Rumor Roundup (July 11, 2023): Bray Wyatt status, Johnny Gargano & Becky Lynch injuries, CM Punk’s attitude, 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:

• Bray Wyatt is still not medically cleared to return to action, reports Fightful Select. WWE is “hopeful for a return” when Wyatt is cleared, but he isn’t factored into current creative plans due to uncertainty about when that might happen.
• While the site doesn’t know what Johnny Gargano’s status is for SummerSlam or where things stand with a planned #DIY reunion, another Fightful Select report says Johnny Gargano is cleared to return after being sidelined by a recurring shoulder injury.
• WWE pulled promotion of Becky Lynch & Zoey Stark’s Raw match from their website and social media channels yesterday afternoon, with WRKD Wrestling tweeting it was off the show as Lynch wasn’t cleared to compete. Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp confirmed that, but said Becky’s injury wasn’t “major” and that the match could still happen — which turned out to be the case.
• After some initial tension stemming from his return promo, PW Torch’s Wade Keller hears that CM Punk’s return to AEW is going well with Punk “showing good leadership backstage so far at Collision”. Punk’s said to take pride in Collision being “his show”, and is working to make sure it runs well on-screen and behind-the-scenes.
• While Vince McMahon was backstage at SmackDown last week, PW Insider’s sources say he didn’t make any major changes to plans for the show. What changes did occur were due to the opening Bloodline segment running long which caused “a ripple effect where later segments had their time cut to fit the FOX broadcast.”
• AEW does plan to finally have a singles match between Swerve Strickland & Keith Lee “at some point”, according to Fightful Select.
• Per PW Insider, Bull Nakano will be involved in the new promotion looking to bring Japanese women’s wrestling to the United States that the site reported on last week. Nakano will work in behind-the-scenes and non-wrestling roles for the new joshi company. Their first show is planned for September 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.