Rumor Roundup (Sept. 12, 2023): Matt Riddle, WWE Raw changes, Vince McMahon, 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:

• In addition to not being in Norfolk, Virginia for last night’s Raw, PW Insider reports that Matt Riddle isn’t expected to be on WWE live events in Idaho & Washington this weekend. He had been booked for those house shows prior to Sunday’s incident at JFK airport.
• Wrestling Observer adds that WWE has not responded to any inquiries about Riddle in the wake of that incident. In light of all that, Dave Meltzer wrote that Riddle’s absence from Raw was “noteworthy.”
• Travel for talents working both last Friday’s Superstar Spectacle and last night’s Raw was “pretty rough”, per Insider. It involved a 19 hour flight to India, going right into media interviews and the show, then heading right back to the airport for another 19 hour flight back to the States.
• Plans for Raw were changed “several times over” before showtime, according to Fightful Select. One example Sean Ross Sapp and BWE both posted on X was that Cody Rhodes was at one point going to open the show.
• In response to speculation Vince McMahon was there making changes on what figures to be the last Raw produced under his ownership of WWE, Sapp posting that Vince “hasn’t been physically present in months.”
• According to Haus of Wrestling, the social media messages Mike Santana & Ortiz exchanged over the weekend “are genuine and not part of some storyline between the two.”
• Umaga’s son Zilla Fatu is no longer working with Booker T’s Reality of Wrestling school/promotion. On his Hall of Fame podcast, Booker said Fatu’s departure was “due to irreconcilable differences“.

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.