Rumor Look Back: July 13 - 19, 2018

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 get right to it.

July 13, 2018

• The Observer is now saying it’s official that Brock Lesnar will defend the Universal championship at SummerSlam. They don’t know who his opponent is planned to be, however.
• He defended his title again Roman Reigns. (1/1)
• According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Rey Mysterio has not actually signed a deal with WWE yet but the two sides are incredibly close to it.
• They eventually did. We don’t know exactly when of course.
• A big issue with it is apparently the ALL IN event Mysterio has been announced for. He wants to work the show but WWE doesn’t want him to.
• Mysterio is a man of his word, and he was in the main event of ALL IN.
• Jeff Hardy told the Canton Repository that his lower back has been bothering him enough lately that he’s stopped doing the Swanton Bomb on house shows.
• He told a story on the Edge and Christian podcast that he used to try to deliver it so it was the least painful on the person taking it. But that hurt him more so eventually he just started delivering so the opponent took a brunt of it.
• Per the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Tessa Blanchard’s contract with Impact Wrestling is for two years.
• She’s a great get for them.

July 14, 2018

• Per the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the idea from Vince McMahon continues to be that Brock Lesnar is holding up the Universal championship and won’t come back to drop it. They also say he’s under contract through the end of August.
• That was pretty much the story they told.
• WrestleVotes says that as of this Monday, Roman Reigns vs. Bobby Lashley was scheduled to go on last at Extreme Rules.
• It did not go on last. The Iron Man match did. (0/1)
• They also say, however, that there was a push for the Dolph Ziggler vs. Seth Rollins Iron Man match to be given the main event spot.
• That pushed must have worked because they did. (1/1)
• The expectation is that Sasha Banks vs. Bayley will be a featured match at SummerSlam and they’ll be given plenty of time to recreate the magic they made in Brooklyn years ago.
• Ha! (0/1)
• According to the Observer, Charlotte’s estimated return date is about three weeks from now.
• 2.5 so I’ll give it to them. (1/1)

July 16, 2018

• PW Insider says that despite his reinstatement to the Hall of Fame, Hulk Hogan has not signed “any kind of contract” with WWE. He headed back to Florida after Extreme Rules in Pittsburgh and isn’t planned for appearances at this week’s Raw or SmackDown.
• He’s back to some degree currently.
• On the other hand, Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp says he heard Hogan has signed a new WWE deal. He and TicketDrew also say Daniel Bryan’s new WWE contract is a done deal.
• I’ll mark the two Hogan contract ones as a split. He’s got a contract to do some work now, but we don’t know when that happened. (1/2)
• According to Bryan Alvarez, Hogan’s meeting with talent backstage at last night’s PPV was filmed for an upcoming WWE Network special.
• That’s crappy sounding. I don’t know if it was filmed or not. If it was, they scrapped the special.
• Regarding the widely panned Royal Rumble countdowns from the Extreme Rules crowd at during the main event, Alvarez also said that Dolph Ziggler and Seth Rollins requested the clock go back on the screen for timing purposes over the last 10 minutes.
• That crowd ruined that match for me.
• PW Insider backed WrestleVotes earlier rumor that Roman Reigns vs. Bobby Lashley was the planned main event on Sunday night, but that account notes there were people backstage lobbying for Rollins/Ziggler who apparently won out. There was said to be no support for closing with the WWE Title match.
• Poor WWE title.

July 17, 2018

• Vince McMahon was not backstage at Extreme Rules according to Wrestling Observer. PW Insider says he did communicate with the people who ran the show, including Triple H and Billy Kidman, who ran gorilla position.
• During the show? Was he texting them as it went on. I bet that could have been annoying for those on site trying to run the show.
• Randy Orton was hidden on a bus until 30 minutes prior to his return, per PW Insider.
• Honestly, they really don’t need to try too hard to not spoil an Orton return.
• That site also says the Iron Man match was set to open Extreme Rules until the match order was changed late in the day on Sunday.
• I wonder if it would have gotten the countdown treatment if it was early (and fans felt it was getting the shaft as a curtain jerker).
• Kane suffered a legitimate leg injury prior to the PPV, which is why WWE ran the angle with Bludgeon Brothers. He was walking around all weekend wearing the boot we saw him wearing in Team Hell No’s match.
• That ended up hindering the match.
• Dave Meltzer said on Observer Radio that Jeff Cobb has signed with Ring of Honor.
• He’s their current television champion. He won it in his first match there.

July 18, 2018

• The current expectation is that Roman Reigns will defeat Bobby Lashley next week and go on to win the Universal championship from Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam.
• This is accurate. (2/2)
• Jeff Hardy is expected to take some time off, as noted by TicketDrew.
• Looking at cagematch, it doesn’t seem like he took any real time off. (0/1)
• There’s some word going around, originating from Barnburner, that Titus O’Neil left Extreme Rules when Hulk Hogan came back to apologize to the locker room because he was so upset about the situation. Wrestling Inc is saying that’s not what happened and he left after the meeting because he wasn’t booked for the show, like some others also did.
• Another split decision. (1/2)
• On that same note, Brad Shepard claims he had a source tell him black wrestlers in the WWE locker room are very upset about it, and it’s not a 50/50 split like Mark Henry indicated.
• Some felt strongly about it to make pubic statements statements.
• Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that WWE still has big plans for Drew McIntyre.
• We’ll wait and see. He’s booked well, but nothing I would classify as big plans right now.

July 19, 2018

• Brock Lesnar is being advertised for the July 30 Raw in Miami by American Airlines Arena. It would be his first WWE television appearance since April, and he’s expected to interact with his SummerSlam challenger.
• This was the episode Brock read a magazine instead of going to the ring. So he was there, but he didn’t interact with Roman. In fact, I believe Roman was forced to leave the building? (1/2)
• AJ Styles is currently pencilled in to face, and beat, Samoa Joe at SummerSlam.
• It was technically a loss by DQ. (1/2)
• Bryan Alvarez of Wrestling Observer is now saying he’s heard Hulk Hogan’s Extreme Rules speech wasn’t filmed.
• Looks like another split decision on rumors that contradict. (1/2)
• Per PW Insider, Kane’s injury is to his Achilles tendon and occurred on the July 10 SmackDown. He’s not expected back on WWE TV any time soon due to his mayoral campaign in Tennessee.
• He was back in October, which is pretty soon. That being said, that was after the campaign. (1/1)
• Former Knockouts Champ Sienna, aka Allysin Kay, is done with Impact, according to Squared Circle Sirens. Her contract expired while she was out injured and she didn’t re-sign.
• She’s no longer with them. She worked the Mae Young Classic in a first round exit. (1/1)

This week: 12/20 - 60%

Overall: 2,557/4,638 - 55.1%

Have a great week, everyone!