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Welcome to the Rumor Look Back, where we take a look at rumors from six months ago to see if they were on point or not. Let’s get right to it.
- Tonight’s episode of Raw is likely to feature “heavy” promotion of SmackDown with the move to USA this week.
- Short of tracking down this Raw and re-watching it, this will be a tough rumor to grade. (I enjoy the Look Back, but now enough to re-watch a 3 hour Raw again for this one rumor.) In Chris Dawson’s CSS live blog, they prepped a bunch of matches for the SmackDown. I’m going to say that’s enough to grade this correctly. (1/1)
- Natalya is expected back on television soon.
- She returned on January 18 on Raw and defeated Brie Bella with Paige in her corner. They did that eskimo kiss fallout promo later in the night. (1/1)
- The Observer notes there’s some concern that Finn Balor is working too much in NXT given his age and whether or not Bayley will be a major star on the main roster.
- Well, Balor still hasn’t been called up. And neither has Bayley. I don’t know what they’re worried with Bayley being a “major star” because they never book the women to be big stars. I think she can do as well within the confines of the women’s division as long as they let her.
- Apparently “The Miracle” is Mike Bennett and he’ll debut this Tuesday on Impact.
- The Miracle is Mike Bennett. This is the first video teaser. (1/1)
- Vader has been teasing a WWE Hall of Fame induction on social media. No names have actually been announced yet for the Hall.
- He must have been screwing around or posturing for one because he’s not in. Which is kind of surprising because you’d think he’d be in by now. (0/1)
- Vince McMahon’s mugshot from Raw made quite the impression online. They wanted to do the same thing with Stephanie with her feud with Brie Bella but Triple H nixed it because he felt it’d hurt her image as brand ambassador.
- I was home for the holidays so I watched the mugshot Raw with my mother and she cracked up during the entire thing. As for Stephanie, I see where Trips is coming from. But if it’s that concerning, maybe she shouldn’t be a consistent on-air heel character.
- Despite rumors saying that his shoulder injury wasn’t a big deal, Sin Cara has not been cleared to compete. Kalisto will work singles in his absence.
- That’s the case. He was out for over a month and Kalisto had a run as U.S. Champion during that time. Now that they are both back, they’re not really doing singles or tags. (1/1)
- Though James Storm admits to flying to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania where TNA is taping tomorrow, he insists it’s just for a meeting and he’s a free agent.
- So I’m actually not going to grade this one as incorrect, though chances are likely James Storm was being a big fat liar right here. But it’s also possible that they didn’t make the deal until after the rumor. Given that question, I won’t grade it.
- WWE, of course, is still planning a Triple H/Roman Reigns match but that could be at Fast Lane next month.
- It wasn’t at Fast Lane. This was the triple threat match that Roman won to become Number One contender. I find it interesting that the rumors don’t have Triple H/Roman pinned as the WrestleMania match yet. (1/2)
- According to the Observer, WWE was very unhappy about word of the New Japan Talent coming over to them.
- Understandable. With the internet, there are no surprises any more. It’s really rare that you’re actually surprised. Now the surprise is in when and not what.
- Part of the reason WWE is upset is because there were supposed to be surprises for the Rumble and AJ Styles was supposed to be one of those surprises.
- They still went with it and it was still a cool moment, despite being a bit predictable.
- Word has WWE may bring in other New Japan talent, but unclear on whom.
- The rumors at this time already speculated Nakamura, Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson, and AJ Styles. No one else has come over. (0/1)
- Expect Dana Brooke to start wrestling soon, possibly at the next set of NXT tapings.
- She was back at the tapings by the end of the month. (2/2)
- Apparently Triple H made the call for WWE.com to run stories about the NJPW talent possibly coming to WWE. Since the word was already leaked, they figured may as well get some traffic off it.
- That makes sense. They ran a ton of Bullet Club stories on the dot com.
- Bad Luck Fale is currently in negotiations with New Japan and he could be one of the Bullet Club members leaving as well.
- He is still there. (0/1)
- According to PWInsider, WWE is in talks with Rocky Romero, possible to bring him on as a trainer or coach.
- He’s still in Ring of Honor competing in their tag team division. He works in New Japan as well. (0/1)
- Apparently some at NXT was upset at Roman Reigns’ promo saying no one has seen Triple H since he beat him down, despite the fact Triple H showed up at NXT London two days later. They feel it made NXT looks second rate.
- That’s all on Triple H. He shouldn’t have been doing his masturbatory “We are NXT” BS if he really wanted to play up his injury.
- AJ Styles could be an unannounced surprise entrant in the Royal Rumble. He also may spend some time in NXT prior to going to the main roster.
- These two rumors surely contradict each other. He spent zero time in NXT, debuting in the Rumble and finding himself in the main event within months. (1/2)
- The Observer reports that the impression now is that the Rock is not cleared to wrestle at WrestleMania 32.
- Well, technically he did. (0/1)
- There have been discussions to break up the Dudley Boyz and allow Bubba to do something similar to his Bully Ray TNA run.
- I’ll give this two weeks to see if they opt to use a draft to break up the Dudleys again. I’m a big fan of the Bully Ray character, but D-Von would be completely left hanging if they split.
- The Dusty Rhodes Invitational is apparently going to be a yearly thing with the finals taking place on the TakeOver prior to SummerSlam.
- I’ll put this on ice as well. I don’t think it’ll be prior to SummerSlam because they would have had to start building or at least be starting very soon. It was in September last year and I would think if they did it, they’d do it the same time.
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This Week: 8/15 - 53%
Overall: 906/1,708 - 53%
Have a great week, folks!