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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. Let’s jump right to it.
- Regarding John Cena working a lighter schedule after the Royal Rumble, that may be the start of a permanent arrangement as he winds down his career.
- Since John Cena sustained an injury that has kept him out of action until recently, I’m going to have to put this rumor on ice for now as we see how active he is for the rest of the year.
- Don’t be surprised if Nikki Bella returns at the same time as John Cena, though it doesn’t mean their absences are necessarily related.
- John Cena returned briefly in December, took a bunch of time off for injury, and then returned again on Memorial Day. Unfortunately, Fearless Nikki is still off due to her neck injury. She’s developing a new finisher, though! (0/1)
- WWE has no plans to use Noelle Foley as a backstage interviewer at this time.
- They have not. She’s done some interviews elsewhere and she’s pretty good at it so it is a role that could suit her in the future. (1/1)
- There are apparently big plans for Jason Jordan and Chad Gable in NXT. The feeling is they are much better suited as a tag than working as singles.
- They soon became the hottest tag team in NXT and won the titles at TakeOver: Dallas. They lost them back to the Revival just last week, but that could because of the rumors there’s already a call up in line for them. (1/1)
- WWE is apparently working on a Dusty Rhodes project for 2017 as hinted by Stardust on Twitter
- Looks like we’ll have to wait to find out.
- According to the Observer, the entire purpose of the “Tater Tots” promo on Raw was to get the fans to chant tater tots.
- Because of course it was. Build interest to a match? Nah, let’s go with a balls joke instead.
- Look for NXT to tour the midwest prior to the upcoming TakeOver: Dallas show.
- They did tour the midwest last February. (1/1)
- AJ Styles looks to be on for both Ring of Honor’s Final Battle and NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom this year despite his back injury.
- He wrestled them both. (2/2)
- Already set as a filler episode waiting for the conclusion of the World Title Series, Impact Wrestling is only on the Destination America schedule for 11 pm this week. The channel may not opt to air any episodes after this for the rest of the year.
- The last episode was the one from this week on the 17th. (1/1)
- WWE isn’t worried about Donald Trump backlash, issuing the statement that they are not in the business of politics.
- I don’t know if this was after something specific Trump said or not. There was some small push for WWE to remove Trump from the Hall of Fame due to some of his comments. It was never going to happen though.
- John Cena will add another big comedy flick to his Hollywood resume thanks to a small cameo in the Will Ferrell movie Daddy’s Home.
- Ironically enough, my Lyft driver was telling me about this movie the other day and how funny that scene was. I haven’t seen it though. If you have, let us know in the comments.
- Plans for a Shane McMahon DVD set are on hold. No reason why yet, but it’s been removed from the schedule and replaced with “The Best of the United States Championship.”
- I wonder if it’s something we’ll end up getting in the future since Shane is back in the company and appearing on a decent amount of television.
- In what many are taking that to mean SmackDown will get an identity distinct from Raw, Mauro Ranallo is not getting a WWE name.
- He did not get a WWE name. (1/1)
- Vince McMahon doesn’t expect to be a regular character on WWE TV going forward. The angle with Roman Reigns was a one off.
- I am calling this incorrect because of the fact he was on the TV a lot during the build to Shane/Undertaker at WrestleMania. He has disappeared mainly since then, but it certainly wasn’t a one off. (0/1)
- Triple H is expect to return at Raw next week.
- Triple H didn’t return until the Royal Rumble. (0/1)
- Don’t expect the League of Nations to last too long, even through WrestleMania.
- While I would say they didn’t last long given the fact that six months later they are done. They did last through WrestleMania though, even winning their Mania match. (1/2)
- The explanation on Tyler Breeze is that he just got lost in the shuffle.
- I’m happy that he’s getting time again, even as part of a comedy tag team with Fandango in a comedy angle with the Golden Truth.
- Apparently, the Ryback is trademarking the name “The Big Guy.”
- Smart move, Ryback. It’ll be a good name on the Indies that will relate to his WWE character since it looks like he’s going to be gone from the company pretty soon.
- The Observer notes that the Rock wrestling at WrestleMania is likely out, but WWE is ensuring that he will make an appearance.
- Well, technically he wrestled a match. It’s in the record books. It may not be something promoted. But he technically wrestled. (1/2)
- Word has it that Roman Reigns vs. John Cena was in the cards before Seth Rollins got hurt. It’s possible it’s still in the cards, maybe as a WrestleMania match.
- I’m sure it’s in the cards. We’re getting that match eventually (though if they go to different brands, maybe not soon). So I’m going to give this rumor another six months before marking it incorrect (if they don’t meet). They didn’t fight at Mania so I’m marking that incorrect now. (0/1)
- Part of the expected change with SmackDown next year will be in how the show is presented, which is apparently the impetus behind the hiring of Mauro Ranallo. He may be allowed to commentate without as much producing in the normal WWE style.
- I don’t know how much is in Ranallo’s ear compared to someone like Cole so I can’t comment on that. If I were to grade the “how the show is presented” portion today, it’d be wrong. But I’m going to see what it looks like after the brand split. If it actually has a different feel, I’ll grade it as correct. If it looks like it does now with an exclusive roster, it’ll be incorrect.
- According to the Observer, Jeff Hardy will need another surgery and won’t be wrestling again until the end of 2016.
- I don’t see any words about him having a second surgery. But he definitely wrestled since the beginning of this year. (0/1)
- Lucha Underground is apparently filming season 3 in March.
- They did start taping around that time. (1/1)
- It looks like Brock Lesnar is the current favorite to win the Royal Rumble this year.
- He did not win the Rumble. Triple H did. (0/1)
- Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin is the next title feud in NXT.
- This feud never ended up happening. Corbin has been called up since this. (0/1)
- TNA apparently wants to sign some surprise stars for the Pop TV debut and are actively attempting to do so.
- If they did, they failed because there were no unannounced surprises. (Mike Bennett was announced.) (0/1)
This week: 10/20 - 50%
Overall: 868/1642 - 52.9%
Have a good week, everyone!