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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 stated. Let’s jump right to it.
- Fightful Select says Goldberg was originally in the plans for WrestleMania 37, possibly for a match against Drew McIntyre, but that changed by February.
- Goldberg had his match with Drew earlier in the year. Goldberg wasn’t at WrestleMania but returned to fight Bobby Lashley at SummerSlam. He’ll do it again at Crown Jewel on Thursday.
- The expectation is Drew McIntyre will win and the big crowd reaction, says the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, and that’s why his match against Bobby Lashley was moved to the first match on night one of WrestleMania 37.
- Drew surprisingly lost. I thought it’d go this way but it did not. In the end, I’m glad Bobby got a legit run. (0/1)
- Ringside News says that even members of the WWE creative team haven’t been told what the Nigerian Drum Fight stipulation entails for the Big E vs. Apollo Crews match at WrestleMania 37.
- It was a street fight with drums.
- Adam Pearce told Billboard that Bad Bunny started training after the holidays and he’s been training with Pearce and Drew Gulak.
- Bad Bunny impressed at WrestleMania.
- The Observer says Dax Harwood has been dealing with an elbow injury for roughly six weeks now.
- Ouch.
- Raw’s announce team is changing, per Wrestling Inc, who says Canadian sportscaster Adnan Virk will replace Tom Phillips starting tonight.
- Adnan did not last long. He was not very good. (1/1)
- That’s not the only change, as Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men Pro Wrestling Podcast reports Raw will be called by Virk, Byron Saxton, and Corey Graves. It’s not known whether Samoa Joe will replace Graves on SmackDown.
- This is accurate. Joe did not replace Graves. He was released and then soon rehired in NXT. Pat McAfee replaced Graves. Unlike Virk, McAfee is very good.
- As to why Phillips didn’t work WrestleMania 37 this weekend, Dave Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio he was pulled due to a “COVID protocol issue”.
- Phillips was soon released too. They really shook up the announce staff around this time. Virk in. McAfee in. Virk out. Phillips out. Jimmy Smith in.
- WWE recently filed for trademark on “Commander Azeez”. It’s believed that’s Dabba-Kato’s new gimmick name.
- That’s the case. (1/1)
- Wrestling Observer reported Hulk Hogan was “heavily” booed on Night One of WrestleMania 37. “It was not a large number of people but they were loud according to those there.”
- I was surprised the Hulkster was so heavily booed. Many in the pro-wrestling fan bubble the I spend time in dislike him, but he usually gets loud cheers at live events. And this was in his home state. I’m curious how it will be next time they bring him out, and if this reaction means they’ll be more hesitant to do so the next time they turn to a Legends Night to respond to a floundering rating.
- As of last Friday, The Fiend was scheduled to beat Randy Orton at WrestleMania 37. Fightful Select reports Bruce Prichard and Vince McMahon were “instrumental” in deciding on the “surprise” finish we got instead.
- It could be because Bray Wyatt took time off afterwards. But it’s also possible they thought that was creatively the better decision.
- The site also says there were never plans for a Firefly Fun House match, and talent were never told what plans were to end the feud, only that it would write Orton off television for a while. Management was happy with how Sunday night’s match played out, while “talent we’ve heard from were exceedingly confused.”
- Talent weren’t the only confused ones. Also, Orton wasn’t written off TV.
- Regarding Sheamus’ United States title win, Dave Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio that Riddle was never supposed to win the belt, he only had it because of Keith Lee’s situation and John Morrison being needed for the Bad Bunny program. This weekend’s title change “rectifies” Riddle having it.
- Riddle kind of took it and ran with the time he was given.
- PW Insider says TJ “Tyson Kidd” Wilson produced Saturday night’s Sasha Banks/Bianca Belair main event. He also worked on the Raw Women’s title match, and co-produced the Women’s Tag matches with Pat Buck.
- That main event was stellar.
- Other well-received matches were worked on by Adam Pearce (Bad Bunny & Damian Priest vs. Miz & Morrison), Shane Helms (Cesaro vs. Seth Rollins), and Michael Hayes (Universal title Triple Threat). A full list can be found here.
- I wonder how much vets like Cesaro & Rollins need producing. I wonder if Helms just gives them some suggestions for what they already have planned. Same for Daniel Bryan, Roman Reigns, and Edge.
- On Wrestling Observer Radio it was said that multiple WrestleMania 37 matches had their finish changed during the weekend, maybe up to four.
- That seems rather commonplace.
- Fightful Select says that one of the matches that wasn’t changed was Roman Reigns vs. Edge vs. Daniel Bryan, as Reigns was planned to win from early on.
- That makes sense. Reigns is their guy. Bryan’s contract was up and Edge is still part time, in WWE to mainly put people over.
- They also say the decision to add Bryan came after a discussion that lasted for over a month and it wasn’t set until around the week of Fastlane.
- That was a really good program.
- Reginald apparently missed WrestleMania 37 because he’s sick.
- That sucks. Never want to miss the biggest show of the year. Never know if you’ll be in the plans for the next one.
- Per PW Insider, MLW has been in talks with Discovery about a potential broadcast deal.
- Not that I’m aware of. MLW ended up with a deal with VICE TV, but they’re part of the A&E family. Now to be fair, who owns what could get muddled, but I don’t think Discovery has any relationship here. (0/1)
- Backing up earlier reports, a source told Ringside News Becky Lynch’s return at WrestleMania 37 “was discussed and prepared but never decided on” by WWE.
- Big Time Becks said she was good to go but they opted to wait.
- WWE President Nick Khan told Variety WWE has plans to return to the road, but isn’t ready to share them yet. He also WrestleMania was the only “one off” they’d do in front of fans: “Just know that once we’re back on the road, we’re on the road full time.”
- That’s the case. They were back in the ThunderDome after WrestleMania until July.
- The United States title match was one of the WrestleMania 37 matches that had its finish changed, according to Fightful Select. Originally Riddle was supposed to retain, “but it was adjusted in favor of continuing the feud with Sheamus, tentatively.”
- I wouldn’t say the feud was continued. (0/1)
- That site also reports AEW talent told them Ivelisse hasn’t been at recent tapings, and they don’t expect her to return because she had multiple open disagreements with agents.
- She seemed to clash with some folks there.
- After her now-deleted tweet saying she’d been “let go”, Ivelisse responded to critics and commented on her relationship with Thunder Rosa and their infamous match on Dynamite last September, saying Rosa was “unprofessional”, did “the same thing” while they were in Lucha Underground together, hurt Diamante’s jaw in the next match they had, and slandered her throughout her AEW run.
- Around this time, she blamed Thunder Rosa for her release.
- Sean Ross Sapp was told that John Laurinaitis made calls to the wrestlers who WWE released yesterday, explaining the decision was made due to budget cuts. Dave Meltzer notes that none of these performers can sign with another wrestling promotion until July 14 due to a 90 day non-compete clause.
- I don’t believe any of these guys showed up anywhere within 90 days (outside Joe who signed to NXT). (1/1)
- Fightful says that multiple released talent previously asked about their job security over the last couple of months, and were told they would not be cut.
- That’s shitty.
- Per Fightful, Mickie James and Samoa Joe both recently expressed their desire to continue wrestling. Joe was not cleared by WWE.
- Joe wrestled a match in NXT and won the title but then had to relinquish apparently due to injury.
- According to PW Insider, WWE is filming promos for Aleister Black’s return to television. The vignettes are somewhat based on his childhood.
- He was soon released too.
- WrestleVotes says the current plan is for next year’s WrestleMania 38 event to go back to being one night.
- That looks to be the plan so far but I don’t think it’s near definite.
This week: 3/6 - 50%
Overall: 3,909/6,930 - 56.4%
Have a great week, everyone!