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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!
- The Wrestling Observer Newsletter notes that Jon Moxley is currently dealing with some sort of elbow injury.
- It was a flare up of the old elbow issue. He missed All Out because of it. (1/1)
- Dave Meltzer mentioned on Wrestling Observer Radio that USA is actually paying WWE $60 million for two years.
- Some conflicting reports. But I don’t believe there’s an official report.
- He also said there’s talk of paying NXT wrestlers better now that they’re going to USA Network.
- I would hope so.
- Per the Observer, the brand split will go back to being enforced in full after the first week of SmackDown on FOX.
- That is pretty accurate. (1/1)
- SummerSlam did 22,300 buys on pay-per-view this year, per the WON.
- I wonder what the future of the WWE Network is after the recent investor call. Will PPV buys go up? Will it be on a different streaming service?
- According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Undertaker’s appearance on the Sept. 10 episode of SmackDown Live at Madison Square Garden has been planned for some time and not a response to slow ticket sales.
- He chokeslammed Sami Zayn that night.
- The WON also says The Miz vs. Shinsuke Nakamura is in the plans for Clash of Champions.
- That’s right. Shinsuke retained the Intercontinental championship. (1/1)
- Per WrestleVotes, it’s at least possible WWE adds a sixth TakeOver event to the schedule in 2020. It could depend on the numbers on USA Network.
- Two announced so far. We’ll see how the rest of the year plays. I have a feeling this won’t be a correct rumor because that would mean the between May and December there will be four, which would be a decent amount.
- Per Arash Markazi, Los Angeles is the favorite to host WrestleMania 37. WrestleVotes says Las Vegas is also a possibility.
- It was LA. I wonder if Vegas is coming soon with their new stadium. (1/2)
- Per the Observer, Dragon Gate is okay with PAC working AEW, and it’s still expected he’ll return to the promotion.
- In the last six months, he has not. (0/1)
- PW Insider mentions hearing that the reason AEW let Jon Moxley do the G-1 tournament was the hope that the promotion could work with NJPW down the line.
- That’s still something that AEW still talks about being open to but nothing concrete has happened yet.
- The talk continues surrounding Vince McMahon potentially changing NXT but all sources indicate that won’t be the case, at least not at first.
- Is this referring to creative? Nothing has changed drastically in that regard. (1/1)
- According to PW Insider, Bruce Prichard and Adam Pearce produced the 24/7 championship title changes WWE shot this weekend, including a FOX analyst winning the title from R-Truth and immediately losing it to Elias.
- This was when the title still had some steam.
- Per WWE Network News, a special on the Intercontinental championship will be airing early next month.
- It was a collection of 20 matches. (1/1)
- Cain Velasquez had talks with New Japan Pro Wrestling officials at the Super J-Cup in San Francisco, says Marc Raimondi of ESPN.
- He’s in WWE now. I think. He was at one point, liked pretty bad, and hasn’t been since, but I think that’s due to a knee issue?
- Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega is likely to happen shortly after Mox returns, according to Wrestling Observer Radio, possibly even on the TNT premiere.
- It happened pretty quickly, but the match was at Full Gear. (1/2)
- PAC may have been planned as a surprise run-in at All Out before being drafted to replace Moxley, per WOR.
- That would have been cool.
- The winner of All Out’s Riho vs. Hikaru Shida match will challenge the Casino Battle Royale winner for the AEW Women’s title on Oct. 2, according to Wrestling Observer.
- That’s the case. It was Riho vs. Nyla Rose. Riho held the belt for months until just losing to Nyla. (1/1)
- Fenix hurt his leg at an indie show on Friday night. He worked the rest of his weekend bookings, but stuck to basic moves and brawling. Dave Meltzer of Observer Radio says it’s likely this will impact Lucha Bros ladder match with the Young Bucks at All Out.
- Impacts in what way? That was still a wild match and no one seemed to hold back. (0/1)
- AEW’s announcement about Tony Schiavone’s hiring made it sound like he was replacing Alex Marvez on the announce team, but Pro Wrestling Sheet reports that while may happen eventually, for now Schiavone will focus on studio segments and producing. The Observer notes All Out will have commentary by Jim Ross, Excalibur & Alex “Goldenboy” Mendez with Marvez working backstage interviews.
- Schiavone works the TV. It didn’t happen at All Out, but very soon. They’re correct about the PPV’s announce team. (1/1)
- Like with past weeks, word got around that Vince McMahon tore up the script for SmackDown this week and reworked it.
- Yeah, this seemed to happen for SmackDown often around this time.
- Advertisements seem to suggest Bray Wyatt could be getting a push to the main event for a Universal title match at Hell in a Cell.
- He challenged Rollins. It wasn’t a good match. (1/1)
- Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that the idea behind the Street Profits not wrestling on Raw is to get them over in backstage segments first.
- Paul Heyman seems to like to do a slow build introduction for a lot of guys.
- He also said WWE is really focused on getting the teen demo back.
- We’ll see.
- According to the Observer, AEW won’t be doing heels and babyfaces as traditional storytelling, but rather be flexible with it.
- I think this is pretty inaccurate. It’s no more than other promotions. There are some shades of grey, but Cody, Moxley, and Kenny Omega are all pretty clear babyfaces while Jericho/Inner Circle and MJF are obvious heels. (0/1)
- Paul Heyman has been very involved with developing Sasha Banks’ heel character, per PW Torch. It’s believed he was responsible for her promo that opened this week’s Raw.
- She moved to SmackDown so he wasn’t involved for too long.
- Natalya was the latest WWE Superstar to shoot down Brad Shepard, tweeting that his report WWE received permission from the Neidhart family to have Sasha imply her father was in hell was “entirely off base”.
- Watching Brad get shot down is fun.
- Stone Cold Steve Austin being booked for Raw in Madison Square Garden is just a case of needing a special attraction to move tickets, says Mike Johnson of PW Insider Elite. Johnson reports the 9/9 MSG date is “half sold out” and SmackDown on 9/10 is “a little bit less than half sold out”.
- The legend card can usually pop a rating, though I don’t know if it helps sell tickets.
- According to WrestleVotes, the Sami Zayn/Shinsuke Nakamura program is patterned on Kevin Owens & Chris Jericho’s 2016 - 2017 partnership and will lead to a match between the two.
- Six months later and that doesn’t look anywhere near close. (0/1)
- Per Wrestling Observer Radio’s Dave Meltzer, New Japan hasn’t contacted Kenny Omega about working there, even though his AEW contract allows it. Whether or not to use Omega going forward is a “debated issue” internally for NJPW.
- There’s some heat there.
- WWE is talking about doing another draft to make permanent rosters for Raw and SmackDown again, says the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
- They did some the week after the Fox move. (1/1)
- The Observer notes that Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan and a women’s tag team title match are both on the line-up for Clash of Champions.
- Roman vs. Bryan regrettably never happened. There was a women’s tag match where Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross retained the gold against Fire & Desire. The second half of the rumor is a gimme since the whole gimmick of the PPV is all the titles are on the line. (1/2)
- The WON says there is “already talk of a major NXT show on Oct. 2” to oppose the AEW on TNT debut.
- Yeah, they stacked that card, including multiple title matches. (1/1)
- They also note there’s a lot of speculation that LAX could be Chris Jericho’s mystery partners for that debut show.
- That’s true too. They were revealed at All Out. (1/1)
- PW Insider notes that Matt Taven’s contract with Ring of Honor comes up at the end of September.
- He’s still there.
- Regarding the possible WWE draft, the idea, apparently, is that major changes won’t be made to either roster.
- Brock went to SmackDown which was big (though he eventually went back to Raw). Wyatt went to SD as well. Sasha Banks moved to SmackDown. Those are all major enough. (0/1)
- Per the Observer, Paul Heyman came up with the idea to put Robert Roode and Dolph Ziggler together because he’s high on Roode and the hope is this will get him over.
- They moved to SmackDown so Roode doesn’t have him in the corner creatively any more.
- Per the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Rey Mysterio missed TV this past week to do stem cell treatment overseas.
- He’s big on those.
- They also say The Usos are expected back in a couple weeks.
- Usos didn’t come back until just very recently. (0/1)
- TK O’Ryan has been out due to concussion issues, says the Observer.
- Scary stuff. O’Ryan discussed it, confirming this, when defending ROH during their tough time last year. (1/1)
This week: 15/24 - 63%
August 2019: 53/86 - 62%
Overall: 3,173/5,681 - 55.9%
Have a great week, everyone!