What’s going on with Rey Mysterio and WWE?

A tweet from Sports Illustrated’s Justin Barrasso (covered in our latest Rumor Roundup) claimed Rey Mysterio was backstage at SmackDown on Feb. 27, finishing up plans to return to WWE for a WrestleMania 34 match against John Cena.

Seeing as it combines two hot topics - how WWE and Rey will follow-up his surprise appearance at last month’s Royal Rumble, and what Cena will do at this year’s ‘Mania - this set off a flurry of chatter among fans. Barrasso hasn’t been known to break a lot of storyline scoops like specific pay-per-view (PPV) matches in the past - his SI columns are usually made up of backstage dealings that never hit the public stage (and are therefore pretty hard to verify). So the question is, how seriously should we take this tweet? Is there actually fire behind Barrasso’s smoke?

The scoopster himself has already walked back part of the “scoop”. A story posted on SI.com this morning doesn’t include the claim Mysterio was backstage in Los Angeles - and PWInsider’s latest story on Rey and WWE specifies he was not seen at Staples Center. Barrasso does expand on a couple other items, however, mostly as they relate to a Cena match on April 8.

Undertaker is “ruled out” for New Orleans, says SI, so Samoa Joe and Rey were “requested” by Cena as opponents at WrestleMania. Since Joe isn’t a lock to be back from injury in time, it’s alleged the focus has shifted to Mysterio. Negotiations are said to have progressed to where the deal should be finalized by the end of this week.

Mike Johnson at Insider doesn’t corroborate those details, but does say he heard Mysterio was supposed to be in L.A. on Tuesday night (he Instagrammed about having dinner with Sin Cara in San Diego on Monday when the blue brand was in town for a live event), and that the 43 year old and WWE were “gearing up their talks”. Their report also indicates Triple H is handling the negotations for The ‘E.

There you go. Now you know what we do. Let us know what you think happens next!