Rumor Look Back: Nov. 28 - Dec. 3, 2016

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. But first some outstanding rumors.

May 12, 2015

• The plan for GFW looks to be to tape a number of weeks of television and then close it out with a two hour special.
• The real plan was wait for Dixie Carter to be unable to pay for the company, wait for Anthem to buy it, and then get brought on as a creative head and use Impact’s TV deal as GFW TV’s deal and parade all the championships on that show. (0/1)

September 1, 2015

• Chael Sonnen expressed belief that there will be a GFW/TNA merger, which other rumors are supporting as well.
• Technically, Sonnen was correct. (1/1)

December 12, 2015

• 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.
• This is accurate. (1/1)

Now onto this week’s rumors.

November 28, 2016

• There's apparently been a pitch for Undertaker to enter the Royal Rumble next year and push it as a star studded match.
• That’s how it went down. Taker joined Goldberg and Brock Lesnar to help raise the star power. (1/1)
• Undertaker vs. John Cena could finally be happening at WrestleMania 33.
• Looks like it may never happen. (0/1)
• Charlotte isn't expected to lose the Raw women's championship anytime soon. At the moment, it looks like Charlotte vs. Bayley is the plan for WrestleMania 33.
• Charlotte lost it the day of this rumor. Also, Charlotte vs. Bayley one on one happened at the Rumble. It was a fatal 4-way at Mania. (0/2)
• Emmalina is expected to debut anytime, possibly on Raw tonight in Charlotte.
• It was February and it was only for that day. (0/1)
• Akira Tozawa, Gran Metallik, and The Bollywood Boys are all scheduled for the first 205 Live taping.
• The Boyz (now known at the Singh Brothers) were there. Tozawa and Metalik were not on the premiere episode. (1/3)

November 29, 2016

• There’s talk of “friendly tension” between John Cena and WWE over things like his outside projects and big-money deal given to Goldberg.
• I’m not entirely sure what “friendly tension” is.
• While there’s no danger of the star leaving the company, Vince McMahon reportedly told his creative team to brainstorm other opponents for Undertaker at WrestleMania 33 in case there’s an issue with Cena.
• Cena was at Mania but they didn’t go with him as Taker’s opponent. I wonder if it wasn’t known at this time that this would be Taker’s final one.
• The title shot James Ellsworth won along with his contract last week will likely be booked somewhere in between TLC and Royal Rumble - and be where AJ Styles finally gets a win over Ellsworth.
• This is how it happened. (2/2)

November 29, 2016 Special 205 Live rumors

• Former TNA and Ring of Honor, and current NXT, star Austin Aries might be a player on 205 Live. He’s still not medically cleared from the broken orbital bone he suffered working with Shinsuke Nakamura, so if he shows up tonight, it’ll be in a non-physical role.
• He is a major player currently, challenging for the title tonight. (1/1)
• While the show is listed as being 45 minutes long on the WWE Network schedule, it’s possible the episode will be longer than that.
• It went over 57 minutes. (1/1)
• CWC alum and Freelance Wrestling standout Mustafa Ali has reportedly officially signed with WWE for 205 Live.
• He’s on the show often. (1/1)

November 30, 2016

• Triple H vs. Seth Rollins still appears to be the plan for WrestleMania 33 and they're likely going to start building to it soon.
• That’s true overall. They started building it prior to the Rumble. (2/2)
• Daniel Bryan courting wrestlers from Raw on Twitter is something he's doing on his own and not a story that is currently planned to lead to anything.
• It still made for intrigue.
• No surprise here but the title change on the debut episode of 205 Live was done to build interest for the show.
• It was probably the most exciting thing to happen on the show.

December 1, 2016

• WWE may be planning to have Roman Reigns defeat Kevin Owens at Roadblock so he can use the Universal and United States titles to proclaim himself a “double champ” like Conor McGregor was for a short-time before UFC took his featherweight strap.
• Roman hasn’t held a main title since he lost the WWE title to Rollins at Money in the Bank last year. (0/1)
• There’s a report flying around that WWE is planning to “raid” Ring of Honor (ROH) in early 2017. The Young Bucks are said to be the top target.
• They haven’t taken anyone from Ring of Honor, and especially not the Bucks, who feel that signing with WWE isn’t cool any more. (0/1)
• Former WWE C.E.O. Linda McMahon did not get the Commerce Secretary gig from President-elect Donald Trump which had been rumored, but after a meeting with the WWE Hall of Famer in New York yesterday, she’s considered the front-runner to head the Small Business Administration in his cabinet.
• That’s true. (1/1)

December 2, 2016

• Not surprisingly, it does indeed look like Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte will happen at Roadblock, likely with a major stipulation.
• This was the Iron Man match. (2/2)
• To that end, WWE creative has gone back and forth and changed directions multiple times in the women's division over the past couple months.
• It showed with the absolute randomness of the booking.
• Elimination Chamber was originally going to be a Raw pay-per-view in February and Fastlane was originally going to be a SmackDown event in March of next year but now they’ve changed and Elimination Chamber will be a blue brand show and Fastlane a red brand show, according to the Observer.
• I can’t say what the original plans were, but it’s accurate how they ended up. (1/1)

December 3, 2016

• There will likely be at least one title change at TLC this weekend, and maybe two.
• The Wyatt Family (with Randy Orton) defeated Slater and Rhyno for the tag team championships. Alexa Bliss defeated Becky Lynch as well. (1/1)
• WWE has apparently made changes to its pay-per-view schedule in 2017 due to Network subscriber numbers. They could be cutting down to 16 shows.
• There are only 13 listed as of now, but only 2 after SummerSlam. So we’ll have to see how many they add.
• Big Show is expected back on television within the next month or so.
• He returned 2 days later. (1/1)
• Ariya Daivari, Mustafa Ali, and Nixon Newell have all signed with WWE, according to the Observer. The first two will be in the cruiserweight division.
• Daivari and Ali are in WWE. There was rumor about Newell (who I am unaware of) but according to her wiki and twitter, she’s not currently in WWE. (2/3)

This week: 17/26 - 65%

November 2016: 48/95 – 51%

Overall: 1,529/2,825 - 54.1%

Have a great week, everyone!