Rumor Look Back: August 1

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 in it.

August 1, 2025

According to WrestleVotes Radio, even though Cardi B is the official host of WWE SummerSlam, she is only scheduled to be there for night one of the event.
That’s correct. (1/1)
Sources told WrestleVotes that Bianca Belair “is closing in on her return” to WWE. She could be medically cleared as early as next week’s episode of SmackDown, rather than this weekend’s SummerSlam event.
Unfortunately, that’s not the case as that hand (knuckle) injury is a tough one. A lot of folks had her penciled in as a Royal Rumble surprise since it has been since WrestleMania since she’s been able to wrestle. But hand injuries are very tricky. She said on a Q&A on Insta that it was getting “fixed” which implies surgery but we still don’t any real time table on her. I feel there is a void in the women’s division without her that felt apparent on SmackDown this year. (0/1)
Votes heard that WWE is “strongly considering” the idea of putting the AAA Mega Championship on Dominik Mysterio. “All sides involved” really like the idea of AAA’s top champ appearing each week on Netflix.
He is Mega Champion currently. (1/1)
The outlet also indicates that Jelly Roll’s match at SummerSlam won’t be his only one in the company. WWE hopes to bring him back in early 2026.
I guess we’ll have to wait to find out. He hasn’t done anything yet.
Wrestling Observer Radio’s Dave Meltzer mentioned that Vince McMahon was involved in another car accident “not too long ago.” Meltzer added that “Vince is not gonna drive slowly…that’s just not in his makeup.”
Bad driving. Exploding limo. Just keep him away from cars.
Someone who was “very involved” in WWE Unreal told Meltzer the idea of the series was to present Triple H like a Dana White type of mastermind, while the wrestlers were more like pawns to be manipulated on a chess board.
It’s clear he’s the star and focus of that show.
For whatever it’s worth, Meltzer says “the belief is” that MJF will beat Averno for the CMLL World Light Heavyweight Championship tonight in Arena Mexico. The plan is for MJF to defend the belt against Mistico at a future date, but probably not at AEW Forbidden Door in London.
That’s exactly how it happened. (2/2)
Per Deadline, Zelina Vega has signed a deal with Prototype Talent Agency, which is the same company that represents Cody Rhodes, Bubba Ray Dudley, and Daddy Ass.
A lot of wrestlers have similar representation.
On his Grilling JR podcast, Jim Ross recalled that Hulk Hogan was “not fun to work with” when he returned to WWE in 2002. Ross said Hogan was irrationally paranoid about protecting his spot and thought everyone was “out to get him.” Ross also used the phrases “pain in the ass” and “high maintenance” to describe Hogan at that time.
I guess he felt he wasn’t going to be the guy after being in WCW for so long. But he won the title.

August 2, 2025

Fightful Select says WWE will debut a new theme song for Becky Lynch “imminently.” It won’t be a Def Rebel song, as it was recorded months ago by the band “The Wonder Years.”
I like her new song. (1/1)
The odds at BetOnline indicate that Cody Rhodes, Jade Cargill, CM Punk, Jacob Fatu, and Alexa Bliss & Charlotte Flair are likely to win their respective title matches this weekend at WWE SummerSlam.
Jade & Fatu did not win. The others did. (3/5)
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, “The CW loves Ethan Page and want to use him in as many promotions as possible.” In addition to that, it sounds like Page and Ricky Saints are still in line to be among the next NXT call-ups to WWE’s main roster.
Neither guy has been called up while plenty of others have. (0/2)
Sources told Cultaholic that Los Garza, Andrade, and “other Mexican wrestlers” in WWE are pushing for Alberto Del Rio’s return to the main roster.
That hasn’t happened.
The Observer’s update on Del Rio suggests he won’t be on Raw or SmackDown any time soon: “As of right now, there are no plans for Alberto El Patron in the U.S. market. But that could change. The belief is he will return to AAA soon.”
He didn’t return to AAA nor has he been on WWE TV. (1/2)
Fightful heard that The Undertaker is expected to be around AAA more often in the future, following his backstage appearance at their TV taping in Mexico City on July 25.
They’re listing him as a producer now. And documenting his time backstage on their Insta. (1/1)

F4WOnline’s Dave Meltzer mentions that A&E and The CW are rumored to be in the mix for the new TV deal that TNA is trying to secure. Meltzer says WWE would be involved in discussions with either network. He speculates that WWE might try to get TNA Impact moved to Wednesday nights so that it becomes direct competition for AEW Dynamite.
TNA signed with AMC. Apparently WWE was not involved with the deal and TNA stays on Thursdays. (0/1)
Meltzer also claims that “Gunther has a nose issue that may require him to take time off.”
Ouch.
On the latest episode of The Nikki & Brie Show, WWE Hall of Famer Nikki Bella said she got hurt in her match on this week’s Raw when her breast implant moved, and now “it’s been hard to laugh and cough.” Brie Bella said Piper Niven’s elbow drop “put Nikki’s implant right into her ribs.” Brie definitely noticed “a little bit of a physical difference now” when Nikki jumped in the shower, but Nikki reassured everyone that “they still look hot.”
Ouch.

August 4, 2025

PW Insider notes that Brock Lesnar was flown into New Jersey under the cover of darkness last night and WWE hid him all day. They didn’t even tell many company writers about Lesnar’s return plan at SummerSlam.
Hard to hide a man that big.
Along those same lines, Fightful Select notes that WWE equally played the Seth Rollins situation close to the chest, remaining silent with many producers and talent about the situation. Many within the company were even told not to expect a cash-in.
Given the whole injury was “working the boys,” that makes sense.
They also say Jelly Roll received rave reviews within WWE for his performance in WWE, and especially at SummerSlam.
He looked pretty good for a first timer. They got an Unreal episode out of it.
According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, GUNTHER is expected to take time off to get nose surgery.
He did take time off prior to coming back for Cena’s retirement tournament. (1/1)
Fightful says they were told Bron Breakker was “okay” backstage after appearing to suffer some sort of injury to his knee on night one of SummerSlam.
That’s good. He did not miss any time. (1/1)
They also say the upcoming Street Fighter filming schedule, which will include major names from WWE like Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes, isn’t expected to create any scheduling conflicts.
It’s hard for Roman to have a scheduling conflict given he’s never there. It did seem like Cody was on TV pretty regularly.

August

5, 2025

Andrew Baydala claims WWE is already looking at running more two-night premium live events, with Survivor Series 2026 and Royal Rumble 2027 at the top of the list. Money in the Bank “might also be in the mix for this format,” he says.
We’ll have to wait and see on those.
Fightful Select says that WWE: Unreal camera crews were spotted filming Seth Rollins’ Money in the Bank cash-in from behind-the-scenes, and it could be part of a future second season.
It was the last episode. (1/1)
They also say Karrion Kross & Scarlett were not present at Monday Night Raw this week and it looks like their deals with come up this weekend.
They were not re-signed.
Matt Hardy said on the SummerSlam Recap Show that The Hardy Boyz appearing in the crowd for night two of this year’s event came together at the last minute.
They’re still with TNA but worked with NXT and even won the NXT tag titles.
Jon Alba of SI brings word that Tom Hannifan and Matt Rehwoldt have signed contract extensions with TNA, though the terms are unknown.
I don’t watch TNA but in the clips I see, they seem pretty good on commentary.
Deadline notes that Heads of State, which stars John Cena, has done “north of 75 million worldwide Prime Video viewers since its July 2 launch.” It has now become the fourth most watched movie of all time on the service.
I wanted to like that movie more than I did. Same with the Batista/Momoa movie (The Wrecking Crew) on Prime, though I may have liked it slightly better than Heads of State.

August 6, 2025

Not surprisingly, Roman Reigns getting beaten down and hit with so many Tsunami’s this week on Raw was a way to write him off television to go film Street Fighter, per Wrestling Observer Radio.
The movie only started principal photography on August 18 and Roman only missed one week ahead of his Clash in Paris build. He was was back on TV on that August 18 date. So it was not a write off to film a movie. (0/1)
Dave Meltzer also said original plans called for Seth Rollins to win the world heavyweight title on SummerSlam Saturday and then defend it against LA Knight on Sunday. Ultimately, they decided to do that match on Raw instead.
Would be weird if they did that match on Sunday to be honest. I don’t believe that was ever the plan but we don’t know for sure.
MVP has developed heat backstage in recent months, says Fightful Select. There have been allegations that MVP is unwilling to lose to certain teams.
They leaned into some of this on TV but still could be true.
For what it’s worth, Cardi B told Complex Sports she isn’t ready to wrestle for WWE yet but will be one day.
Not sure if that’ll ever happen.
Social media compiled a list of names at recent WWE tryouts and among them were football players, track stars, models, gymnasts, a Taekwondo champion, and even a stuntman.
If they have a stuntman, they’re going to do some wild shit with them.

August 7, 2025

Asked by Ariel Helwani if Seth Rollins was ever really injured as part of his “Ruse of the Century” cash-in angle, Paul Heyman simply said, “No.”
Sounds like that’s true. He’s injured now, which is unrelated but also feels like karma for doing this elaborate angle and then doing a victory lap saying “I’m wasn’t hurt. Fooled you. Ha ha haaaa.” Then two months later he’s actually hurt badly enough he has to get stripped of the title.
Contrary to another recent rumor, Fightful and PW Insider both say filming on the new Street Fighter movie doesn’t start until Sept. 2. Insider says Roman Reigns will be needed on set for four weeks and should be done the week of Sept. 26. Both sites say Cody Rhodes isn’t expected to be needed nearly as much as Reigns.
That’s odd because Guile is more of a main character than Akuma – but that’s coming from a guy who hasn’t played a Street Fighter game since it was Street Fighter 2.
Following a PW Insider Elite report that Austin Theory had been removed from WWE’s internal roster following the recent break-up of his team with Grayson Waller, Fightful Select offered an update to say that Theory is now on WWE’s injured list alongside names like Zoey Stark and Ilja Dragunov.
He’s with the Vision currently. I still don’t take him seriously.
Regarding WWE’s new PLE deal with ESPN, Wrestlenomics reported that only customers of a few cable systems will get the new ESPN streaming service for free. Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer noted that while that may be true now, “many, if not most, of those listed as not getting it for free will have it for free at launch. Deals just haven’t been cut.”
YouTube TV apparently will get it but it’s still not the case – that’s my experience.
In their report on MVP’s alleged backstage heat at AEW, Fightful Select heard that MVP turned down pitches to lose to FTR at All In Texas and Forbidden Door, preferred Bobby Lashley & Shelton Benjamin lose to a younger team. It was also reported that the locker room’s issue with The Hurt Syndicate stems from their being “heels that do cool moves, beat up everyone, and give fans high fives on the way out”.
We haven’t seen as much of MVP since Lashley got hurt.
The Syndicate’s angle with MJF was supposed to last longer per Fightful, but there’s no known issues between MJF and the group.
That was an odd storyline.
Despite whatever tension may or may not exist with MVP, Lashley & Benjamin, numerous sources told Fightful that the backstage environment at AEW is better than its been in years.
That’s good.