Speculating on the rumors surrounding pro wrestling is a favored pastime of many fans, perhaps second only to actually watching the matches. In this daily column, we take a look at the latest rumors being
churned out by the pro wrestling rumor mill.
Important reminder: Rumors are just that — rumors. None of this has been confirmed as fact, it’s just circulating around the pro wrestling rumor mill. We track rumor accuracy in a weekly feature called Rumor Look Back you can find here. Remember, take it all with a grain of salt.
Rumors for the Day:
- The latest odds at BetOnline indicate that Roman Reigns is the favorite to win the men’s Royal Rumble match today in Saudi Arabia, and Liv Morgan is the favorite to win the women’s match.
- Multiple outlets say NXT star Jacy Jayne traveled with WWE to Saudi Arabia and is expected to be one of the surprise entrants in the women’s Royal Rumble match.
- Ibou at Self Made Pro claims that AJ Styles’ WWE contract ends in February. Styles “absolutely” planned to go to AEW before he signed a one year contract extension with WWE last year. Ibou speculates that AJ will have his last WWE match at Royal Rumble and then “turn up in other places.”
- Self Made Pro also mentioned that Andrade’s AEW booking is “changing on the fly” because he is “rapidly raising his profile in the eyes of the people that run AEW.” It sounds like they are starting to see him as a main event level performer.
- During an interview on The Sal Licata Show, Seth Rollins said the original plan for The Shield’s breakup included a one-on-one match between Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 30, with Rollins as the special referee. That idea was “luckily” nixed. When WWE later “randomly” booked The Shield in a triple threat match against each other at a Battleground pay-per-view, all three members “fought against the idea” and argued that the match deserved a proper build for a WrestleMania main event. However, they were “overruled by our overlord at the time, who is no longer part of this organization.”
- Fightful Select indicates that WWE planned for Powerhouse Hobbs aka Royce Keys to be in Saudi Arabia this week after recently signing him. It’s worth noting that he didn’t travel with the group of wrestlers that flew to Saudi Arabia after this week’s episode of Raw.
- The Wrestling Observer Newsletter says the financial offer Tony Khan made to try keeping Hobbs in AEW was “higher than anyone but Chris Jericho earned in AEW’s first year in 2019” and “nearly triple of what many significantly high WWE stars were making” around that time. This shows “how much having a promotional war has increased salaries.”
- Wrestling Observer Live’s Bryan Alvarez heard that WWE told the wrestlers to post fewer photos on social media this week from Saudi Arabia, in order to avoid a scenario where a Royal Rumble spoiler is accidentally shown in the background.
If you have heard of any interesting rumors that you’d like to add, feel free to post them in the comments section below. Just remember they are rumors and not confirmed as fact, so please take them with a grain of salt.
