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.
- On his Backstage Pass show, Chris Featherstone noted that WWE’s “game plan completely changed” with The Rock’s return last week, and Drew McIntyre is now booked to win the men’s Elimination Chamber match.
- Drew did not win the Chamber. John Cena did. (0/1)
- The Wrestling Observer Newsletter says WWE writers “were confused and thrown for a loop” by The Rock’s abrupt return to SmackDown. One person in the company said his soul-taking angle with Cody Rhodes comes across as “diminishing the value of the title” by pushing the idea that “Rhodes isn’t a star at the level of Rock.”
- Seems like it’s chaos when he decides to come back. Now that his latest movie could lead to some Dwayne Johnson Oscar buzz, we may not see him any time soon because I think he only comes back when he needs a bit of a boost.
- The Observer also says “there were several people upset internally” in WWE when the main ad for Elimination Chamber that featured several wrestlers was replaced by a new one that only included The Rock.
- Understandable.
- Wrestling Observer Live’s Bryan Alvarez heard that Leyla Hirsch “will not be the last” wrestler leaving AEW “in the next 30 days.” He reiterated “there might be some departures coming up in March, whether it’s people being released, people’s deals coming up and not being renewed.”
- Fenix was released in March too. (1/1)
- Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp said there were “a lot of late adjustments” to last night’s episode of SmackDown.
- Not surprising since the Rock stuff shook up Cody’s story.
- Sapp also recently said the WWE talent he spoke with like SmackDown’s three hour format because it gives them “more of an opportunity.”
- Last week there was a rumor that folks didn’t like the two hour format. But there certainly can be folks who fell on obth sides.
- The West Australian reports that WWE will bring three events to the RAC Arena in Perth, Australia, in 2025. This includes Raw, SmackDown, and a Premium Live Event.
- It’s next month – all three shows. (1/1)
- According to PW Insider, WWE will be doing another Draft after WrestleMania 41 season is over.
- They have not done another draft. It sounds like they won’t. And they shouldn’t – redrafting the entire roster every year makes zero sense. Just move some pieces around as needed. (0/1)
- Fightful Select notes word getting out of The Rock and Cody Rhodes’ segment going on earlier in the night at Elimination Chamber was intentional and WWE planned for them to main event all along. They simply wanted to keep John Cena’s heel turn a secret.
- That makes sense – definitely sounds like they did all they could to keep it secret. At least that’s how they presented it on Unreal (which again, is a narrative of behind the scenes and maybe not always completely true).
- What’s more, while it’s not official The Rock will be involved at WrestleMania 41 it is the expectation.
- He was not. (0/1)
- They also say that Travis Scott has actually been training at a WWE Legend’s school and there have indeed been talks about him having matches.
- He did not have any matches. They pretty much turned on the guy. (0/1)
- From Fightful: Kenny Omega and Hiroshi Tanahashi pairing up in AEW was never actually in the works. What’s more, there was never any booking plans for them in New Japan Pro Wrestling either.
- Tana was in the lights out cage match at Forbidden Door. I didn’t think he looked too great, but he still picked up the win.
- PW Insider notes that, as expected, Leyla Hirsch is now gone from AEW after her contract expired.
- Seems that way – she hasn’t worked AEW this year. (1/1)
- For their WrestleMania 41 match, John Cena’s opened as a slight favorite (-200) over Cody Rhodes at internet sports book BetOnline.
- That was accurate. (1/1)
- “At least one talent” requested that the barbed wire in Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn’s Elimination Chamber match not be “gimmicked or shaved down”. That from a Fightful WWE source.
- That was a great match – of course.
- Naomi was pulled from scheduled appearances at media junkets to promote “Queen of the Ring” and PW Insider says that was a WWE call to sell the Jade Cargill beatdown at Elimination Chamber.
- She was the only WWE talent that worked that show. The Queen of the Ring media spoke ill of WWE after the fact.
- Per WrestleVotes, the expectation is that Rey Fenix will be joining WWE “sooner rather than later” and it wouldn’t be a surprise if he ends up on the WrestleMania 41 card.
- That’s the case to both. He was a last minute addition to the 41 card after Rey Mysterio’s injury, and he lost to El Grande Americano. (2/2)
- Asked about a possible Kenny Omega vs. Kazuchika Okada match at All In Texas involving the unification of AEW’s International and Continental titles, Sean Ross Sapp said on a Fightful Select podcast that, “there have been numerous pitches throughout the last several months for this to happen, and when I asked there was plenty of credibility given to it.”
- That did happen. (1/1)
- Dave Meltzer said in the Daily Update that he was told MLW is doing a “few releases for budgetary reasons due to changing talent around.”
- It looks like there were some July releases but unsure if this was related to those this far out or other changes.
- PW Insider says they’ve heard The Rock will be aligned with John Cena at WrestleMania 41 but won’t be working a match at the show.
- He wasn’t aligned with him at all after Elimination Chamber. (0/1)
- Meanwhile, WrestleVotes says The Rock is likely to appear on Raw alongside Cena for one of the overseas Raw shows leading up to the big event.
- That never happened. That creative thread was completely dropped even though it was a vital part of the story. (0/1)
- They also say WWE is only going to hold one event in Saudi Arabia in 2025, and “scheduling and planning for that lone event is currently being worked on.”
- That’s the case – only Night of Champions this year. But next year they have the Rumble, which kind of sucks. I bet they get less surprises for that show because of the travel that’s required and all the women in the Rumble have to wear their full body suits in what’s often a hot venue.
- Per Fightful Select, CM Punk’s promo on Raw this week received major praise backstage and Alexandra Williams was the writer responsible for it.
- Punk still has it on the mic. We’ll find out soon if AJ Lee does too.
- Fightful also says they haven’t heard anything regarding Trish Stratus sticking around after Elimination Chamber as of yet.
- She didn’t stick around but returned for an Evolution match.
- Zak Knight is gone from AEW, says Insider. His deal recently expired.
- Looks like he hasn’t wrestled anywhere since January.
- During a Backstage Pass Q&A show, WrestleVotes said WWE plans to add Rhea Ripley to the Bianca Belair/IYO SKY Women’s World title match at WrestleMania.
- Of course. (1/1)
- A WWE source told Wrestling Observer Live’s Bryan Alvarez there are “more twists and turns coming” in the build for WrestleMania 41, and “if you think you know the ‘Mania card based on what happened at Elimination Chamber, there are going to be some changes.”
- Not really? It kind of locked in from there. (0/1)
- Shooting down a rumor from last week, Fightful Select says there were never plans for Drew McIntyre to win the men’s Elimination Chamber match.
- He didn’t win but we don’t know how the planning went.
- In a mostly in-character appearance on the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast, MJF said he’s “making top guy money, whether it be an All Elite wrestling contract or a WWE contract” and that “the amount of money that I get by the time it [his current AEW deal] is over far surpasses 15 million.”
- He’s going to be an AEW guy for life me thinks.
- PWN reported and bodyslam.net confirmed that Bo Dallas was the injured member of the Wyatt Sicks. It’s not known why WWE kept the entire group off television in his absence, but he’s now medically cleared and can return any time.
- They’re active.
- Cora Jade is in concussion protocol after her match was stopped on this week’s NXT, per WOL’s Alvarez.
- She’s since been released and is taking a break from wrestling.
- After Fightful Select promised an update on Jamie Hayter & AEW, Hayter reacted on social media by posting, “I’ll save you all the cash and the concern, just getting a new visa, no big deal, no issues. Cheers!” Fightful’s report did say that Hayter was at home in the United Kingdom getting a new visa.
- She scooped them.
- On Monday, WWE filed a trademark for “The Culling”. Speculation is this will either be for Shawn Spears’ NXT group, or the new Retribution-like faction that debuted at Vengeance Day.
- It’s Shawn Spears’s group. (1/1)
This week: 9/16 – 56%
Overall: 5,826/9,984 – 58.4%
Have a great week, everyone!
