Rumor Look Back: Sept. 6 - 12, 2021

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.

September 6, 2021

• Alexa Bliss was in the initial draft of the Raw script that Vince McMahon tore up last week, according to WrestlingNews.co. It’s not clear why McMahon decided to move away from the Bliss vs. Charlotte Flair feud that was set-up the week before.
• They didn’t move away from that feud. The match happened at Extreme Rules later this month. It was the end of Lilly, at least at the time. (0/1)
• Sasha Banks was backstage at last week’s SmackDown in Jacksonville, per Fightful Select. It’s not known if WWE is making creative plans for Banks. An earlier rumor said she’d be cleared for this week’s Madison Square Garden Show.
• She returned at Extreme Rules later this month to insert herself into the Bianca Belair/Becky Lynch feud.
• According to Ringside News, budget cuts led WWE to part ways with their long-term caterer in favor of venue-supplied food, and in November a new cheaper vendor. They’re also down to one backstage camera crew, a move one “tenured member of the creative team” said was “short sighted”.
• The caterer seems like an extra dick move. Like how much money can they be saving here? He lost a job and the folks who ate that food probably felt it was a downgrade.
• The Bump host Evan Mack left WWE last week, says PW Insider.
• Apparently this is accurate. I never watched an episode of The Bump and could not pick him out of a lineup. It’s a WWE show that I just don’t pay any real attention to. (1/1)
• Insider notes the slower release schedule for original programming, such as a delayed John Cena episode of Broken Skull Sessions, is due to WWE merging their Advance Media and Television Production departments earlier this year.
• Many changes in Stamford.

September 7, 2021

• Vince McMahon was not at last night’s Raw taping, per PW Insider. Bruce Prichard ran the show, with McMahon sending in notes and changing things.
• That’s gotta be annoying to be micromanaged by Vince when he’s not even there.
• Prichard’s pitch to Adam Cole was to be a heel manager on SmackDown, says Ringside News.
• Wise to turn that one down, AC.
• WWE officials were not surprised by Cole’s appearances at All Out and had nothing but good things to say about the way he handled his departure, reports Fightful Select. Ringside News adds they were told no one in power at WWE views Bryan Danielson or Cole “as a big loss”.
• Cole has always seemed like a class act. While I can see why people may think Cole isn’t a huge loss (he is the type of talent who could get lost on the main roster to no fault of his own) but they know what they were losing with Bryan, who proved he could be very valuable to the main roster.
• According to Cassidy Haynes of bodyslam.net, Cody Rhodes will return to AEW television within the month. Sources told Haynes there are big plans for Rhodes when he comes back.
• He did return this month, but I don’t recall any big plans. He continued his feud with Malakai Black. It’s not like he was feuding with The Blade or anything. (1/2)
• Contrary to a prior report from the Observer, Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp doesn’t think Bray Wyatt will end up in AEW.
• He’s not there yet but we’ll give it another six months.

September 8, 2021

• According to Fightful, Kevin Owens’ contract with WWE will come up in January 2022 after his deal was restructured ahead of the pandemic.
• He re-signed late last year. (1/1)
• Ringside News claims Bray Wyatt and AEW have had talks and the current expectation is he will sign there when his no compete clause is up.
• Well we don’t need to know the outcome. Now we have rumor saying he won’t and one saying he will. Time will tell but we can close this on our end. (1/2)
• Per the Observer, AEW tried to acquire the rights to “The Final Countdown” for Bryan Danielson’s entrance theme but Europe wanted too much money.
• Bryan confirmed this. I really like his current music. (1/1)
• SI says Adam Cole verbally gave his word but didn’t sign his new AEW deal until the day of All Out.
• The days of wrestlers holding up promotors for money last minute are in the past.
• Bodyslam.net claims there are no plans for Tessa Blanchard to sign with WWE, AEW, or even with some indie promotions because no one wants near her right now.
• She signed with WOW, but the big two did not sign her. (1/1)

September 9, 2021

• On his Living The Gimmick podcast, Jon Alba said his WWE sources tell him “there is very much an internal belief [Kevin] Owens is gone at the end of his WWE deal.”
• KO stuck around. And I agree with his decision. He’s not booked like Roman or Brock, but he’s booked very well in WWE, always on TV doing something. Now he’s in a program with Stone Cole Steve Austin at WrestleMania. Plus AEW’s roster is very busy. He’s already carved out his spot in WWE. (0/1)
• Owens tweeted and deleted the coordinates to Mt. Rushmore, the group he formed with The Young Bucks & Adam Cole in ROH and PWG, leading to the obvious speculation about AEW.
• He must have been workin’. (0/1)
• There’s heat behind-the-scenes at WWE on people who “fell asleep at the wheel” regarding a number of expiring contracts, says Fightful Select.
• That’s understandable heat. It’s bad to not know when your talent contracts expire.
• KO’s situation is said to be different from those of Adam Cole and Pete Dunne, the Fightful report goes on to say. WWE officials have been aware of Owens deal ending in January of next year.
• Pete who? Oh are they talking about Butch?
• The Jon Moxley vs. Nick Gage feud in GCW is not a one-off, per bodyslam.net. The two will have a series of matches leading to a blow off at the indie’s WrestleMania week show next year.
• Looks like it only happened this one time and it’s not booked for WrestleMania weekend. (0/1)

September 10, 2021

• Mat Men’s Andrew Zarian said people in WWE are “very unhappy” with Mick Foley after his recent criticisms of the promotion. There is an “unwritten rule” that WWE Legends shouldn’t disparage the company.
• I assume these are folks higher up and not the talent who may agree with some of the criticisms.
• The WWE Draft will take place on the Oct. 1 episode of SmackDown and the Oct. 4 episode of Raw, per Zarian. The Queen of the Ring and King of the Ring tournaments will then start on the Oct. 8 episode of SmackDown, with the finals taking place Oct. 21 in Saudi Arabia.
• Accurate on all three accounts. (3/3)
• Zarian said he heard “something very similar” to what Dave Meltzer reported about WWE’s plan to have Adam Cole be a manager on the main roster. Meltzer said the pitch for Cole did not come from WWE’s creative team. It was either Vince McMahon or Bruce Prichard’s idea.
• Again, smart for AC to walk.
• On Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer mentioned that Bryan Danielson is a big fan of Vince McMahon as a person. The money offered to him by AEW and WWE was close, and it was a very tough decision for Danielson to make on which company to sign with.
• Bryan only has good things to say about his WWE experience. But he’s in the right place. He’s more important to AEW than he would be to WWE.
• In the aftermath of rumors spreading about Sami Zayn’s contract with WWE ending soon, Fightful indicated that his deal is not up this fall.
• He re-signed this current year so I guess not technically last fall. (1/1)

September 11, 2021

• According to Fightful, many NXT talents have been left in the dark by higher ups about the direction of the rebranding. Talent also doesn’t know who will run the show with Triple H currently out due to health reasons.
• It seems like a clustermuck around this time.
• Multiple sources told Fightful the new look for the television set at the CWC can be described as a “much scaled down version” of the main roster sets. Furthermore, one goal is for the rebranded NXT to have “more characters.”
• I don’t know about “scaled down version of the main roster sets” and what that even means. There are surely more characters alright. (1/1)
• Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer indicated that Bryan Danielson’s deal with AEW is for three years.
• My man is now aligning with Jon Moxley with William frickin’ Regal as their mentor.
• Sasha Banks was spotted in Madison Square Garden yesterday even though she once again didn’t appear on SmackDown television.
• She’d be back soon.
• Tony Khan told Busted Open Radio that All Out was the most successful AEW pay-per-view of all-time, with more than 200,000 buys. F4WOnline’s Bryan Alvarez noted this is a “low-end estimate,” and the actual buyrate will be higher when it is known in a few months.
• That’s not surprising. There was a ton of hype around this show.

This week: 11/17 - 65%

Overall: 4,090/7,213 - 56.7%

Have a great week, everyone!