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.
- WrestleVotes claims that Charlotte Flair and Tiffany Stratton “said very little of what was in the rundown for them” during their promo battle on last night’s SmackDown. The segment went “off script quite a bit.”
- That’s rather believable (and is the story WWE presented themselves on Unreal, but as we’ve said, I don’t take that as gospel.)
- However, WRKD Wrestling notes that Charlotte’s divorce “would not have been mentioned without clearance ahead of time.”
- That’s been disputed too.
- Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp said he doesn’t expect Becky Lynch will be on the card at WrestleMania 41. “Things were pitched for ‘Mania for her” at one point, but it’s not clear what happened after that.
- She was a surprise tag partner for Lyra Valkyria. (0/1)
- PW Insider mentioned that Kairi Sane is “very close” to being cleared to return to WWE.
- She returned in May. (1/1)
- The internal belief in WWE is that JD McDonagh could return by the end of April, per Insider.
- He returned around that time to help Dom retain his IC title. (1/1)
- The Wrestling Observer Newsletter says as of one week ago, there was no contact at all between WWE and AEW about Sting potentially inducting Lex Luger into WWE’s Hall of Fame Class of 2025.
- That’s did not happen unfortunately.
- Former WWE Cruiserwight Champion TJ Perkins did not re-sign with NJPW and is now a free agent, according to Fightful Select.
- I don’t hear much about him these days.
- F4WOnline’s Dave Meltzer says AEW star Mark Davis “suffered a fractured foot” in a match against Powerhouse Hobbs and is “expected to be out for a few months.”
- He’s still out. (0/1)
- Regarding this week’s story about AEW Dynamite averaging 500,000 viewers on the Max streaming service, Meltzer is “skeptical that this in any way compares to a Nielsen viewing number.” He claims that “Max keeps its numbers to themselves. Nobody at AEW knows the actual numbers. Top execs at WBD, ad buyers, etc., don’t know. The NBA and NHL don’t know either.”
- That is more believable. Will split those two rumors. Recently WBD commented to Wrestlenomics that the Max numbers aren’t part of the ever confusing Nielsen numbers. (1/2)
- Fightful Select says Charlotte Flair “didn’t appear to be pleased” with the segment with Tiffany Stratton that went off the rails, but some wrestlers said “talent has to be willing” to “go at Charlotte in that manner.”
- Charlotte is one who will protect her own character (thinking about her physically dropping the title during the title exchange segment with Becky Lynch) so I get having to protect yourself. But there was likely a level of going too far in that segment.
- Meanwhile, it was a directive from above that the YouTube version be edited the way it was.
- Tough to salvage that even with editing.
- Per Fightful, there were pitches from talent for a story with The Young Bucks prior to their return at Dynasty, and many thought they would be back on AEW TV earlier.
- I’m enjoying the Bucks work a lot right now.
- The Wrestling Observer Newsletter notes that Juice Robinson is “a few weeks away from beginning in-ring training” and we should know more about a timeline for his return then.
- He returned at All In.
- According to PW Insider, Rob Van Dam rolled his ankle during MLW’s Battle Riot VII event but he was doing okay the next day. Brock Anderson also suffered a cut that required eight stitches.
- RVD is still doing it at 54.
- Sean Ross Sapp says he was told Alex Hammerstone has not signed a contract with MLW despite his return at Battle Riot VII.
- He’s still working with them and consistently around the title scene, so it’s certainly possible he has a contract with him, but nothing has been announced.
- Per WrestleVotes, Money in the Bank is slated for early June and is likely for the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.
- Accurate to both. (2/2)
- Charlotte Flair is “probably deservedly” getting more of the blame for her messy SmackDown segment with Tiffany Stratton, according to Wrestling Observer Radio’s Dave Meltzer, but “they both are getting blamed for it” behind the scenes.
- I believe Unreal made it seem like Tiff was in a bit more trouble, but that also was a WWE produced show that had an episode focused on Charlotte.
- This despite the fact that Meltzer says, “There have been problems between the two for about two weeks. So people knew about” issues between Flair and Stratton prior to last Friday where ““both of them went off the rails.”
- They still had a pretty good match at Mania.. Charlotte’s matches always have a bit of sloppiness to them, but in a way that it feels like a fight and not that detracts from the match.
- During an interview with TV Insider, Saraya said she’s hoping to train at Natalya’s school while she gets ready to return to the ring. The former Paige said “maybe down the line” she’ll “get to do a Royal Rumble or an Elimination Chamber or anything I didn’t get to do”.
- We’ll wait and see.
- According to WrestleVotes, Kamala won’t be going into the WWE Hall of Fame this year as previously talked about but the company is still in talks with his family and the relationship is strong enough that it will be happening in the future.
- He went in as a legacy inductee, which feels like is a middle ground. Though still technically in the HOF. (0/1)
- Although it’s being listed as a three hour show, The Daily Update notes the April 26 episode of AEW Collision will only be two hours as per usual.
- It started late but I’m not seeing anything about it being longer than usual. (1/1)
- Fightful Select notes that the feeling among those in WWE is Charlotte Flair went off script first but Tiffany Stratton may have crossed a line in her equally unscripted response on SmackDown. The divorce talk and Ludwig Kaiser DM response was not approved beforehand. There were no issues backstage once it was done, however, and everyone is moving forward now.
- They were able to work with each other going forward, even if there was animosity.
- Tony Hinchcliffe’s appearance on Raw commentary this week “came across as a dud” even to those backstage at WWE, says Fightful.
- Yup, a massive bomb.
- They also say Kelly Kelly has signed a Legends contract with WWE.
- Good for her to get the legends checks.
- In an interview with Bill Apter, Lex Luger said he still doesn’t know if Sting will be allowed to induct him into the WWE Hall of Fame but he wants him to do so alongside Diamond Dallas Page.
- It was just DDP.
- For what it’s worth, Saraya told WrestleZone that she hasn’t spoken to WWE since leaving AEW.
- Maybe she did. Maybe she didn’t. She’s not wrestling anywhere right now.
- According to PW Insider, Peter Avalon had shoulder surgery last week.
- An AEW original.
- During a Backstage Pass podcast, WrestleVotes said that 14 or 15 matches are planned for WrestleMania 41: “Saturday night may make eight matches, and seven on Sunday is what I’ve been told.”
- It was 14. 7 and 7. (1/2)
- On Fightful’s Raw post-show Monday night, Sean Ross Sapp was asked if WWE has had internal discussions about the lack of representation on the main roster, specifically regarding Black men on PLEs. Sapp said there were shortly after this issue was raised last fall and they “quickly tried to rectify it”, but as for a concerted effort to feature more Black male talent he hasn’t “heard of any heavy discussion about it or anything like that.”
- Doesn’t seem like anything has come of this to be honest.
- During his interview with Ariel Helwani, Gunther confirmed that he signed a new WWE deal at “the end of last year”. He also said he got a tour bus in the deal: ‘I asked for that. What you don’t ask for, you don’t get.’
- We haven’t seen him in awhile.
- Votes also says that an “announcement is coming at the end of the month” about WWE’s Money in the Bank plans, which they already reported will be June 9 at LA’s Intuit Dome.
- It was announced April 20. (1/1)
- There are no “short term” plans for Saraya’s return to WWE, but on a WrestleBinge Q&A WrestleVotes speculated that “she’s got a good shot of being on” the rumored Evolution 2 show in July.
- She was not at Evolution. (1/2)
- It’s not clear in what capacity, but Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported that TNA-ex Josh Mathews was working backstage at AEW Dynasty on Sunday. Mathews’ wife Madison Rayne has worked at AEW for several years.
- As long as he’s not announcing.
- WrestleVotes Radio heard that Tiffany Stratton was warned ahead of time that Charlotte Flair might go off script in their promo battle on SmackDown. That’s why Stratton was ready to fire back.
- Maybe she was too quick on that trigger?
- The original script called for Flair take a shot at Tiffany for needing to use the Money in the Bank contract to win the WWE women’s championship. Meanwhile, Stratton was supposed to question how Flair can claim to be The Queen of a kingdom that she’s hardly been around.
- I mean, that’s a pretty lame presentation. At least the one that went off the rails got people talking.
- The script did not include anything about Flair’s divorces, Tiffany’s squeaky voice, or Ludwig Kaiser. The WWE locker room was said to be split in terms of deciding which wrestler took things too far when the segment went off the rails.
- I wonder how much wrestlers actually cared versus weren’t happy. The women’s locker room likely cared more since that’s one of their titles.
- Votes says the name of Stephanie McMahon’s new podcast will be “What’s Your Story with Stephanie McMahon.” WWE is going to push it “in a big way.”
- That’s the case. (2/2)
- The outlet also mentioned that WWE is still planning to book Randy Orton in a match at WrestleMania 41 after his originally scheduled match against Kevin Owens was canceled due to injury.
- He had a mystery opponent that was Joe Hendry. Of course Randy wasn’t going to miss Mania. (1/1)
- Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp said Jon Moxley doesn’t have creative control in AEW. Tony Khan is very much “in the weeds” of AEW’s creative direction and is the only person who has final say on everything, including the finish of Dynasty’s main event.
- I bet TK listens to Mox a lot though. I remember he calling him a creative genius in early podcasts. Looks like he said that again recently too.
- One reason why Moxley’s reign as AEW world champion has lasted this long, despite frequent online criticism, is because Khan is pleased with the numbers he is pulling in.
- That’s fair.
- Per Sapp, the reason why AEW changed the Undisputed Kingdom’s name to The Paragon is because The Kingdom (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett) were “never planned for this team,” and AEW “would probably get sued” if they just called them Undisputed.
- Odd that they weren’t really part of the plan given their history with Adam Cole and that they were part of the big reveal.
- According to Votes, WWE is considering the idea of the Street Profits defending the WWE tag team championship on the April 18 episode of SmackDown, on the eve of WrestleMania 41.
- They did and it ended with a no contest. (1/1)
This week: 13/19 – 68%
Overall: 5,886/10,072 – 58.4%
Have a great week, everyone!
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