What is the story about?
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.
- Multiple sources in WWE confirmed to PW Insider that Liv Morgan “won’t be making any appearances live on WWE programming in the near future” as a result of her shoulder injury.
- She did not until she returned from injury. (1/1)
- Insider also mentions that WWE has come up with a plan for the women’s tag team titles, and they are not expected to be vacated.
- They slotted Roxanne Perez into Liv’s spot. (1/1)
- The Wrestling Observer Newsletter says WWE’s plans for Jey Uso’s world title run did not change. When the decision was made to put the title on Uso, “it had already been decided it would be short reign and that he would lose it back to Gunther” ahead of Goldberg’s retirement match.
- That was the right call. I don’t hate putting the title on Jey in retrospect, even though there are plenty of folks who probably feel that way. He was super over with the crowd and it was a great moment. Even at the time, I don’t think Gunther should have tapped – that Jey scoring a pinfall win would have been just as exciting without giving him an elusive Gunther tap out. I would be a bit bummed if they’re veering away from the Jey Uso heel tendencies and just going with the tag team plan. Though it’s still possible that they lose on Monday and Jey reverts to that.
- Per WON, people close to Mercedes Mone say “she was willing to lose to Athena to build a rematch at All In.” However, when it became clear Mariah May was not going to sign a new deal with AEW, they decided to book “the biggest match for women in the company on the biggest show,” which means Storm vs. Mone at All In. At that point, it no longer made sense for Mercedes to lose to Athena in the Owen Hart tournament.
- That all makes sense.
- People in AEW pushed back on that story, telling Fightful Select that Mercedes vs. Toni was always the plan for All In going back to 2024. Mercedes is fine with losing matches, but AEW’s booking just hasn’t gone there yet.
- Enough of a contradiction to split the rumors. (1/2)
- Wrestling Observer Live’s Bryan Alvarez was told that as of two weeks ago, WWE was still “figuring out” what John Cena’s final dates will be on his retirement tour.
- Probably needed to also work around his Hollywood schedule.
- Fightful says Elijah suffered torn triceps during his match on NXT this week, and he already had surgery for it.
- That’s correct. (1/1)
- Fightful Select asked about WWE possibly cancelling or moving Night of Champions in the wake of the U.S. bombing Iran and while they haven’t received an official response they did get word that the company is “monitoring the situation closely.”
- They did not.
- PW Insider, meanwhile, says those already in Riyadh doing production work and setup for the show have not halted that work. Talents have also not been advised of any possible changes at least as of now but if a decision is made it would have to be before Wednesday because that is the travel day.
- They’ll go to Saudi in the most tenuous times.
- In a Fightful Q&A, Sean Ross Sapp said Adam Copeland and Christian reuniting for a match is still planned but it may not be for All In Texas. Christian apparently wants to fully “flesh out” things with The Patriarchy first.
- It was not at All In. They’ve since had a match, but then Copeland went to film Percy Jackson and they put that whole story on hold for months, which pretty much killed its momentum. (1/1)
- A recent trademark filing from WWE, for something called “WWE Late Night,” has led to speculation they could be launching a new late night show, digital or otherwise.
- It was the Tony Hinchcliffe show they were planning in NJ after SummerSlam that didn’t sell well so they canceled. Shame. (0/1)
- Bryan Alvarez says the Harley Cameron injury from the match with Megan Bayne was actually a work to cover for a previously scheduled surgery.
- That makes sense.
- While discussing this week’s SmackDown and Night of Champions in Riyadh on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer mentioned that WWE still has to decide whether a possible WrestleMania in Saudi Arabia would be that year’s only event called WrestleMania. The other option would be for that year to have “the Saudi WrestleMania and the actual WrestleMania”, which in theory “eases the backlash against doing it, and they can still get the money for WrestleMania in Saudi Arabia”.
- It’s going to be the only WrestleMania.
- Meltzer also said that Jade Cargill was originally supposed to be a champion by WrestleMania 41 and her injury derailed that. So it’s possible she could be winning Queen of the Ring to go on to SummerSlam to challenge for a title.
- She did win Queen of the Ring to challenge for a title, but she didn’t win that title. (She has since done so.) (1/1)
- According to Deadline, Dave Bautista has been offered a role in the Guy Ritchie-directed Roadhouse 2. The outlet doesn’t know what role, or where talks stand. The sequel to the reimagining of the 1989 Patrick Swayze (and Terry Funk) classic will again feature Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead.
- Looks like he took the role. I enjoyed the first remake.
- For what it’s worth, Sean Ross Sapp said in a Fightful Q&A that he asked folks at AEW and WWE about being upset regarding talent from both companies doing the American Gladiators reboot and heard no issues from either side, despite previous rumors.
- I can imagine only people who would be upset would be pretty high up. I’m sure the talent didn’t care and the general employees didn’t either. It would just be WWE people in the more executive branch who still dream of snuffing out AEW.
- BodySlam.net says Psycho Clown will stop accepting independent bookings after August and it is believed he is WWE bound.
- Not in the sense he’s on the main program. Looks like he still does some non-AAA boookings too. (0/1)
- Replying to a fan who asked if he or his brother Colten were injured, former AEW Tag champ Austin Gunn replied “Nope!” The Gunns haven’t wrestled since February.
- They’re finally back, though without Switchblade.
- Pat McAfee said on his show that he has just been exhausted and that’s why he hasn’t been on Raw commentary lately. It sounds like he could be back after Night of Champions, however.
- Outside a single show, he hasn’t been back. (0/1)
- BodySlam.net claims Liv Morgan was originally going to challenge Iyo Sky for the women’s world championship at Night of Champions before she was injured.
- That could make sense.
- They also say Chad Gable is injured and his getting taken out by Penta was meant as a television write off.
- We have not seen him since. (1/1)
- Wrestling Observer Radio says it’s still unclear what WWE has planned for the July 4 SmackDown show, and whether it will be two or three hours. No one seems to know anything as of yet.
- That was two hours.
- They also said no one was allowed to mention anything regarding the conflict in the Middle East on Monday Night Raw this week, and that’s why it wasn’t brought up at all during the show.
- Not that it would come up naturally outside maybe the announcers mentioning it affecting their plans.
- Per Fightful, Joe Hendry is “expected for more WWE dates.”
- He’s currently signed with them at this point. (1/1)
- Fightful Select says Kota Ibushi was dealing with a lot of injuries during his absence from AEW but he’s doing better physically “than he has in quite a long time.”
- That’s good to hear. He’s wrestled rather sparingly the second half of the year.
- The WWE production crew who were stranded in Qatar earlier this week have reached Saudi Arabia, according to PW Insider. Talent is in the process of flying to Riyadh on multiple planes from separate U.S. cities, and it looks like everything is a go for SmackDown and Night of Champions this weekend.
- The show went off as planned.
- WWE talent that Fightful Select spoke to this week no longer receive bonuses for appearing on Saudi Arabian shows. Based on what Fightful’s heard, “those types of things are baked into their contracts now” and “there is not an additional financial incentive for the talent“ to work in Saudi.
- They pretty much just have to work them at this point it seems.
- Dominik Mysterio has a legitimate “rib cage issue” that led to his being pulled from Night of Champions, reports PW Insider. It’s not known how he got hurt, but Insider says he’s not expected to be out for long.
- He often seems to be banged up.
- Vickie Guerrero has been telling people she’s close to that she expects to return to WWE “within a few weeks.” That from Fightful Select, which notes that the timing lines up with the return of Evolution on July 13.
- She was in the crowd for Evolution. I wouldn’t really say that’s “returning to WWE.” (0/1)
- AEW has two new championships it’s waiting to introduce, per BodySlam.net. The site says Women’s Tag and Inter-generational Tag belts “have sat on the shelf for about a year”.
- The women’s tags are out there but the inter-generational ones (I guess someone old and someone young?) are not. (1/2)
- The rules for the inter-generational tag titles aren’t set yet, but an idea is to use real and storyline father/son teams like Christian Cage & Nick Wayne, Daddy Ass Billy Gunn & Anthony Bowens, and Ricky & Kerry Morton.
- I really don’t think this is going to happen.
- While he didn’t have “the inside story” on why, Wade Keller said on PWTorch’s Raw Post-Show last week that wrestlers have told him Karrion Kross “just doesn’t really take bumps”. Keller and the wrestlers he’s spoken to believe “the fact that [Kross] doesn’t take bumps” is keeping him from “being a big star on the main roster”.
- I think he took a bump on Raw that had folks being like “See? He takes bumps?” though that doesn’t necessarily dispute this. That said, I don’t think someone the level of Kross has that pull in a company like WWE.
- On Raw WWE announced that LA Knight was injured by Bronson Reed on last Friday’s SmackDown, but PW Insider says that’s storyline-only and Knight is fine.
- Seems like Knight is often getting beat up by Bronson Reed.
- At sportsbooks like betonline, John Cena and Rhea Ripley are big favorites at Night of Champions with odds giving them a greater than 90% chance of winning (Cena’s have actually gone up to nearly 98%). Cody Rhodes and Jade Cargill each are being given a greater than 80% chance to win their respective tournament finals, while Jacob Fatu and Sami Zayn are slight favorites with an approximately 65% likelihood of winning.
- Jade & Fatu did not win. Vegas was right about the rest. (3/5)
- WrestleVotes Radio indicates that WWE’s current plan is to book a championship rematch between John Cena and Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam. This means Cena and Rhodes are likely to win their matches on Saturday at Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia.
- That was the SummerSlam match. (1/1)
- Votes’ sources also expect that Roman Reigns will return soon. WWE is even discussing new variations of his “Tribal Chief” nickname.
- He returned July 14 to save Jey Uso (and CM Punk) from the Vision. Now he’s going by the OTC. (2/2)
- Someone in WWE told Wrestling Observer Radio’s Dave Meltzer that turning Cody Rhodes heel is “the only thing that could possibly hurt our business right now.” Even so, The Rock has not given up on the idea of doing that turn.
- That hasn’t happened yet. It would only hurt the business if they didn’t have a babyface they felt could step into that role. And maybe they don’t right now.
- PW Insider mentioned there has been backstage praise for Aleister Black in WWE, and this includes discussions about giving him a better push.
- I wouldn’t say he’s had any great push. It’s been a never ending feud with Damian Priest.
- Fightful Select notes that Chelsea Green missed the June 13 episode of SmackDown due to a sinus infection that caused some hearing loss and sent her to the emergency room.
- Damn.
- Now that Vince McMahon is gone from the company, WrestleVotes says there is talk in TKO about moving WWE headquarters to Las Vegas when the lease expires on the current building in Stamford, Connecticut.
- That hasn’t happened, but it could.
- The outlet also claims there was a plan for Trish Stratus’ return to be announced on the June 13 episode of SmackDown. Even though that announcement wasn’t made, plans are still in place for her to be involved at Evolution 2 in July.
- She faced Tiffany Stratton at that show. (1/1)
This week: 16/24 – 67%
Overall: 6,032/10,319 – 58.5%
Have a great week, everyone!
