:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69259231/The-Rock-and-Roman-Reigns.0.1406453671.0.jpg)
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.
- There’s been increasing talk that a lot of this family related stuff with Roman Reigns is leading to a match down the line with The Rock.
- That would be pretty far down the line. I think it would be the only match that Rock would come back for, but at the same time, I don’t think he ever has a real match again. Too much risk with his very busy Hollywood schedule. But as long as Roman is killing it, this match will always be rumor and speculation.
- WrestlingNews.co claims The Usos will join Reigns in a heel stable and it will lead to a change in their look and entrance theme once Jimmy is back.
- Jimmy just came back last night. But right now, he’s resisting Roman. If he doesn’t, then we’ll see about a new entrance theme and look.
- While there was talk of a meeting happening on Friday at WWE over the situation with Twitch, the Observer notes no meeting ever happened.
- I assume this is referring to a talent meeting.
- Tyson Fury hasn’t committed to a date for a match with Drew McIntyre yet, says Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
- I don’t think that’s happening until there are more fans back, if it does ever happen.
- They also say Triple H has been brought in to be more hands on with SmackDown lately.
- I think SmackDown is a consistently solid show, but that and this may have nothing to do with each other. And we don’t know how long he was helping out for anyway.
- Not only is Ronda Rousey training for a return to WWE, Fightful Select says her husband Travis Browne has been working on his pro wrestling skills as well.
- Maybe she’s been training, but now that she is pregnant, it’d be awhile if she ever does.
- Rey Mysterio told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani he believes Cain Velasquez will be back in WWE some day.
- I guess we’ll see. I kind of doubt it since he was kind of booked like a total chump.
- Combined with news his merchandise was pulled from WWE Shop, a Full Gear commercial featuring “shocking appearances” throughout AEW history has fans speculating about a Sting appearance at Saturday’s PPV.
- Sting eventually showed up in AEW but not at the Full Gear pay-per-view. (0/1)
- Paige said on her Twitch channel Saturday that she’s decided to continue streaming despite WWE’s new policy on third-party engagement.
- What are they going to do? Fire her? She’s got a legends like deal, but it’s not like she’s an active wrestler. She still uses Twitch. In fact, when I went to see the last time she streamed, she was actively streaming.
- Also working around the ban, it looks like Zelina Vega has opened an OnlyFans account for non-nude cosplay photos.
- It doesn’t look like that link works any more.
- For whatever it’s worth, PW Insider says that WWE considers Bray Wyatt and Alexa Bliss babyfaces.
- Who the f*#@ knows.
- WrestleVotes notes that WWE are expected to remain in the ThunderDome until February, no matter where the location for it will end up being.
- Even longer. (1/1)
- They also say WWE is working on “something different” for the Royal Rumble and they want fans at that show.
- They didn’t do anything really different and there were no fans. (0/1)
- Per the Observer, Britt Baker was originally earmarked to be the top star of the AEW women’s division, and there was a lot of support for Kylie Rae before she requested her release.
- I think Britt still is, despite not winning any title (but she will very soon I bet).
- Anthony Bowens and Max Caster signed as a tag team with AEW. PW Insider notes that WWE was interested in Bowens for NXT before this deal with AEW.
- They’re the Acclaimed.
- Lillian Garcia told Chris Van Vliet that WWE and the producers of ESPN’s The Last Dance are working on a documentary about Stone Cold Steve Austin’s career.
- That is the same team that did the A&E doc. (1/1)
- A source told WrestlingNews.co WWE does have plans for Lana to “get back at” Nia Jax for all the table spots, and that Lana’s recent booking is not because there’s heat on her for Miro going to AEW.
- Did she get back at her? She got that win when Nia busted her hole. Was that it? Sure. I guess. (1/1)
- In addition to WWE dropping their claim on “Cody Rhodes” recently, PW Insider notes that last week Cody abandoned his claims for “Slamboree” and “The Match Beyond”.
- I wonder if there was a bit of a deal.
- Yet another report on frustration backstage at NXT about COVID protocols from Fightful Select, this time at Halloween Havoc. Talent were also frustrated about classes resuming at the Performance Center without any changes after the latest outbreak.
- I can imagine being very frustrated about that. I remember some tweets from Bronson Reed that seemed to perhaps be voicing such frustration.
- Also from Fightful, EC3 is done with Impact for now and will work with Ring of Honor for the rest of the year.
- This is correct. (1/1)
- Mustafa Ali tweeted that his episode of Corey Graves’ After the Bell podcast was “heavily censored” because talking about backstage politics was “too much” for the higher ups in WWE.
- I think this was all part of his gimmick - that they were censoring him. But maybe they did.
- Cody Rhodes told the media that he does not plan to use his newly acquired last name on AEW television. He’ll instead use it for third party deals like the game show he recently taped.
- He used it immediately. (0/1)
- According to Fightful, WWE has reached out to several wrestlers who have appeared on AEW Dark and NJPW Strong.
- I wonder if anything came of it.
- On The List & Ya Boy podcast, Sean Ross Sapp mentioned that NXT is exempt “for now” from WWE’s take over of its superstars’ Twitch accounts.
- Looking at a once very active Twitcher in Dakota Kai, she hasn’t been on in five months. She went on streamed after this rumor. We don’t know if that was her testing the waters or if there was a temporary exemption for NXT talent.
- PW Insider details a WWE virtual town hall meeting where a new work policy was discussed which will allow some employees in the corporate office to work from home.
- If they don’t have to travel nowadays, they shouldn’t have to.
- The Observer says Roman Reigns is scheduled to work with Daniel Bryan next.
- Kevin Owens was next. (0/1)
- WWE so frequently mentioning title changes on television changing Survivor Series is because it’s expected there will be at least one title change before the show.
- Drew McIntyre won the WWE title back from Randy Orton prior. (1/1)
- It was noted in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Big E and Chad Gable missing SmackDown this past week was because creative just didn’t have anything for them.
- Not everyone has to be on TV every week anyway. They’re both on TV fairly often.
- They also say the original plan for Hell in a Cell was Roman Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt vs. Braun Strowman vs. a fourth wrestler, which would have meant just one match with Jey Uso.
- I preferred them continuing the Uso story, which they are playing off of now that Jimmy is back.
- There is interest in Davey Boy Smith from pretty much every pro wrestling promotion, per the Observer.
- But when it comes to the main companies, he’s not on any of them right now.
This week: 5/9 - 56%
Overall: 3,729/6,637 - 56.2%
Have a great week, everyone.