Rumor Roundup (June 23, 2023): Vince McMahon changes Raw, Carlito return, AEW signing & heel turn, 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:

• According to Wrestling Observer Radio’s Dave Meltzer, the first 30 minutes of this week’s Raw were “totally changed” by Vince McMahon. More specifically, the Seth Rollins open challenge was originally going to happen, but it was changed late.
• Some people backstage told Meltzer that “the 30 minutes that Vince put in, it was better than the 30 minutes that [were] taken out.”
• Fightful Select says the original plan was for Tommaso Ciampa to return to Raw and answer Seth’s open challenge. The match between Rollins and Ciampa was going to get a lot of time and have a non-finish.
• Meltzer claims that AEW’s plan is for Jungle Boy to turn heel.
• Per PW Insider, people backstage in AEW believe that John Hennigan (fka John Morrison) has signed with the promotion and will use the ring name Johnny Television or Johnny TV.
• Insider heard from sources at Warner Bros. Discovery that the company is “thrilled” with the numbers for the premiere episode of AEW Collision, featuring the return of CM Punk.
• Finally, Insider mentioned that Carlito’s official return to WWE is planned for the July 7 episode of SmackDown at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

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.