Welcome to the weekly Rumor Look Back, where we look at the rumors from six months ago and see which played out as originally stated. Let’s jump right to it.
- Lacey Evans was not released by WWE, with PW Insider reporting her contract expired. On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer pointed out that means she doesn’t have a non-compete, but Bryan Alvarez heard she’s opening a diner anyway.
- She has not been wrestling. And it looks like she started a content site like Mandy Rose.
- AEW taped ROH matches after Dynamite this week instead of after Collision as normal, probably to get ahead before they travel to England for All In. They also used several wrestlers like Christopher Daniels, Colt Cabana & Ryan Nemeth, which Meltzer noted on WOR was “bizarre” since none of those guys can be in ongoing ROH stories due to being banned from Collision by CM Punk.
- CM Punk wouldn’t be around for much longer in AEW anyway.
- Fightful Select notes Summer Rae, Lana, and David Arquette were all backstage at AEW Dynamite this week.
- Lana ended up working for AEW. The rest were likely just visiting.
- They also say Jade Cargill has been backstage during her hiatus, which has been “planned time off from the company.”
- She would soon go to WWE.
- “All is quiet when it comes to Gable Steveson,” Wrestling Observer Newsletter found when asking around about WWE’s plans for the Olympic gold medalist after negative fan reaction to his debut match at Great American Bash: “Nobody is talking about him.”
- He’s still with them. According to his cagematch, where he has a whopping 0.33 rating, he worked a dark match on SmackDown just this month.
- AEW referee Bryce Remsburg told Should I Keep This? that Tony Khan politely turned down an offer from Insane Clown Posse to appear on one of their shows in ICP’s hometown of Detroit.
- Well at least he was polite about it.
- One person told the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that CM Punk was “ranting like a mad man” when he confronted Ryan Nemeth in the AEW locker room. One of the things Punk apparently said to Nemeth was “Do we have a problem or are we good or do we have to take it outside.”
- Punk was just unhinged in AEW. Something about that place just set him off.
- However, someone else told WON that Punk was “handling business like a man” and “all was taken care of and things were settled.” Punk and Nemeth shook hands and it looked like the situation was smoothed over regarding Ryan’s tweet referring to CM as “the softest man alive.”
- I think it’s fair to say these rumors contradict enough that only one can be right. (1/2)
- The Observer says the phrase “to keep the peace” was used to explain why Hangman Page was told not to go the Collision taping at the Greensboro Coliseum after initially being booked for the taping.
- What a tenuous situation.
- One person told WON that Punk “didn’t even know Page was in Greensboro to begin with” when he took shots at him after Collision went off the air.
- It really took no time at all to just explode.
- F4WOnline’s Dave Meltzer claims that Roman Reigns will not work WWE’s Payback premium live event on Sept. 2.
- That is correct. Not a surprising one here. (1/1)
- Furthermore, the brother versus brother match between Jimmy and Jey Uso is “being held off for more build time and likely a bigger show.”
- We still don’t have it booked yet.
- PW Insider says Warner Bros Discovery was “thrilled” with the partnership that led to AEW Dynamite’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre Deathmatch, and “will be seeking out additional potential opportunities in that vein.”
- I’m upset that Jeff Jarrett doesn’t defend that Texas Chainsaw title.
- According to the Wresting Observer Newsletter, “CM Punk and his friends have expressed interest in clearing the air and meeting while The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega and others have never been told or informed about it. Stories about meetings suggested that have been floated are likely stories that management has blocked.” Take that for what it’s worth.
- If they were all to have just acted like adults, they probably could have made a lot of money turning this into a work.
- Meanwhile, they also say FTR “cleared the air” with The Elite “some time ago” and when Tony Khan suggested they do FTR vs. The Bucks at All In, everyone was quick to agree to it.
- FTR is still around with long term deals so they’d want to get on OK with managment.
- Per the Observer, there is “a long term main roster idea” for the Los Lotharios tag team, and the story is just starting in NXT now with a focus on their superstar grandfather.
- I don’t think what they’re doing now as part of Legado del Fantasma is tied into what they were doing then. (0/1)
- The plan before Bryan Danielson’s injury was to have him work a match against Kenny Omega at All In, says the WON.
- Other theories were maybe they would have done Nigel McGuinness/Bryan Danielson at that show. But we don’t know in general.
- Fightful Select says that while Santana is cleared to return, personal issues still exist with Ortiz. They could work together in the future but there are no plans for it right now.
- They worked together with a small feud, though not as a tag. Since this doesn’t specifically suggest that, I’m going to say it is incorrect. (0/1)
- Former Syracuse University football player Josh Black signed a “3-year rookie contract” with WWE, according to the Rockford Star Register. Black took part in the pre-SummerSlam tryout in Detroit.
- I don’t see anything about this after this. His social media doesn’t mention WWE at all in his bio, though he’s retweeted an occasional WWE post. It’s possible he’s with them and is just at the training stage of things.
- Asked about The Judgment Day in light of their current storyline and this report that plans call for a current member to exit the group, Twitter account BWE said that no one is leaving “for the time being”.
- Judgment Day still has the full members. The initial report did not end up being accurate. (1/2)
- Nick Hausman asked his AEW contacts if they knew about Cash Wheeler’s alleged road rage incident & assault charge before the news of his arrest spread last Friday, and no one he spoke to (a group which included “several notable AEW roster members and top members of management”) had heard anything.
- Charges are being pressed so we’ll have to see how this plays out.
- Wrestling Observer Newsletter says that when AEW brought Ace Steel back he was given “back pay from the time he was let go, as a concession to [CM] Punk when he agreed to come back.” Fightful’s report last week on Steel’s return also mentioned they’d heard he was paid for the time between his firing and re-hiring.
- I thought it was quite ridiculous that they kowtowed to Punk so much that the guy who bit Kenny Omega was brought back. With backpay!
- Britt Baker “has certainly been working banged up”, per Sean Ross Sapp in a Fightful Select Q&A. Sapp didn’t know specifics, and said Baker takes pride in working through injury but “a lot of people have noticed it.”
- Baker hasn’t worked in awhile. There was a rumor that she wasn’t cleared, though we never got a real announcement that she was off TV because of injury. And she’s kind of complained about time and made a comment implying that she took time off because fans were sick of her. But probably all character work if the real reason is injury.
- There’s talk backstage at AEW of Jade Cargill returning soon, according to the Observer Newsletter. Cargill attended Kulture City’s event with the AEW Community team last weekend.
- She returned to put over Statlander one more time on the way out the door. (1/1)
- Billy Corgan told Chris Van Vliet he lobbied for LA Knight (then Eli Drake) to get a bigger push while they were both at TNA, but “the office” had concerns about his size.
- It’s not like Knight is a tiny dude. He’s 6’1” and jacked.
- The WON also reported Mauro Ranallo is in talks to call the action for the new Japanese women’s wrestling promotion that’s planning to launch with a show in New York next month.
- Mauro did not call action for the new promotion. (0/1)
- PW Insider is claiming there is “a sense of doom and gloom among some WWE employees” because folks are expecting layoffs once Endeavor takes over in September.
- Unfortunately a lot of people lost their job.
- The Wrestling Observer Newsletter notes that Kairi Sane signing with WWE again was partly due to Iyo Sky having so much success and partly due to Triple H being in charge of creative.
- Both surely a factor.
- Meltzer also said “the basic issue is that she was and still is very close to [Stardom booker] Rossy Ogawa. [New Japan & Stardom parent company] Bushiroad wanted her exclusive. She wanted to work more dates but Bushiroad wanted exclusivity regarding the more dates which would also mean more money.”
- Rossy was fired from Stardom and decided to start his own promotion, which also very likely was a big factor.
- Dakota Kai wasn’t originally planned to go back out on the road with WWE after her appearance at SummerSlam, says Insider, but that’s changed and she’ll now be appearing on TV moving forward.
- She’s a big part in Bayley’s feud with Iyo Sky. (1/1)
- Rey Fenix is likely to miss All In, according to the Wrestling Observer. He’s trying to establish residency in the United States and hasn’t left the country because he has yet to do so. That’s also apparently why he didn’t work AAA Triplemania. This is one of the changes to All In Tony Khan was referencing on the media call.
- He did not work the show. (1/1)
- Fightful Select also said Fenix is being taken off the card but added there are plans in place to explain it.
- They wrote him off in an injury angle. (1/1)
- Before it was determined how serious her back injury was, plans called for Thunder Rosa to challenge for the women’s title she never lost as soon as she returned to AEW, says the Observer. That seems like it will still be the plan whenever she comes back, which she says is close but still isn’t confirmed.
- She is back but we haven’t gotten to that yet. (0/1)
- Edge told WWE what he wanted in a new contract but the company “declined to meet his request”, according to PW Torch. People in WWE think he may have already had an idea what Tony Khan’s offer would be from informal conversations with other wrestlers, and that Adam Copeland is AEW bound when he officially hits free agency. Wrestling Observer says they’ve confirmed the report as well.
- Edge is in AEW. It sounds like the request they wouldn’t meet was not about money but more about how often he’d get to wrestle. He discussed how he he came to AEW and that was one of the reasons. (1/1)
- After a rumor started that Keith Lee had walked of AEW, Fightful Select explained it was based on some miscommunication that occurred last week. Lee did apparently leave the Aug. 16 Dynamite after finding out he wasn’t in plans for that show, which sources told Fightful happens often with talent. He was later booked for Rampage, and a change had to be made to the card since he wasn’t informed of that before leaving.
- Keith Lee has not been used well in AEW. I think for a time, health issues may have played a part, but I think he’s also been healthy and just not well used.
- It’s not clear if there’s any heat on Lee for the incident, but Fightful’s sources thought the whole thing was blown out of proportion on social media. Both that site and PW Insider said Lee was backstage at Dynamite last night.
- We’ll see if Lee ever finds that success in AEW.
- Despite John Cena being on the card, PW Insider says there are no plans for WWE to stream their upcoming Superstar Spectacle event from India on Peacock. On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said it would be a primetime special on Indian television.
- That is the case. (1/1)
- AEW has no further plans for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre title introduced on last week’s Dynamite, per PW Insider.
- LAME. Real big ball drop by Tony Khan right here. I think this is the major reason that Tony Khan didn’t win Booker of the Year. Not making the Texas Chainsaw title a featured title in AEW was a huge mistake. (1/1)
- QT Marshall & AEW are in talks about a new contract, according to Fightful.
- He ended up leaving and then coming back.
- The site also reports AEW’s discussed bringing in Stardom’s Mariah May.
- She is Timeless Toni Storm’s super fan. (1/1)
This week: 11/17 – 65%
Overall: 4,981/8,672 – 57.3%
Have a great week, everyone!
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