus Gabe Sapolsky is required to tweet something uber positive about Triple H monthly. (1/1)
Rumor has it a major departure form TNA is coming.
This is tough because at the time, TNA was doing their World Title Series so they didn’t have any live shows. Because of that, immediate departures weren’t even felt right away.
This rumor could be referring to James Storm, who went to NXT for a couple matches before re-signing with TNA by the time they returned to TV. This could be referring to Kurt Angle’s pending retirement. I’m going to go ahead and grade this as correct since I would consider either of those "major departures" despite Storm deciding to return. (1/1)
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This Week: 13/22 - 59%
Overall: 720/1350 - 53.3%
Have a great week, everybody.