Rumor Roundup (Jan. 11, 2022): Men’s Rumble surprise, NXT moves, McIntyre status, 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:

• Multiple sources told WrestleVotes they believe “WWE will try for an ‘unexpected’ forbidden door entrant for the Men’s Royal Rumble.”
• WWE “didn’t really want to use a lot of NXT women” for the Royal Rumble match, per Wrestling Observer Live’s Bryan Alvarez.
• Tommaso Ciampa and Pete Dunne worked a dark match before SmackDown last Friday, and individual matches at last night’s Main Event taping. This has led to the usual speculation about their time in NXT coming to an end.
• Drew McIntyre was seen wearing a neck brace in Pittsburgh over the weekend, according to PW Insider. The head of WWE medical, Dr. Joseph Maroon, is based in Pittsburgh. The site confirmed with their company sources that McIntyre was there for tests on his ailing neck.
• Petey Williams has been hired as a full-time producer by WWE, reports Fightful Select. Jimmy Yang, who started trying out in the role at around the same time Williams did, has left the company. Yang told Insider, “WWE chose not to move forward with me being a producer.”

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.