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.
- The Wrestling Observer Newsletter noted no one would confirm CM Punk had two contracts with AEW but “it’s believed his employee deal provided him with insurance benefits.” For that matter, it’s unclear “if there were any non-compete provisions in his contract or contracts.”
- He didn’t show up in WWE until November, though we don’t know for sure if he had a non-compete. He hinted at one during one of his MMA announcing gigs
- The Observer says All Out is tracking towards between 72,000 and 96,000 PPV buys. That makes it the first AEW event not to break 100,000 since Full Gear in 2020.
- Tougher to get people to buy that one a week after the bigger All In.
- In the Daily Update, Dave Meltzer said WWE loaded up NXT this week with the hope the show will do “some of the best numbers in years.”
- This is not the big one they did where they brought in John Cena & the Undertaker, but they had Becky Lynch defending the NXT title and it did strong numbers.
- From the WON: “It was widely assumed this is true but sources outside of AEW have confirmed that the hoped for idea was for All In to air on MAX and the reason it ended up on PPV is because the technology wasn’t ready at the time the decision had to be made one way or the other. I believe the technology is ready now.”
- They still haven’t done any streaming on Max.
- Fightful Select says Deonna Purrazzo’s contract with Impact Wrestling is up at the end of this year.
- She’s in AEW now. He did not work another Impact match since 2023. (1/1)
- Per PW Insider, former WWE stars Maven and Vladimir Kozlov were backstage at Impact 1000.
- Just stopping by.
- 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.
- He didn’t work another match for WWE. The JFK incident likely wasn’t the only reason he was let go but it was certainly what broke the camel’s back.
- 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.”
- He was eventually released.
- 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.
- Brutal. Riddle actually blamed some of this for his behavior at JFK. Though a lot of people had to do what he just did and none of them got into it with a police officer.
- 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.
- I guess if there’s travel times that are going to be tight, things are going to getting shaken up.
- 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.”
- For a bit he was calling in, but by it was wasn’t long after this we learned Triple H was fully in charge of creative.
- 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.”
- Santana recently left AEW. There was an angle they had between them, but we don’t know if that was the start of the work or the shoot that lead there.
- 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“.
- That’s vague.
- Dave Meltzer mentioned on Wrestling Observer Radio that “there’s a feeling FOX is not going to go for $300 million” for the rights to SmackDown and that both Disney and Amazon are the two companies most in contention for it.
- Fox was out, but neither Disney nor Amazon were part of a WWE deal. (1/2)
- He also said WWE is not married to having SmackDown on Friday nights and is open to moving it to whatever night for the new rights deal.
- We’ll see what happens come 2025.
- In response to word going around that Vince McMahon is back and in charge of creative again, BWE simply said “no.”
- It didn’t sound that way, even coming from TKO. (1/1)
- Fightful Select says Nia Jax signed with WWE over a month ago.
- She returned a couple days prior to this rumor. Much like AOP, they must have signed her and then worked out the creative idea.
- Sticking with Jax, WrestleVotes now claims that she will be the number two heel on Raw going forward, jumping over Trish Stratus and Zoey Stark.
- I guess this assumes Rhea is number one, but that’s tougher because she was almost a tweener at this point.
- For what it’s worth, PW Insider says “the word making the rounds backstage at Monday Night Raw among talents” regarding Matt Riddle’s absence was that he was “pulled due to medical illness.”
- Maybe, but he was soon released.
- Roman Reigns wasn’t included in the initial promotional materials for next year’s Royal Rumble. While he can always be added later, this still prompted speculation from WrestlingNews.co and others that Reigns might not be scheduled for the PLE in Tampa.
- He worked the show. (0/1)
- While we’re speculating, Mandy Rose responded to a fan question about returning to wrestling via her Instagram Story with: “Funny you asked… your girl may or may not be a free agent very soon.”
- She still isn’t in wrestling.
- Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics pointed out that there’s a “Buy One, Get One Free” promo code for tickets to AEW Grand Slam next week at Arthur Ashe Stadium. As of Sept. 6, WrestleTix had 6,311 tickets out for the event. Grand Slam 2022’s final count was 13,321.
- AEW ticket sales were slumping around this time.
- Regarding Matt Riddle’s absence from Raw, Dave Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio that it was due to illness (specifically, infections in both ears and a case of bronchitis) and not due to his incident at JFK airport on the way back from Superstar Spectacle.
- We probably won’t know, but I’d be surprised if the JFK incident didn’t factor in at all.
- Riddle said the same thing when he was contacted by Anthony DeBlasi of The Don Tony Show, and added that the ear infection will take 2-6 weeks to clear out.
- He was released a week later.
- Dana White told Big Boy TV that he heard Shane McMahon wanted to buy the UFC in the early 2000s, and Vince McMahon had an opportunity to do it. It didn’t happen because Vince was against the idea.
- A bit of a missed opportunity. They’re under the same umbrella now.
- A WWE source told Haus of Wrestling that “major cuts” are expected to hit WWE’s main roster and NXT talent. These cuts have been planned for a while, but it’s not clear if they will coincide with today’s WWE corporate employee layoffs.
- This was the wave of releases that included Dolph Ziggler and Mustafa Ali. (1/1)
- AEW sources indicated to PW Insider that Jade Cargill’s contract could expire as soon as this week. AEW has had contract negotiations with her, but a new deal has not been reached. There are people in AEW who believe she will be leaving as a free agent to join WWE’s NXT brand.
- She left AEW for WWE but never joined NXT. I’m kind of surprised she didn’t. If WWE really feels she needs more training, which Triple H has implied, just put her in NXT then. Then again, the flip side of that, when they have used her, they’ve maximized her minutes. Her Rumble debut was really good. At this point, maybe they’re just waiting until after Mania to really launch her. (1/2)
- Fightful Select claims that the likelihood of Cargill signing with WWE was talked about backstage at this week’s Raw, with some top stars even hearing about it last week.
- She had a strong debut at the Rumble but then we really haven’t seen her since.
- Wrestling Observer Live’s Bryan Alvarez said Cargill’s AEW exit is not “100% a done deal” but “the feeling from those within AEW is that she’s gone. She’s going to WWE.”
- That feeling was correct. (1/1)
- However, Wrestling Inc. founder Raj Giri pushed back on the Cargill-to-WWE rumors, stating that “from what I’ve heard is she re-signed with AEW.”
- She did not. (0/1)
- According to BWE, WWE is discussing “new title schemes” following its merger with UFC. This includes “new names, weight class, trios, etc.”
- They didn’t do anything like that. (0/1)
- The account also claims that Elias is “without a professional contract at the moment,” but he is still with WWE.
- He was eventually released.
- Alvarez heard that Tony Khan “obsessed” over providing an accurate number of paid tickets for AEW: All In London because he didn’t want to be wrong.
- Understandable so, he took that all very seriously.
- BWE mentions that Drew McIntyre will be re-signing with WWE soon.
- We don’t have any word of that. But given how they’re booking him, I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t soon, if they haven’t quietly already.
- Fightful notes that Heath Slater’s contract with Impact Wresting is expiring soon. He will be a free agent in October if a new deal is not reached before then.
- He’s worked various indies. Hasn’t been in TNA since October. (1/1)
- WWE fired more than 100 employees during Friday’s mass layoffs, per PW Insider.
- Man, that sucks.
- Everyone at WWE who Insider spoke to was “on pins and needles” waiting to see if they would get a call from HR telling them they were laid off. Everyone being told to work from home “added to the sense of unease,” especially since “it’s not like they will even get a chance to personally return and say their goodbyes and pick up their property.”
- That’s a tough time for those involved.
- Multiple divisions in the company were “absolutely ripped apart” because of these cuts. For example, the Insights & Analytics team of 20+ people now only has three employees left.
- It was bound to happen because of the merger, but that still sucks.
- Insider also reports that Dana Warrior is gone from WWE as part of the the layoffs.
- That was an odd one.
- BWE says The Rock’s return segment on SmackDown ran long, and changes to the rest of the show had to be made on the fly to account for it.
- Rock running long is a running theme.
- Wrestling Observer Live’s Bryan Alvarez heard that Jade Cargill “wanted a lot of money” to stay in AEW. However, one source told Fightful Select that her decision on leaving AEW is not financially motivated.
- She seems like a talent made for WWE, but we have to see how it plays out.
- Mat Men’s Andrew Zarian is “confident” in saying that “AEW will be on Max in 2024 and AEW will expand its PPV Schedule to 12 a year.”
- They expanded to 9 a year. Not on Max yet, but the year is still young so we’ll wait and see on that one. (0/1)
- PW Insider points out WWE and Hulu’s contract extension may be about to expire, as the streamer again lists its WWE content (except for the past few weeks of SmackDown replays) as expiring in 10 or 11 days.
- They’ll often get a stay until things are renewed.
- On The Ryback Show, The Ryback said he smells like meat 24/7, so he’s always worried that security dogs at the airport will try to bite him.
- A good excuse.
This week: 7/13 – 54%
Overall: 5,005/8,717 – 57.1%
Have a great week, everyone!
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