Rumor Look Back: March 4 - 10, 2016

Welcome to the weekly Rumor Look Back, where we take a look at the rumors from six months ago and see how they ended up playing out. Let’s get right to it.

March 4, 2016

• Roman Reigns is still penciled in as the babyface star of the company out to WrestleMania 33 and 34.

• Well, we’ll be sitting on this one for awhile.

• WWE Roadblock is expected to be treated as a major show with promotion on Raw and SmackDown next week.

• This is pretty much correct. It was part of the storytelling on Raw. It wasn’t as much on SmackDown, but they still advertised it like a big show. (1/1)

• According to the Observer, TNA is “aggressively seeking out” anyone from Ring of Honor who’s contract is expiring.

• They ended up signing Moose. That doesn’t really tell us anything about the negotiation process or how aggressive TNA has been with other Ring of Honor talent.

• Apparently there’s been some possible issues with late pay in TNA again.

• Hopefully with the word of Dixie being phased out and Corgan having a heavier role, they can get their financials under control. More recent rumors mention higher morale with Corgan having a bigger role and the word of people not getting paid aren’t dominating the rumors like they used to.

March 5, 2016

• There’s now talk that Roman Reigns may be held off Raw in Chicago next week.

• He did not show up on that show. (1/1)

• AJ Styles vs. Chris Jericho is apparently going on the books for a WrestleMania match and could be announced as early as next Monday.

• It did happen at Mania, but it wasn’t officially announced at Raw. That was the Raw where Jericho turned on Styles, officially ending the historic Y2AJ run, but the match wasn’t made until weeks later. (1/2)

• Ryback’s renewed heel push could lead him to a feud with babyface champion Roman Reigns.

• Or within 6 months he’ll be doing shoot interviews saying that they told him he’d be the number one heel but it never happened. (0/1)

• The announcement about WrestleMania 33 being held in Orlando will come in the next two weeks.

• It was announced March 8. (1/1)

March 7, 2016

• Roman Reigns may be kept off TV this week as the company promotes the Roadblock special.

• This is correct. It was the next week where he finally returned to beat the hell out of Triple H. (1/1)

• There’s some word making the rounds that Mick Foley will appear on Raw prior to WrestleMania 32 to set up whatever he is doing there.

• Mick Foley was at Mania and did a spot with the New Day, League of Nations, Stone Cold, and HBK. But it wasn’t anything promoted prior. He did show up prior to give Dean Ambrose his barbed wire baseball bat, but he wasn’t involved in that WrestleMania match. (0/1)

• Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows are scheduled to debut on the main WWE roster around WrestleMania 32, according to PW Insider. That almost certainly means a Finn Balor call up.

• Anderson and Gallows debuted a couple weeks after WrestleMania. Finn Bálor waited a few more months until the draft though. (1/2)

• The Wrestling Observer is reporting Ryback is "being tabbed at this point to be put in the US title mix."

• He had a US title match against Kalisto on the WrestleMania pre-show and the Payback pre-show. He didn’t win it. (1/1)

March 8, 2016

• Sami Zayn's appearances on Raw and SmackDown this week will lead to him appearing at Roadblock, which will set-up his being added to the multi-man Intercontinental title match at WrestleMania.

• He was at Roadblock, but I would not say his random match with Stardust was any set-up to his Mania match (1/2)

• This is effectively Sami’s call up, but he will finish up his NXT storylines.

• He finished up within a month after his match with Shinsuke Nakamura. (1/1)

• PWInsider said that the final two entrants into the WWE Hall of Fame will be Stan Hanson and Jacqueline.

• That is correct. (2/2)

March 9, 2016

• Although he won’t be wrestling on the show, John Cena is expected to be part of WrestleMania in some fashion.

• This is true. He was part of a segment with the Rock and the Wyatt Family. (1/1)

• No titles are expected to change hands at the Roadblock special this weekend.

• That’s true. The WWE world heavyweight championship, Divas championship, the WWE tag team championships, and the NXT tag team championships were all defended and none of them changed hands. (1/1)

• According to the Observer, there’s heat on Lana again for some new issue.

• That sounds about right.

• The Intercontinental championship match at WrestleMania 32 is apparently going to be a six-man match, and Sami Zayn is one of those six, according to the Observer.

• There were 7 men involved (Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Zack Ryder, The Miz, Dolph Ziggler, Stardust, and Sin Cara). (0/1)

• Sami Zayn is expected to work the Roadblock event.

• He had a match against Stardust. (1/1)

March 10, 2016

• Roman Reigns has been pulled from house shows this weekend but he’s still expected to be back on TV next week.

• He returned on Raw. (1/1)

• The entire Roadblock event won’t air on the WWE Network. There will be some dark matches.

• There was a Mark Henry match where he defeated someone named Randy Sharp and Goldust defeated Viktor of the Ascension. (1/1)

• Sami Zayn is now considered a main roster talent even though he is working NXT still.

• He was certainly booked as such, appearing on the major shows consistently from this point out. (1/1)

• It looks like WrestleMania will feature 10 matches, including what is going on in the pre-show. The pre-show could have more than one match again this year.

• There were actually 11 matches (12 if you want to count that Rock/Erick Rowan bit which is technically an official match). There were three pre-show matches. (1/2)

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This week: 18/25 - 72%

Overall: 1,059/1,980 - 53.5%

Have a great week, everyone!