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.
- Fightful Select heard that Bray Wyatt is finally getting “closer” to being medically cleared. At one point, the illness he’s been dealing with was both career and life-threatening.
- Unfortunately it did cost him his life. What a tragedy.
- One source said some creative ideas for Wyatt have been pitched for a potential WWE return in September.
- Bray died in late August.
- Regarding Kairi Sane leaving Japan to return to WWE, Wrestling Observer Radio’s Dave Meltzer said, “There is more to the story, and it probably won’t come out until 2024.”
- I think we’re learning that with the story of Rossy Ogawa leaving Stardom. (1/1)
- Meltzer mentioned that a trios match of Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, and Wheeler Yuta vs. Orange Cassidy, Eddie Kingston, and “someone else” is rumored for AEW: All In London at Wembley Stadium.
- It ended up being a 5 on 5 Stadium Stampede match. (0/1)
- On his Talk is Jericho podcast, Chris Jericho said Tony Khan was “mad” that his match against Jon Moxley at Quake at the Lake was not rated five stars by Dave Meltzer, and instead only received 4.75 stars.
- Jericho most definitely bitches about the ratings he gets, but let’s not pretend he’s not getting some favorable ratings, like the 4.25 stars his Dynamite match with Takeshita got a couple weeks back.
- It looks like the Oct. 27 and Nov. 24 episodes of WWE SmackDown will be moved to FS1 due to sports coverage on FOX. The Nov. 3 episode might also be bumped to FS1 if the MLB World Series reaches Game 6.
- The two shows mentioned were on FS1 but the 3rd show didn’t get bumped. (1/1)
- er for a Rikishi autograph signing in late August included the sentence, “Come meet Rikishi before he referees at Payback.” Naturally, this has led many people to believe that WWE is planning to bring in Rikishi to be a referee for a match related to The Usos at the Payback premium live event on Sept. 2.
- Rikishi did not referee any match. The Usos have not had their one on one yet so we’ll see if Rikishi is involved in that story at all. (0/1)
- This week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter notes that Roman Reigns “suffered either a hip or back injury” taking a tope from Jey Uso about five minutes into their SummerSlam match.
- As we talked about last week, Roman wrestles so infrequently that he can rehab minor injuries and we’d never know.
- F4WOnline’s Dave Meltzer mentioned that one match being considered for AEW: All In London at Wembley Stadium is a trios match of Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi, and Hangman Page vs. Jay White, Konosuke Takeshita, and Juice Robinson. In this scenario, a singles match between Omega and Takeshita would likely be booked for one week later at All Out in Chicago.
- That was the match for both shows. (2/2)
- There was a lot of finger pointing backstage after Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler’s SummerSlam match didn’t get over, per WON. Some blamed creative for not using Rousey and Baszler’s ideas, while creative blamed Rousey and Baszler for only using their own ideas.
- The MMA style match didn’t work.
- The Observer heard that Brian Pillman Jr. actually hasn’t signed yet with WWE because the company is waiting on the results of his medicals. No creative plans for him have been discussed.
- His character Lexis King is getting some spotlight in NXT.
- Booker T said on his Hall of Fame podcast that his NXT contract is up soon.
- If that’s the case, he re-signed.
- Dave Meltzer noted in his Daily Update that CM Punk’s promo on Hangman Page was “not storyline or anything like that.” What’s more, Page was apparently sent to Greensboro to do a pre-tape interview that will air on Dynamite and then told “they would have to do it away from the Coliseum” and then he was told “not to go to the show.”
- It was starting to get ugly already. This all ended up being very predictable given how they brought him back but nothing was changed that caused the issue in the first place so of course it’d repeat itself.
- WWE officials see the company’s growth as proof they made the right decision not having Cody Rhodes dethrone Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39, says the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
- I don’t know if one person has that much impact on WWE’s growth. WWE itself is the machine. Maybe they can say it wasn’t the wrong decision because numbers continued to improve. But they very probably would have seen the same level of growth if Cody defeated Roman. It’s not like Reigns is around enough to move individual numbers.
- JD McDonagh’s attack was cover for Sami Zayn’s obvious elbow issue, which is believed to be a bursa sac infection. Despite that and Kevin Owens’ broken rib, WWE doesn’t plan to take the tag titles off them, according to the Observer.
- They lost them in October – so the tag titles came off but likely it wasn’t injury related (but more KO moving to SmackDown related).
- The WON says there is once again a “renewed focus from Endeavor as well as Nick Khan on making NXT what was termed a sustainable third brand.”
- They got their own TV deal on the CW.
- AEW officials were happy with RVD’s match on the Aug. 9 episode of Dynamite, per Fightful Select.
- RVD is a guy who kind of does “still got it.”
- The Observer says Jim Ross’s AEW contract expires next month.
- I don’t believe he’s re-signed. Last we heard, it hadn’t be done and the expiration day was last week. Of course, JR has been dealing with surgery for his skin cancer which is more important.
- Edge’s longtime trainer Ron Hutchinson has been saying Friday’s match with Sheamus on SmackDown in Toronto will probably be Edge’s last, per Wrestling Observer Radio’s Dave Meltzer. If that’s the case, Meltzer speculated the reason it hasn’t been promoted as a retirement match is because Edge doesn’t want to make it a big deal and WWE is “going to do what Edge wants to do.”
- This does not specify last match in WWE. It was that but he’s working consistently in AEW. (0/1)
- On his Kliq This podcast, Detroit native Kevin Nash said he offered to serve as SummerSlam’s Master of Ceremonies but never heard back from WWE. Nash joked, “I guess they didn’t want this m*****f****ing liberal anywhere near that program.”
- Nash is more liberal than I’d have expected, though his takes on the Janel Grant lawsuit are unpleasant.
- According to Fightful Select, CM Punk has told people he still wants to sit down with Hangman Page, Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks, but they refuse. Page “generally avoids the situation” and isn’t interested in working with Punk, but there are those at Collision who think Punk was ”trying to work himself into an angle” with his post-show promo last Saturday.
- It’s a messy situation, and I think there’s word from each camp that one side was willing to talk but the other wasn’t and vice versa. I think Punk has enough of a business mindset that he knows when a good feud can be made but who knows in this situation.
- That lines up with Voices of Wrestling report that Punk claims to have had nothing to do with Page being sent away from the building last Saturday, because if he’d known Hangman was there Punk would have wanted to talk to him about potentially working together. That site also heard Punk apologized to Page for his promo via text message.
- Messy all around.
- PW Insider meanwhile says Page wasn’t “sent home” since he lives in the Greensboro area, and heard his promo was never planned to be shot at Greensboro Coliseum.
- This ended up all playing out the way many predicted.
- Fightful said Matt Hardy & Isiah Kassidy were scheduled for recent AEW Collision episodes and even had their travel booked, but then it was unbooked. The Observer said the Punk camp denies having Page & Hardy removed from Collision tapings, but “much of the locker room” believes he did.
- Again, very messy.
- Everyone is in agreement that Punk banned Christopher Daniels & Ryan Nemeth from the Saturday show, with a Voices of Wrestling source claiming Punk told them directly, “I 100% am the reason Nemeth and Daniels were sent home”
- Punk’s folks later explained the Daniels thing. Not a good sign when a member of talent relations like CD wasn’t allowed in the building.
- Fightful Select is now saying CM Punk and Jack Perry had an argument, that may have simply been a disagreement, backstage at Collision in Canada. Perry was there to film a segment and wanted to use real glass and Punk apparently thought he wanted that so “he wouldn’t have to come to work the next week, which he sees as a big problem in the company.” Punk’s claim is Perry “was throwing a temper tantrum.” More on this here.
- This actually ended up leading to the big blow up at All In.
- Meanwhile, Dave Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio that two people, “who aren’t names anyone would come up with in this discussion,” have told him the whole situation is a ticking time bomb that will blow up soon if something isn’t done about it.
- Truth.
- For what it’s worth, Brian Gewirtz said on The Masked Man Show that he would be shocked if The Rock appeared on WWE television during the SAG-AFTRA strike. He does, however, expect him back for a storyline someday.
- The Rock did return during the strike. And he’s definitely back in storyline now. (1/2)
- WrestleTix is now saying AEW has distributed 80,056 tickets for All In, which puts them above SummerSlam 1992 and very close to WrestleMania 32.
- They sold this show very well.
- During a chat with Torg & Elliott, Mark Henry seemed to let slip that The Elite’s recent new contracts with AEW are 4-year deals.
- It’s not surprising to hear it’s a long one.
- There’s speculation Paul Wight could be making his return to in-ring action for AEW, possibly as Captain Insano, based on this Instagram post.
- He worked one televised match in the Yakuza street fight, but not as Captain Insano. He took one bump for Will Hobbs and that was that. (1/2)
- Asked about Goldberg appearing for AEW at All In next Sunday by McGuire on Wrestling, Dave Meltzer said he hasn’t heard that’s happening but it’s “not out of the realm of possibility.”
- It did not happen.
- In a tweet earlier this week, RVD hinted that WWE gave him permission to work Dynamite last Wednesday.
- I don’t know why he’d need to ask permission. If he was on a legends deal, he likely wouldn’t have been able to. And if he was a free agent, why would he need to ask at all?
- Rikishi tweeted that the autograph signing advertisement that seemed to spoil his guest referee role at WWE Payback was a “promoter mistake”.
- Sounds like it. I doubt that WWE was initially planning to rush the brother’s feud.
- Nigel McGuinness “has been taking measures to try to return to the ring”, according to Fightful. They were unable to confirm whether the former Ring of Honor champion & current AEW Collision announcer has been cleared.
- I think he’ll have one more match against Daniel Bryan at one point – maybe at All In.
- Ace Steel was told he can’t be present at AEW shows because he’s considered an “insurance risk” post-Brawl Out, per Fightful Select. The site also heard his contract runs through fall 2024 and allows him to seek work outside AEW.
- Steel did some work with TNA. I’m not sure if that continued or was a trial/guest role though.
- Cathy Corino, aka Allison Danger, worked last Saturday’s Ring of Honor tapings as a producer. That’s from PW Insider, which noted they don’t know if it was a tryout for the indie veteran and former WWE NXT coach or if she’s already been hired.
- Her experience in WWE was not a good one.
- Earlier this month WWE filed trademarks on “Barely Legal”, “Hardcore Heaven”, “Massacre on 34th Street”, and “Cyberslam”. Beyond those old ECW show names, they’ve also applied for trademarks on “Trish Stratus”, “Ikemin Jiro”, and “THE NEW DAY: FEEL THE POWER”.
- They’ll try to trademark all they can.
This week: 6/11 – 55%
Overall: 4,970/8,655 – 57.4%
Have a great week, everyone!
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