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.
- According to Fightful Select, WWE and Randy Orton are hoping that he can return by next month’s Survivor Series event. For what it’s worth, BWE claims that Orton has been “doing great” and WWE is taking a cautious approach to make sure he is “100% for his return.”
- He was back for that Survivor Series. That was his first night back. He shared that moment with CM Punk – both making big returns at that show. (1/1)
- The Wrestling Observer Newsletter says there are people in WWE who interpreted Tony Khan’s troll tweet about John Cena and The Undertaker as “a declaration of war.”
- It was a douchey tweet but I don’t know about anything more than that. Though TK says it best when they hate each other so maybe.
- Per WON, AEW’s current plan is to have Orange Cassidy defend the AEW International championship against Jon Moxley, likely at next month’s Full Gear pay-per-view. Moxley was originally planned to win the belt from Rey Fenix this week on Dynamite and then defend it against Cassidy, but Jon wasn’t cleared to wrestle due to his recent concussion.
- It was the match, which OC won. (1/1)
- After PW Insider readers reported seeing CM Punk & Ace Steel at Universal Studios in Orlando on Thursday night, Fightful Select clarified that Punk was never at the WWE Performance Center. Punk is in town for his MMA commentary gig, and Steel lives in Florida.
- He did end up in WWE, but timing was, he probably wasn’t doing any drop by at the PC. I wonder what rides they hit. Escape from Gringots? The Mummy? Kong (which is pretty bad in my humble opinion, especially for the waits involved)?
- The Observer was told that Cash Wheeler is “banged up” but X-rays showed no broken ribs. He doesn’t need time off and could have wrestled a full match last week on Collision when FTR was squashed by Big Bill and Ricky Starks. The match was booked like that to create a shocking moment for Collision rather than to cover for an extended absence.
- FTR will be in a ladder match for the vacant tag team titles against the Young Bucks tonight.
- On The Ryback Show, The Ryback said there’s no truth to the rumor that he once took Cialis in order to impress Brock Lesnar in the locker room. That was a lie spread by Cody Rhodes and Bryan Danielson. Speaking of Cody, he once “accused” Ryback of taking a bath. The Big Guy denied that too, and said he’s the one who actually caught Cody taking a candle-lit bath.
- There’s a lot going on here.
- WrestleVotes says that while Endeavor have been clear about being open to Monday Night Raw moving nights, that “tons of people” backstage hope it stays on Mondays.
- While SmackDown has moved all around, Raw belongs on Monday nights. While I understand Monday Night Football is a reason to consider moving it to say Tuesdays. But opening your week with Raw on Monday is a wrestling tradition. And given streaming services like Netflix probably care less about live viewing than overall streams since the ads are going to be there or not going to be there no matter what, moving it off Monday doesn’t really seem necessary.
- They also say there were discussions and ideas thrown around at one point to see if Mickie James would be interesting in joining Nick Aldis as a co-GM of SmackDown, but it doesn’t look like that will be happening.
- That did not happen.
- Speaking of Aldis, Fightful Select says he is no longer a Producer on a trial basis with WWE anymore, as he has officially signed a full time deal with the company. He could still work as a Producer while working in an on screen capacity but it’s unclear if he will as of now. In addition, Aldis has received high praise from those he’s worked with so far at WWE.
- I think he’ll eventually become a heel GM, and a good one.
- Alberto Del Rio recently said he was going to return to WWE before Vince McMahon lost power but Fightful says they were told by a higher up source that there’s “no fucking chance” that was ever happening.
- Yeah, I think “no fucking chance” is more like it.
- Fightful also notes that Jade Cargill arrived early to Friday Night SmackDown this past week and talked to several members of the roster while there. She’s endearing herself to everyone in the company.
- I think she’s gonna be a big star, despite her early limited move set.
- According to what “multiple sources close to WWE” told Sports Illustrated’s Justin Barrasso, there are no plans to have The Rock face Roman Reigns in the main event of WrestleMania 40.
- Man, that’s a weird one because it definitely went there. But then went back. So were there plans? Maybe.
- “Unless the situation changes dramatically,” Barrasso writes that the main event of next year’s WrestleMania “belongs to Cody Rhodes.”
- That is how it ended up. (1/1)
- LA Knight is the only name SI gives much of a chance to take that spot from Cody, but he’d need “a Becky Lynch/Daniel Bryan-type of groundswell of support” to have a shot. Right now, “Knight is a building block to get Reigns to April.”
- I think he could have maybe gotten a world heavyweight championship if Punk/Orton didn’t come back – a scenario where maybe Drew beat Rollins at Day One and Knight challenged Drew. But when Randy & Punk returned, that kind of pushed him down the card a bit.
- Regarding Michael Cole missing Raw last night, PW Insider says he requested time off for a “personal commitment” a while ago before the episode was scheduled as the season premiere. “It is not an illness or anything similar,” and Cole is expected back next week.
- Cole’s pretty much an iron man.
- Sammy Guevara was doing well in his recovery from the concussion he suffered at WrestleDream but recently had “a setback”, per Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio. Guevara wants to return this week when Dynamite is in his hometown of Houston, but it’s not a sure thing he’ll be cleared.
- He didn’t return until December. He’s currently out on suspension.
- Jade Cargill filed to trademark her name on Oct. 11. Purposes listed on the filing include, “Entertainment in the nature of wrestling contests; Entertainment services, namely, wrestling exhibits and performances by a professional wrestler and entertainer.”
- She owns the name herself, which makes sense.
- On WOR, Meltzer said Tony Khan wants to make the Mistico/Rocky Romero match on Rampage this week “an authentic Arena México match with the Arena México video footage [and] with the Arena México music.”
- It looks like it was a 2 out of 3 falls style match and they used Mistico’s CMLL music. (1/1)
- According to PW Insider, Bianca Belair is expected back on television very soon, possibly as soon as SmackDown this week.
- She did return that week. (1/1)
- Bill Simmons seemed to indicate at a recent Bloomberg Screentime event that Vince McMahon will not be able to change anything on the documentary about him that is coming to Netflix.
- I would hope not at this point. You’d think they’d have to shelve this for a bit.
- For what it’s worth, Rey Mysterio told Ariel Helwani on the MMA Hour that he hopes to retire “within the next year and a half or two.”
- We’ll see how this goes.
- On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said that while it’s possible WWE could still use Uncle Howdy he doesn’t expect him to be back.
- That doesn’t seem to be the case, but we have to wait a bit to find out for sure.
- Fightful Select notes that the “decision to have NXT talent on Main Event will likely continue,” though they couldn’t say if that was a Triple H directive.
- I didn’t know Main Event was still a thing but it looks like it’s still going strong. Looks like it’s a mixture of main event lower card talent and some NXT matches. (1/1)
- Despite reports WWE decided against signing CM Punk, BWE posted that the company will continue making references to the fired AEW star. The X account also claimed to be close to confirming “a round of updates on ‘his’ situation”.
- This was a talking point until Survivor Series.
- A Fightful Select report on Vince McMahon’s removal from WWE creative said that some see it as having happened “overnight”, and that with Triple H now running things changes are likely to continue.
- I wonder if that was the plan from the inception of the purchase. They had to know at least an idea of what was coming.
- The report also included that while many of the changes McMahon made to shows this year were minimal, they often included “wrestlers he did or didn’t want on the show.” One writer told Figthtful: “I guess he wasn’t lying when he said he wasn’t in the weeds, but in a way, he just sprayed Roundup on the weeds and checked in on them every so often.”
- The creative is clearly better now he’s fully gone.
- Matches like the recent Xavier Woods/Ivar, Ricochet/Shinsuke Nakamura & GUNTHER/Bronson Reed ones were cited by Fightful sources as “very important in establishing the in-ring aspect of WWE Raw.”
- They had matches prior to Vince leaving, but the emphasis is a bit higher. Though the biggest difference is that there’s more coherency to the shows. And they’re watchable.
- After a late run on tickets for last night’s AEW show led to the company opening up more seats at the greater Houston area venue, Dave Meltzer credited the announcement of lucha libre star Mistico’s Rampage match as the primary driver of increased demand.
- Mistico has a big lucha following.
- Serena Deeb was backstage at Collision last Saturday, per Fightful. It’s reportedly the first time she’s been at an AEW show this year. Different sources had previously told the site Deeb was either in hot water with management, or was out nursing an injury.
- There was a medical issue involving seizures.
- Even though Vince McMahon’s removal from the creative team has caused a lot of things to change in WWE, Fightful Select was told that Roman Reigns’ creative process essentially remains the same. Roman and Paul Heyman are always heavily involved in that process, whether it’s Triple H or Vince in charge of creative. Michael Hayes also plays a large role in producing The Bloodline’s segments.
- One of the reasons the Bloodline stories were pretty consistently entertaining is that it sounds like Roman and Paul had a lot of creative control in that. And I like that. I think top guys and gals should have more input their stories.
- Wrestling Observer Radio’s Bryan Alvarez initially heard that Nick Wayne “chipped his tooth all the way to the nerve” after he “hit his face on the cement” during this week’s brawl on AEW Dynamite. Later in the day, Alvarez clarified that Wayne’s tooth is “chipped completely in half” rather than all the way to the nerve.
- Either way… ouch.
- F4WOnline’s Dave Meltzer claims the October 28 episode of Collision is “the date planned” for FTR to get a rematch for the AEW world tag team titles.
- That is not the case. (0/1)
- Meltzer also says that “something got started” when Adam Copeland and Ricky Starks were talking trash about each other during the opening segment of last Saturday’s Collision. Things went off script when “one of them got a little bit mad, and the other one got mad back.”
- That was an awkward segment, and I think it was the veteran Copeland that came out looking rattled.
- Sean Ross Sapp says CM Punk “was really great backstage” when he visited Impact Wrestling, and the promotion would definitely welcome Punk into the fold if he is interested in signing with them.
- Punk was never signing with Impact.
- Bill Simmons told SI Media with Jimmy Traina that the Vince McMahon documentary coming to Netflix will likely be released in early 2024.
- It’d say we’re passing “early 2024” and that hasn’t happened. (0/1)
This week: 6/8 – 75%
Overall: 5,039/8,774 – 57.4%
Have a great week, everyone!
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