Rumor Roundup: New roster & title tournament WWE Raw edition (Possible SPOILERS)

It’s shaping up to be a big Raw tonight (May 8) in Jacksonville, Florida. We’re not only getting the fallout from Saturday night’s widely praised Backlash premium live event, but also our first look at the red brand’s post-2023 WWE Draft roster in action.

There’s already lots of things floating around the internet about how, and why, WWE will look to make Raw special this week. Enough that we put them together for this special edition of the Rumor Roundup feature in order to have them in one place and give you a chance to discuss them.

Feel free to share anything you’ve heard or read in the comments (usual rumor caveats* apply)!

• The two World Heavyweight Championship Tournament Triple Threat matches tonight will be Cody Rhodes vs. Finn Bálor vs. The Miz and Seth Rollins vs. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Damian Priest, per both Boozer & PW Insider Elite.
• Rhodes will open the show with his segment leading into the first Triple Threat, says Boozer.
• Insider also points out that free agent Brock Lesnar “is not currently scheduled for TV this week.” UPDATE: Insider now says Lesnar is now slated for tonight’s show.
• Becky Lynch will be “available for Raw”, according to the once-again-locked Boozer Rasslin’ Twitter account.
• It’s possible Lynch is who WRKD Wrestling is referring to when they tweeted that preliminary plans for tonight include the “return of a big time superstar”, but that’s also prompted speculation about other big names who’ve been off television longer than Becky.
• Boozer & WRKD also seem to be talking about the same thing when it comes to The Way, with the former indicating we could see the Johnny Gargano, Candice LeRae, Indi Hartwell & Dexter Lumis team from NXT back together, and the latter teasing “a family reunion”.
• Hartwell won’t be alone in getting a spotlight, if WRKD is right when they say tonight’s show will be “the start of highlighting those drafted from NXT.”
• As for why the emphasize on making tonight a big deal, WRKD tweets that Triple H is “looking to have people talking about the first post-draft WWE Raw in a major way.”
• Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer notes that the Tournament matches tonight and on Friday’s SmackDown were booked “to combat the hit the shows would normally take in the ratings this week due to the NBA & NHL playoffs, especially since Warriors vs. Lakers is doing record viewership for this early in the playoffs.”

* 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.