Rumor Roundup (April 20, 2023): Unhappy WWE women, Goldberg retirement, LWO booking, AEW negotiations, 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:

• Several backstage segments featuring the women’s roster were cut from Monday’s Raw, according to PW Insider Elite. They were pulled late in the day, and at least one had already been filmed. The changes made some in the women’s locker room “very unhappy”.
• Perhaps related, a Fightful Select report on Monday’s show noted that there was “a Damage CTRL backstage segment that didn’t run.”
• Tangentially related at best, but Mercedes Moné posted on her Instagram Story earlier this week that she’s “definitely moving to Japan” and indicated she was going to start Japanese language school.
• Goldberg was in Los Angeles during WrestleMania week, and Insider Elite says while there he “met with at least one international promoter” about his retirement tour idea.
• Inquiring with their sources about the LWO’s booking, PW Insider was told the group are being used to build Judgement Day up before they face Rey Mysterio & Bad Bunny at Backlash.
• That report also says that even though the LWO’s Zelina Vega “has been backstage at recent TVs and not even used to appear as part of the group”, WWE is still planning to have Vega challenge SmackDown Women’s champ Rhea Ripley in Puerto Rico.
• Another Fightful Select scoop: Hangman Page & AEW are “in the process of working towards a potential new contract.” Negotiations started “fairly recently”, and it was pointed out that Page has the same representation as Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks.
• Kota Ibushi gave the following statement to Dark Puroresu Flowsion about his future: “Recently, Kenny [Omega] and I have been talking about things other than games. For example, are your knees okay? Or is your shoulder okay? Also I hope to be in contact with Tony [Khan] soon.”

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.