Rumor Look Back: Dec. 1 - 6, 2019

Welcome to the weekly Rumor Look Back, where we look at the rumors from six months ago and see which played out as originally stated. Let’s get right to it!

December 2, 2019

• Brock Lesnar is currently scheduled to work Royal Rumble, and it’s not expected we’ll see him again until 2020.
• Brock worked the Rumble match itself. He wasn’t on TV the rest of the 2019. (2/2)
• Samoa Joe is currently scheduled to do commentary on Monday Night Raw this evening, says the Observer.
• He did commentary, got back into the ring, unfortunately got hurt again, and now is back on commentary. (1/1)
• Speaking of announcing, they also say Jerry Lawler was never meant to be on the Raw team long term and Lawler himself recently said he’s unsure how long her would be on but that he’s signed a new deal with the company within the past month.
• They use Lawler there here and there. He was back for a while but was replaced again with Joe pretty soon after his Ramen Noodle Moonsault comment. Whether there’s correlation is unknown.
• On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted current TLC plans call for Roman Reigns vs. Baron Corbin in a stipulation match, and Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair challenging for the women’s tag team titles.
• Those were both accurate. The stipulation for Reigns/Corbin was a TLC match. You think that’d be the blowoff but it was not. (2/2)
• Meltzer also said that Mauro Ranallo is doing much better and could return to NXT soon. It’s still unclear when that will be, however.
• He was back the next episode in a couple days. (1/1)

December 3, 2019

• WWE is considering two options for Brock Lesnar’s WrestleMania 36 opponent, according to TalkSport. One is a “rubber match” with Cain Velasquez. The other is Tyson Fury. Fury’s considered more likely if he wins a planned fight with Deontay Wilder to claim boxing’s WBC Heavyweight crown.
• It was neither of those options. (0/2)
• Mauro Ranallo has informed WWE officials he’ll be back to call NXT this week, per Pro Wrestling Sheet.
• He was back, and received a standing ovation from the crowd. (1/1)
• Steve Austin’s interview with Undertaker on the premiere of The Broken Skull Sessions reportedly did better for WWE Network than TakeOver: WarGames.
• Taker doing shoot interviews is so novel that it’s pretty must see.
• Charlotte Flair & Andrade filed for some interesting trademarks lately. She’s seeking rights to “Ashley Flair” and “The Queen of Wrestling”, he’s claiming “El Idolo” and “La Sombra”. WWE owns “Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas” and CMLL “La Sombra”, but there are no records of a “Charlotte Flair” trademark.
• Covering their bases for the future.
• A writer on the SmackDown! vs. Raw video game claims the negative reception and poor sales of WWE 2K20 has caused developers to quit and will result in a lower budget for next year’s game.
• There is no next year’s game. It was that bad.

December 4, 2019

• For what it’s worth, Dave Meltzer speculated on Wrestling Observer Radio that Seth Rollins in his current run is supposed to be like Bret Hart was in 1997.
• A heel who thinks he’s doing what’s right and can’t understand why people don’t see that?
• He also said that Bobby Lashley may have a legitimate arm injury.
• He didn’t miss a ton of time if that’s the case.
• According to ClickOrlando.com, funding has been approved to bring more WWE shows to Orlando, like SummerSlam and Survivor Series.
• I was in Orlando for WrestleMania 34 and in general liked it. The downtown area is nice, though the theme parks are in a bit of a different area, but they’re nice to have there too.
• Per PW Insider, Chris DeJoseph is done with MLW and will be re-signing with WWE.
• And he’s already gone. (1/1)
• They also say WWE Network will no longer be doing weekly “Hidden Gems” but they could, and likely will, still use classic content in other ways.
• It doesn’t look like they do the Hidden Gems. (1/1)

December 5, 2019

• Vince McMahon loved the Bobby Lashley/Lana arrest angle on Monday’s Raw, and everything about the program, a source told WrestlingNews.co. They were also told the segments will continue as long as they continue to do above average numbers.
• That was the only arrest angle but they certainly kept working together.
• That site also heard Cedric Alexander is well-liked backstage, but that Vince “cooled off” on him. That explains his booking over the past couple months, and could tie in to this September rumor.
• Most recent was a tag team with Ricochet which has already faded away.
• Marty Scurll to AEW isn’t a done deal, says Twitter’s rovert. ROH’s offer is allegedly “massive”. Tony Khan regrets some past big money deals and isn’t offering big money right now.
• I don’t know what the money was, but he ended up sticking around. So it certainly wasn’t a done deal. (1/1)
• Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Snowden tweeted he was told by Brandi Rhodes that Kris Statlander has signed with AEW.
• She is in AEW. (1/1)
• According to Squared Circle Sirens, Russian MMA fighter Lainey Nations and Steven Seagal & Kelly LeBrock’s daughter Arissa LeBrock are taking part in this week’s WWE tryouts at the Performance Center.
• I didn’t even know those two had a daughter (or really were together to begin with, though they were divorced by the time I was 12). If the tryout happened, she didn’t make the cut.

December 6, 2019

• Dave Meltzer mentioned on Wrestling Observer Radio that there’s an emphasis now to call it “WWE NXT” instead of just “NXT.”
• I don’t think that’s the case. (0/1)
• There’s some word going around that Xavier Woods’ medical evaluation coming off his injury has been moved up, so he could be ahead of schedule on his rehab.
• Hopefully we see him sooner than later, though I don’t think he’s that close.
• The quiet launch of the free WWE Network tier that launched yesterday is WWE testing it out to see about any potential issues before a proper launch, says PW Insider.
• It finally launched just this week. There was word on this forever.
• They also note the tiered WWE Network had been scheduled to launch in Jan. 2020 but it’s unclear if that’s still the plan.
• It launched in June. (0/1)
• While NXT is claiming Bobby Fish has a neck injury, Dave Meltzer says he actually heard it’s a concussion.
• Always scary.

This week: 11/15 - 73%

Overall: 3,334/5,946 - 56.1%

Have a good week, everyone. Stay safe out there.