Rumor Roundup (Nov. 20, 2023): Ronda Rousey, Will Ospreay deal, Kazuchika Okada interest, 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:

• On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer reiterated that Ronda Rousey left pro wrestling for family reasons and it’s not expected that she would commit to any kind of full time schedule. Having said that, if she wants to work more then AEW would “use her anytime.”
• Fightful Select says Will Ospreay’s deal with AEW happened “well before his NJPW deal was up.” They also say he’s still under contract to NJPW until January 2024 but he got their blessing to sign with AEW.
• One WWE source told the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Shinsuke Nakamura’s increased role is to demonstrate to Kazuchika Okada that Japanese wrestlers get better treatment under current management than they did when Vince McMahon was in charge.
• Although Axiom appeared on SmackDown this past week, Fightful says they haven’t been told he’s been called up to the main roster.
• There was talk of Los Lotharios being called up to the main roster to join Santos Escobar, per Meltzer on WOR. There were apparently also previous talks of them joining with Rey Mysterio as well.
• Meltzer also says there are plans for Dragon Lee to have a program coming up eventually that will see him get a big endorsement from Rey Mysterio.
• According to Bryan Alvarez, Darby Allin is set to go on hiatus from AEW so he can train to climb Mt. Everest.

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.