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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:
- On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said Shawn Michaels was the person “running the show” for NXT 2.0 this week, and Triple H “probably won’t be back for a while.” Vince McMahon wasn’t there. Vince was involved in the creative of the show, but he wasn’t “the key guy.”
- Mat Men’s Andrew Zarian said there is pressure on WWE from the networks to treat Raw and SmackDown as equal shows. Big E winning the WWE championship was originally planned for his move to Raw during the upcoming draft, but it was moved up in order to give Raw something equally big after SmackDown had such a huge show at MSG. It was not a response to AEW Dynamite beating Raw in the key demo rating.
- That being said, Zarian heard from people at the networks that if the trend continues of AEW closing the gap on Raw’s television numbers, “then we have a big problem.”
- Per Meltzer, Tamina was supposed to beat Nikki A.S.H. on this week’s Raw, but the referee botched the finish.
- PW Insider notes the morale backstage at AEW is “very high” right now heading into next week’s loaded Grand Slam shows in New York City.
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.