Rumor Roundup (July 31, 2020): New WWE PPV, Nation of Domination, Excalibur’s absence, more!

Speculating on the rumors surrounding pro wrestling is a favored pastime of many fans, perhaps second only to actually watching the matches. In this daily column, we take a look at the latest rumors being churned out by the pro wrestling rumor mill.

Important reminder: Rumors are just that — rumors. None of this has been confirmed as fact, it’s just circulating around the pro wrestling rumor mill. We track rumor accuracy in a weekly feature called Rumor Look Back you can find here. Remember, take it all with a grain of salt.

Rumors for the Day:

• WrestleVotes says that WWE has added a Payback pay-per-view to their schedule on Aug. 30, one week after SummerSlam 2020. This was previously rumored to be the possible date for a sequel to Evolution.
• On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that Mark Henry had some brief backstage appearances on this week’s Raw because, like Ron Simmons from the prior week, he was also supposed to be part of a new Nation of Domination angle that was eventually nixed. Both episodes of Raw were filmed at the same set of tapings.
• It sounds like AEW is keeping a tight lid on the reason why Excalibur was absent from Dynamite commentary this week. Excalibur took the trip to Florida for Dynamite, but was not used on television. Meltzer speculates that it could be related to an angle with racist language that Excalibur was involved with in PWG around 2005, along with Kevin Owens and Disco Machine.
• Sportskeeda says that several people in WWE are “chewing Vince’s ear off” with praise for Tessa Blanchard and encouraging the company to sign her.
• WrestleVotes also claims that in early August, WWE was planning to announce date and location information for Royal Rumble 2021, but those details are now on hold.

If you have heard of any interesting rumors that you’d like to add, feel free to post them in the comments section below. Just remember they are rumors and not confirmed as fact, so please take them as such. And check our weekly Rumor Look Back here to keep track of how often rumors turn out to be correct.