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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 get right to it.
- WrestleVotes claims at one point there was a plan in place for Brock Lesnar to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase at Super ShowDown but the match would end in a disqualification.
- A DQ finish for a cash in is the worst. Luckily they’ve only gone to that well once.
- WWE is now trying to sign wrestlers coming in to five year deals in NXT instead of three, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
- That sounds accurate as there have been reports of wrestlers signing 5-year deals, such as Mike Bennett. I don’t know if the talent themselves have confirmed the length though.
- Per PW Insider, Jeff Hardy is expected to be examined in the next week to see about his progress from knee surgery.
- Still haven’t seen Jeff, but some of that could be due to his DUI issues.
- That site also says there’s been talk of adding more Producers to the WWE main roster.
- Lance Storm recently signed on as one. So that is technically more. (1/1)
- PJ Black is wrestling through a partially torn biceps, says the Observer.
- Ouch.
- WrestleVotes claims multiple sources said the WWE show in Saudi Arabia was a disaster backstage.
- With the heat and that disaster of the Goldberg/Undertaker main event, I can imagine. That was followed up by the travel disaster of the last show.
- Fumi Saito said recently on his podcast that NJPW told him he wasn’t allowed to mention AEW during a promo, and there may be some sort of issue between the two sides.
- That’s the word.
- Andrade likely won’t be at television this week following the death of his mother this past weekend, per the Observer.
- Zelina Vega represented him on SmackDown that week, but he wasn’t on either show. (1/1)
- Per Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, the finish of the Lars Sullivan vs. Lucha House Party match at Super ShowDown was changed from Sullivan winning to the DQ they went with.
- Lars is still out dealing with his injury.
- While Kota Ibushi is banged up, he’s not injured and is expected to play a big role in the G-1 this year, according to the Observer.
- He won the whole thing. (1/1)
- A source told Ryan Satin that Cesaro was okay and didn’t appear to be seriously injured after being helped to the back following his match on Raw.
- Looks like he didn’t miss any time. (1/1)
- More reports from backstage in Saudi Arabia - Fightful says heat was a major issue, and led to “miserable and borderline unworkable” for the wrestlers.
- I can only imagine.
- They also report Vince McMahon was at Super ShowDown, and wrestlers they talked to were “shocked” Goldberg/Undertaker lasted more than 4 - 5 minutes.
- Which was ridiculous. That match should have been short and sweet. Though Goldberg concussing himself was going to be an issue either way because it happened in the first couple minutes.
- Bray Wyatt was in Pittsburgh yesterday, according to PW Insider.
- Cool.
- Ric Flair’s former manager Melinda Morris Zanoni is suing him for defamation over the since-deleted YouTube video he posted accusing her of embezzling from him. Flair says he has another “Naitch Unfiltered” video coming Friday.
- Flair always with the drama.
- According to The Big Lead, Renee Young is “highly likely” to host the WWE studio show that will air on FS1 later this year.
- WWE Backstage is pretty much her show. (1/1)
- Per Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, Charlotte missed some house shows alongside Andrade after the death of his mother. She could miss more time for the same reason.
- She didn’t wrestle again until the 25th of the month. (1/1)
- Bryan Alvarez mentioned on Wrestling Observer Live that he believes WWE did make changes to Monday Night Raw during the show to account for the NBA Playoff game going on at the same time. At the very least, they kept an eye on the game.
- They know there is certain competition they may as just well work around it.
- MLW is allowing its talent to work anywhere but WWE, including AEW, because the idea is it would make them more valuable, according to the Observer.
- That sounds right. Even MJF is inked to an MLW contract. (1/1)
- On the Ariel Helwani Show, Chael Sonnen claimed WWE offered him money to no show his second fight against Anderson Silva, then later offered him $5 million if he could win and bring the belt to Monday Night Raw.
- Sonnen is known to at least exaggerate some stories.
- When asking around about plans for Shane McMahon, one of WrestleVote’s sources said they could see Shane being the person who beats Kofi Kingston for the WWE title. WrestleVotes stressed this was just the source speculating.
- Thank God this was false. (0/1)
- According to freelance journalist Tom Colohue, Sasha Banks and WWE have been in constant contact while she’s been away from the company.
- That’s not surprising. I don’t think she was ever planning on leaving.
- There’s a screenshot making the rounds claiming to show the new logo SmackDown will get when the move to Fox happens this fall.
- I had to go digging a little bit because the original tweet was deleted. But I found another tweet from that day that was presumably sharing the same logo. And it was not the same. I like the one they are using. (0/1)
- Fandango was at the Performance Center yesterday, says PW Insider. The site mentions it could mean he’s in Orlando for this week’s NXT tapings.
- He did. It aired over a month later. (1/1)
- Though he won’t be calling Fyter Fest, Dave Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio he expects Alex Marvez will be back with Jim Ross & Excalibur on commentary for Fight For The Fallen.
- He was back, but didn’t last much longer before being moved off commentary. (1/1)
- According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, Triple H, and Kevin Dunn all missed Raw and SmackDown this past week for various reasons.
- Man, no one was watching this show.
- This isn’t exactly new, but Dave Meltzer mentioned on Wrestling Observer Radio that “a lot of people are counting the days” until their WWE contract expires.
- I’m sure that’s the case for some, but may not be as many as speculated given some people are renewing their contracts.
- Lars Sullivan apparently has a minor injury, per Meltzer, and that’s why he didn’t wrestle Matt Hardy on SmackDown this week as originally planned.
- It was a major one. He hasn’t wrestled since. (0/1)
- Per the Observer, Chad Gable and Jack Gallagher screwed up the finish on 205 Live this week, as it wasn’t supposed to be a count out.
- I remember they had a great match to follow this up.
- PW Insider notes that Impact Wrestling now has a rule that talent working on TV can only wear shirts that are official Impact shirts.
- I mean I kinda get it, but at the same time, that’s pretty lame.
This week: 9/12 - 75%
Overall: 3,051/5,477 - 55.7%
Have a great week, everyone!