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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 jump right to it.
- Sasha Banks, who WWE recently announced was injured, didn’t work weekend house shows and isn’t advertised for Raw this week. Still no word on what her ailment is but it appears there are no plans for her in the short term.
- She was back in October to work Evolution in a tag match against the Riott Squad.
- This Paige tweet is again driving speculation of the arrival of women’s tag team championships being introduced soon.
- They came in December, but had nothing to do with Paige. So I’m going to say nay on it. (0/1)
- The WWE U.K. show could be airing on Wednesdays on the Network, says the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Further, Jim Smallman and the Progress crew could end up running the U.K. shows.
- It is a Wednesday show, though I don’t know if Smallman has much much if anything to do with it. (1/1)
- Joey Janela was injured during a match this past weekend and it could put him out of action for a while.
- He had a bad knee injury and hasn’t worked since. (1/1)
- A tweet featuring Hulk Hogan from Turki Al-Sheikh, the Chairman of the General Sports Authority in Saudi Arabia, has many believing the reinstated Hall of Famer will appear at Crown Jewel in some capacity.
- He was there, cutting a promo early in the show. (1/1)
- “The entire middle” of the Bella Twins & Natalya vs. Riott Squad match from last night’s Raw “had to be changed on the fly” after Brie Bella’s kick hit Liv Morgan in the face, per Fightful.com’s sources.
- That was a nasty knockout.
- Not surprisingly, PW Insider reports Morgan was being evaluated for a concussion after she was taken backstage during the match.
- She lost a little time.
- Undertaker was backstage at Raw in Denver, but only to take part in a photo shoot, according to Insider. That site also says Taker is scheduled to appear at next Monday’s show along with Shawn Michaels.
- He was there to set up the Super Show-Down match. (1/1)
- Triple H will also be on hand for the Super Show-Down go home, per wrestlingnews.co.
- Sounds like a pretty obvious one. (1/1)
- PW Insider says there was talk of Brock Lesnar appearing on Raw this week but obviously that didn’t happen. There’s no word on when he’ll show up next as of right now.
- Whenever he feels like it.
- Dave Meltzer mentioned on Wrestling Observer Radio that he asked about Sasha Banks and was told she’s out due to a medical issue. They are being secretive about what it is, which could lead to further issues with speculation on what’s going on.
- Much like Alexa, Sasha often has injury rumors surrounding her, though not recently.
- Meltzer also said Dean Ambrose was going to turn heel on The Shield before he got hurt last year. So it’s at least possible WWE could be going back to that now.
- They did. They pulled the trigger the night that Roman Reigns revealed his leukemia diagnosis. It was not a successful heel turn. (1/1)
- Speaking of The Shield, the Observer says Vince McMahon really liked the main event on Raw this week with AOP teaming with Baron Corbin against Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Roman Reigns.
- I don’t recall that match at all.
- Current odds from Bet Wrestling indicate there won’t be any title changes at Super Show-Down.
- Buddy Murphy won the cruiserweight title. Hasn’t lost it since. (0/1)
- Sarah Logan and Ruby Riott “‘looked’ to be unhappy” backstage after the match where Liv Morgan was injured by Brie Bella’s kicks, according to Fightful. The site also says Brie “repeatedly” apologized to Morgan and there’s doesn’t appear to be an issue between them.
- I mean, of course they’d be unhappy. Their friend was knocked out.
- Chris Jericho’s return to New Japan is expected to come at November’s Power Struggle show where EVIL will get an Intercontinental title shot.
- He returned at King of Pro Wrestling to set up said title match. (0/1)
- A fan who attended Raw in Denver claimed security confiscated his “Roman Sucks” sign.
- It could be true. But it’s weird such an innocuous sign gets taken.
- Attendance at this Tuesday’s SmackDown wasn’t great. There were said to be a lot of empty seats on the hard camera side of Pepsi Center, but WWE officials are reportedly not concerned.
- It’s a shame the better show sells worse.
- Twitter user BeltFanDan reports WWE did commission designs for cruiserweight tag belts, but they’ve been “completely scrapped because of how 205 Live is doing.”
- Another set of titles could help with stories, but it likely wouldn’t bring more eyes to the brand.
- Undertaker is almost certainly working Survivor Series. PW Insider points out he’s been announced for an autograph signing in the same city the night before.
- He did not. (0/1)
- The Wrestling Observer Newsletter notes Big Show is now in an ambassador role for WWE. There don’t appear to be any plans to use him on television anytime soon.
- They did use him on TV rather soon, as he helped the Bar for a brief time before turning on them, as Big Show is wont to do. (0/1)
- Per the Observer, the Young Bucks, current IWGP tag team champions, are not scheduled to appear in the upcoming New Japan tag team tournament, though it’s noted they may appear on the final show.
- This looks right. They weren’t in the tournament but were in a Bullet Club match on the final show. (2/2)
- Speaking of the Bucks, along with Cody, they’re apparently working on an ALL IN DVD.
- I don’t see one when I look. Are DVDs still popular? (0/1)
- The Wrestling Observer Newsletter notes that there still isn’t much to come out of the recent meeting between WWE and Impact Wrestling but did say “the days when the two sides were enemies are supposed to be over.”
- How much were they enemies and how much did WWE not care about them and Impact tried to take potshots? WWE did go out of their way never to mention TNA, so there was probably some animosity.
- TicketDrew has said the Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz feud will “be a long one.”
- It wasn’t much longer from this point. Bryan squashed the Miz at Super Show-Down, and that was kind of it. Within a couple months, Bryan was the heel champion. (0/1)
- He also hints at WWE going big for its NXT TakeOver event the night before WrestleMania 35. That’s the show competing with the ROH/New Japan show at Madison Square Garden.
- It doesn’t seem bigger than normal, but then again, it’s also not competing against the double show. TakeOver is on Friday this year. (0/1)
- Not surprisingly, there are expected to be some major surprises for SmackDown 1000.
- I think everything was announced. There was a lot of good stuff, but I don’t recall any surprises that weren’t advertised prior. (0/1)
- 205 Live is apparently doing much better on Wednesday night than it was in its old Tuesday time slot.
- It was better suited as part of the NXT/NXT UK lineup. So why they moved it back to Tuesday is beyond me.
This week: 8/17 - 47%
September 2018: 37/65 - 57%
Overall: 2,654/4,823 - 55.0%
Have a great week, everyone!