Rumor Look Back: Oct. 9 - 15, 2016

By Kyle Decker@kfd2010 Apr 16, 2017, 10:00am EDT

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.

The set-up for Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar may be Shane McMahon signing Goldberg to battle Brock as his proxy. A Lesnar win would lead to Shane facing Brock himself at WrestleMania.
That isn’t how it happened at all. It was spurned by the WWE video game and an ESPN interview with Goldberg where he said if he had another match, it’d be against Brock. (0/1)
Braun Strowman’s squashes could be leading to the debut of a former NXT champ on the main roster, as plans have Samoa Joe eventually (probably in December) answering Strowman’s demands for better competition.
Also not how it happened at all. Joe, who debuted many months later, showed up as Triple H’s proxy and injured Seth Rollins. Though I suppose a former NXT champion did step up to Strowman since his first real feud was with Sami Zayn. (0/1)
Noam Dar is expected to debut on Raw tonight, and start full-time with the cruiserweights.
Looking over the very thorough ReverendKain live blog, this is untrue. Looks like he debuted about a month later. (0/1)

Brock Lesnar is not expected to be at Raw with Goldberg next week. The plan is to keep them apart for now, and possibly until Survivor Series.
Lesnar wasn’t on this Raw but they did meet up prior to Survivor Series. (1/2)
Don’t be surprised if Lesnar is on Raw in two weeks when they’re in Minneapolis, however.
He was. This was the time that Paul Heyman was supposed to get the crowd to chant for Goldberg but instead the crowd chanted “Goldberg sucks” and they cut Heyman’s mic. This had people worried that the build wouldn’t go well, but it ended up working out. (1/1)
According to PWInsider’s sources, there was "obvious tension" between Billy Corgan and Dixie Carter behind the scenes at Bound for Glory and the first few television - until Carter left Orlando.
No surprise there since they were in court about a month later.
Luke Harper was set to head to Raw, but the decision was made to move him to SmackDown when Erick Rowan’s injury was diagnosed.
It makes sense. The Wyatt family is in a weird spot now. Bray is alone on Raw, Rowan is his proxy on SmackDown (maybe?), and Luke is a solo act on SD.

Not surprisingly, there's word going around that Paige is going to try to get out of her contract with WWE.
She’s still with the company, but one could argue she is still trying to get out of her contract with these periscope sessions featuring Alberto El Patron.
It's likely some wrestlers will pull double duty at Survivor Series with the three elimination tag team matches planned.
That did not happen. Likely because the men’s survivor series match went an hour. (0/1)
Becky Lynch may not make her return to television until her match with Alexa Bliss on Nov. 8 in Glasgow.
She returned Oct. 25 according to the, you guessed it, thorough ReverendKain live blog. (0/1)
The Seth Rollins vs. Kevin Owens Universal title match wasn't originally going to be inside Hell in a Cell but WWE made a late change.
They should have just left it out of the Cell. That feud never earned the Cell.

Plans aren't set for Cena at Survivor Series, but he'll likely be on one of the SmackDown vs. Raw matches while AJ Styles continues to work with Dean Ambrose.
He wasn’t at Survivor Series. (0/1)
Cena's quest for a 16th World title will resume when he comes back, and despite his not being advertised for it, could include challenging AJ (who will leave his feud with Ambrose with the belt) at TLC.
He did come back challenging for the title, but it wasn’t at TLC. (1/2)
Curt Hawkins being bumped from SmackDown this week was a result of early segments like Miz & Dolph Ziggler going long and not an indication Creative isn't high on his gimmick.
Though there’s a good chance creative isn’t high on his gimmick since they never use him.

The current plan is for Goldberg to do just one match, at Survivor Series, but that could change if it does really well and fans respond well to him.
This is worded in a way that it’s tough to grade. It wasn’t just one match, and that was likely because WWE liked how it was going. And fans did seem into it. He ended up working 4 matches, including the Royal Rumble.
WWE is looking into making pricing changes to the Network with the idea of possibly rolling it out before WrestleMania 33 but it's also possible their research won't support the idea.
Another rumor that has contradictions in it. This didn’t happen.

While there's still a belief Paige is exploring options for leaving WWE, the Observer notes she is not doing what she's doing in an attempt to get released by the company.
Again, that remains to be seen.
The reason the Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins Universal match was put in Hell in a Cell is because WWE thought it would look lesser if it wasn't in the Cell like the women's and US title matches.
That’s a dumb reasoning. It wasn’t a long standing feud like the other two. Just run it like a normal match.
Chris Jericho was dropped from plans for that match so it could be in Hell in a Cell, although he could still get involved in some way, like special guest referee.
Jericho did get involved and helped Kevin Owens win, but he wasn’t a special guest ref. (1/2)
WWE is still holding off on the big push for Enzo & Big Cass with the thinking they'll get over huge with a title win at WrestleMania 33 in Orlando next year.
Sorry, Enzo and Cass. You probably weren’t expecting the Hardy Boyz. (0/1)
Jeff Cobb, who works as Matanza in Lucha Underground, will be starting with EVOLVE soon, according to PW Insider.
He does work EVOLVE. (1/1)

This week: 5/15 - 33%

Overall: 1,450/2,673 - 54.2%

Have a great week, everyone!

Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for the Cageside Seats Daily Roundup newsletter!