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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. Let’s hit some outstanding rumors first.
- Plans call for Great Balls of Fire to be an annual show for WWE, says Jerry Lawler, so get used to the name/come up with new jokes.
- Sadly, this is not the case. #RIPBalls. (0/1)
- In addition to talking about doing a women’s Royal Rumble next January, WWE has apparently also talked about doing a tag team tournament next summer that is similar to the Dusty Classic.
- They’re doing another MYC and another UK tournament, but there hasn’t been a tag team tournament. (1/2)
- While PW Insider and the Observer have both said WWE has talked about a Superstar Shake-Up coming after SummerSlam, James McKenna of Pro Wrestling Sheet is saying the next one won’t be until after WrestleMania 34.
- This is a good ol’ 1/2. I just wanted to wait until after Mania to officially take care of it. (1/2)
OK, now onto this week’s rumors.
- In addition to Goldberg, the rumored names for the 2018 WWE Hall of Fame class reported by Twitter user Brad Shepard (who first mentioned the XFL return story) included Bam Bam Bigelow, The Dudleyz, Ivory and Kid Rock.
- Bam Bam didn’t happen but the other four did. (4/5)
- Mojo Rawley’s online promos for his match with Zack Ryder on Sunday got a ton of praise from all over the place, and could have him in-line for a mid-card push.
- That never ever happened. Mojo kind of disappeared. (0/1)
- Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet tweeted that WWE was originally going to feature only women on their debut Facebook Watch show, but scrapped that in favor of Mixed Match Challenge.
- The MMC was a unique program for the Facebook show.
- A moment where War Machine bowed to the crowd after their match at this weekend’s ROH TV taping has restarted talk Hanson and Rowe could be WWE bound.
- They’re in NXT as the War Raiders right now. (1/1)
- Early favorites to win the men’s Royal Rumble, according to betting sites like Paddy Power, include John Cena, Roman Reigns, Shinsuke Nakamura, AJ Styles and Seth Rollins.
- I’m not going to grade this because there are too many names. But it was Shinsuke.
- Despite some internet gossip to the contrary, The Observer says there are no plans for Rey Mysterio to return to WWE and no talks underway which would change that.
- Well he returned for a one shot for the Royal Rumble but hasn’t returned outside that. However he’s recently said it may be happening soon so we’ll wait on it for a bit.
- Meltzer revealed in a recent Twitter Q & A that WWE announcers no longer introduce matches as “one fall” because Vince hates when fans chant that.
- Lines up with all the stories we’ve heard about the man.
- Damien Sandow has moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career, per PW Insider.
- Hopefully he’ll find success. I was always a fan of his in WWE.
- Although WWE has not announced anything yet, the early expectation is the women’s Royal Rumble will have 30 participants.
- It did. Many of them were legends and rightfully so. (1/1)
- On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer mentioned some women in the match believe Ronda Rousey will be a part of it.
- She was not part of the match but debuted right after the fact. (0/1)
- Randy Orton is taking next February and March off, per PW Insider, and is working a reduced schedule in 2018.
- Looking at Cagematch, Randy worked some house shows in February. (0/1)
- It was noted by PW Insider that Rockstar Spud was backstage at both Raw and SmackDown this week and was expected to debut but obviously that didn’t happen. It’s still expected to happen very soon.
- It was late January. Is a month very soon? I’m going to say a week or two is very soon. (0/1)
- There are no plans for Finn Balor to move to the cruiserweight division. Hideo Itami appearing alongside him to help on Raw was to give his debut on 205 Live a boost.
- He’s still in the regular division. (1/1)
- Very few people knew about the Women’s Royal Rumble plan in advance. According to Pro Wrestling Sheet it was such a closely guarded secret that the wrestlers in the ring during Raw’s main event segment had no idea what Stephanie McMahon was going to announce.
- It’s interesting that a show so tightly controlled had the talent not knowing the announcement. A bit hard to believe.
- WWE will keep Dolph Ziggler off television to further the angle started on this week’s SmackDown when he left the U.S. title in the ring, but he’s going to continue working live events per PW Insider.
- It looks like he worked a singular house show after relinquishing the title prior to showing back up at the Rumble. (0/1)
- Initial plans to cover for Dean Ambrose injury have Jason Jordan replacing him as Seth Rollins’ tag partner on house shows.
- Hell, he replaced him as tag team partner in general and they won the titles together. (1/1)
- PW Insider says the 10K seat arena show Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks plan to put on is expected to happen in the Chicago area.
- It’s at the Sears Centre.
- Per the Observer, Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir aren’t training in pro wrestling anymore, so it appears WWE has ditched the idea for a Four Horsewomen vs. Four Horsewomen match.
- While we don’t know if that match is going to happen, Shafir and Duke are signed with WWE so they are still training. (0/1)
- There are some within WWE who still think Chris Jericho is doing WrestleMania 34 and that he’ll be back with WWE shortly after he’s done with New Japan, per the Observer.
- He didn’t work WrestleMania 34 (though after Shane got hurt, he was willing to take his place). (0/1)
- There’s been a push for Jim Johnston to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame next year, according to the Observer.
- He wasn’t inducted. He should be eventually. (0/1)
- There are increasing talks of Batista coming back for something like a six-month run to close out his career in WWE, per the Observer.
- That hasn’t happened yet.
- Becky Lynch is expected to return to SmackDown possibly as early as next week but definitely by early January.
- It wasn’t the following week but two weeks. (1/2)
- There likely won’t be any NXT call ups until after WrestleMania -- even if there are cameo appearances in either Royal Rumble match -- but No Way Jose, Authors of Pain, and The Iconic Duo are all names on the list who are expected to come up next.
- All of those were people were called up next. Ember Moon and Andrade Almas as well. (3/3)
- According to PW Insider, there are plans to do an advance screening of “Fighting with My Family,” the movie centered on Paige, over WrestleMania 34 week in New Orleans.
- The film was delayed and there wasn’t any screening in New Orleans. (0/1)
This week: 12/23 - 52%
Overall: 2,213/4,025 - 55%
Have a great week, everyone!