What is the story about?
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:
- PW Insider heard that WWE is getting paid a “mindblowing” amount of money to run WrestleMania 43 in Saudi Arabia in 2027.
- A higher-up in WWE told Fightful Select that no talks have taken place when it comes to booking specific talent for WrestleMania 43, and any names brought up are just hypothetical at this point. This contradicts yesterday’s story about The Rock closing in on a deal to work the event.
- In fact, it sounds like barely any serious planning for the event has begun, which is one reason why a date for WrestleMania 43 was not mentioned during WWE’s huge announcement about it.
- People in WWE told Insider that WrestleMania week in Saudi Arabia is expected to include the usual events like Raw, SmackDown, and the Hall of Fame ceremony in Riyadh. However, it’s not currently known if NXT is included in the package.
- TC of WrestleVotes says WWE has “established a permanent office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia” over the last week.
- The Wrestling Observer Newsletter says WWE “failed to get an agreement with NBC” to move the date of John Cena’s final match to Dec. 27, in hopes of going head-to-head with the AEW Worlds End pay-per-view.
- Regarding Cena’s last match, The Observer notes that WWE asked the city of Boston for a site fee “similar to the $7 million that New Jersey paid for two nights of SummerSlam.” The city of Boston “didn’t believe less than two weeks before Christmas that such a show in an arena would generate anywhere near the level of tourism to justify the cost.” WWE then shopped around for other bids on the show before choosing Washington, D.C. for the location.
- WWE commentator Joe Tessitore told ESPN that John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar is “gonna be your main event” of Wrestlepalooza. That seems to indicate it will be the final bout of the night, rather than AJ Lee’s return match.
- F4WOnline’s Dave Meltzer claims that “TNA talent is not allowed to work on Scott D’Amore’s Maple Leaf Wrestling shows” because “TNA management considers AEW as the enemy and D’Amore is allowed to book AEW talent.” TNA President Carlos Silva denied this is true, telling Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp that TNA wrestlers are allowed to work MLP events.
- Per Fightful Select, Athena is getting some time off after reaching the 1000 day milestone as ROH Women’s World Champion. She’ll be out of the ring for five to six weeks.
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 as such.
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