Rumor Look Back: March 27

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 to it.

March 27, 2026

Sources indicate to Self Made Pro that last week’s big scaffold fall angle at the end of SmackDown is leading to a Hell in a Cell match between Jacob Fatu and Drew McIntyre next month at WrestleMania 42.
They had an unsanctioned fight. (0/1)

According to WrestleVotes, WWE is optimistic that Chelsea Green will be medically cleared “sooner than later,” but it’s not clear if that means she’ll be back in the ring in time for WrestleMania.
She returned in May, so not by Mania but not too far off. (1/1)
WWE sources told Votes that GUNTHER is still expected to have a major role at WrestleMania despite his recent absence from Raw.
He had a match with Seth Rollins. Is that a major role? I guess it’s a featured match because Rollins is a big player, but this is very subjective. (1/1)
The outlet also claims that WWE is planning to run Saturday Night’s Main Event at Madison Square Garden in New York City on July 18.
That’s correct. Danhausen was front & center given how he had ties to that Knicks championship run.
Bodyslam.net heard from sources that Bianca Belair has started to do some “light training” as part of her effort to return to WWE.
I’m going to say this is probably wrong because she knew she was pregnant at this time (she was obviously showing less than a month later at WrestleMania) so I’m sure she wasn’t preparing her return. (0/1)
Tony D’Angelo told the No-Contest Wrestling Podcast that WWE originally planned for him to be in a “new age Steiner Brothers” type of tag team with Bron Breakker. Road Dogg told him the plan was nixed as NXT 2.0 was set to begin in 2021, because the new branding was meant to be a “clean slate” for everyone.
Interesting.
Earlier this week, Chris Jericho filed to trademark the term “cornerstone.” There is speculation this will be related to his new gimmick when he returns to pro wrestling.
Jericho will trademark anything that comes to mind. But he hasn’t used cornerstone. (0/1)
For whatever it’s worth, HBO Max’s April schedule lists AEW Collision as airing on Thursday, April 16, rather than its usual Saturday night (Apr. 18) time slot during WrestleMania weekend.
That was the Spring Breakout Collision. The Max schedule was correct – because of course it was.

March 28, 2026

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter says AEW’s original plan was for Toni Storm to defeat Marina Shafir on the Mar. 18 episode of Dynamite, and then begin a world title program with Thekla. Plans changed that afternoon when AEW learned that Storm is unable to wrestle, even though she is not injured.
Toni is a cornerstone of the AEW women’s division, but I’ll say they’re pretty strong right now even without her.
F4WOnline’s Dave Meltzer was “told outright before even asking” that AEW President Tony Khan isn’t talking about Storm’s situation or the story about his nice bid to purchase WWE.
Fair enough.
According to Meltzer, the recent 25% discount that WWE offered on tickets for WrestleMania 42 was done to “ensure Allegiant Stadium is packed for the event.” Meltzer estimates that WWE will exceed 50,000 tickets sold for each night and “announce a number that is about the same if not slightly bigger than last year.”
The report is that they didn’t exceed 50K per each night, but they did announce a number that was higher than that. (1/2)
Following mixed reviews for this week’s episode of NXT, Wrestling Observer Live’s Bryan Alvarez said he heard from people in NXT who thought the show was “terrible.”
Our own Marcus called it “rough” in his recap.
Speaking of which, Alvarez said Sol Ruca getting booed by the live fans on NXT was “the exact opposite” reaction that WWE wanted her to get.
I feel the NXT crowd is just harder to predict with such a small studio setup.
Earlier this week, WWE star Danhausen filed to trademark the phrase “You Are Cursed!”
I mean that’d be smart. I’m surprised WWE didn’t try to beat him to it. Or Chris Jericho.
During an interview on Rewind Recap Relive, former WWE star Mideon claimed that Don Callis was one of the leading candidates to be revealed as the Higher Power on Raw in 1999 before Vince McMahon decided to do it himself.
I find this hard to believe given how perfect Vince was as the reveal. Feels like Callis would get a “Who?” reaction. I was watching at the time and don’t really remember him on TV/commentary at all.
Alvarez had the following update on Steve Maclin after his main event match at TNA Sacrifice was stopped early due to injury: “He was up and walking around after the show, but the belief is he is likely concussed.”
It’s a dangerous business, as we learned with Steve Borden last week. But Maclindid wellafter this.

March 30, 2026

Roxanne Perez is expected to return to WWE television on Raw this week, says PW Insider.
Accurate. (1/1)
Also expected on the show are The Bella Twins, Charlotte Flair, and Alexa Bliss, likely for something related to the women’s tag team title match, per BodySlam.net.
The got involved in a tag match between Bayley/Lyra Valkyria and the Irresistible Forces. (1/1)
The Wrestling Observer notes Nikki Bella suffered an injury during her match on SmackDown this past week, though it’s still unclear the severity of it.
It cost her six months. (1/1)
Replying to a reader question about Will Ospreay only needing six months to get cleared after what Ospreay said was “double fusion surgery” on his neck in September, PWInsider’s Mike Johnson wrote: “I don’t believe Ospreay had neck fusion surgery, which typically takes a year to recover from.”
He did. (0/1)
Hikaru Shida’s visa problems have been resolved, says Fightful Select, but there are no creative plans for her in AEW at this time.
She wrestled her the next day. So there were some creative plans. (1/1)
They also say referee Aubrey Edwards signed a new deal with AEW sometime in the past year.
She’s an AEW original.

March 31, 2026

Dave Meltzer said that “everyone” is telling him that whoever is on the phone with Randy Orton is not The Rock, “but of course, if it is, The Rock’s not gonna let anyone know.”
It was Pat McAfee, which was kind of the worst outcome. I remember people speculating someone like Aleister Black or Ric Flair and both of those, even though not great, would have been worlds better. (1/1)
Fightful Select notes that John Cena is hosting WrestleMania 42 is drive ticket demand, and the plan is to heavily promote him on WWE television this week.
I mean of course it was to drive ticket sales.
PW Insider originally said Bron Breakker was spotted at Raw this week but later clarified it was a misunderstanding and he wasn’t actually there. It’s still unclear when he will return from hernia surgery.
So he was there or he was not. He was back at Mania. (1/2)
Kyle Fletcher suffered an ankle injury in his match on Collision last Saturday, per Wrestling Observer Radio. Dave Meltzer said Fletcher and long-time tag partner Mark Davis did a tandem overhead suplex spot while their positioning was off, causing Davis to land on Fletcher’s leg. After limping to the back without help, Fletcher was seen in a walking boot later in the evening and will likely get further tests.
He was out of action for three months.
As TNT champ, Fletcher is obviously a key player for AEW. Meltzer said “they’ll have to probably redo a lot of plans” if Fletcher needs to miss time with the injury as he “was pretty heavy in a lot of short and long-term plans there with the championship and all that”.
They had to vacate his TNT title.

April 1, 2026

Fightful Select claims that Rey Mysterio and Bron Breakker’s injuries are what led to GUNTHER vs. Seth Rollins being made for WrestleMania 42.
Seems like injuries had to reshuffle a bunch of things.
Dave Meltzer pushed back against that, however, claiming Bron Breakker is actually cleared and WWE simply doesn’t want to do the match against Rollins without a proper build on television. The GUNTHER match “has been the plan for several weeks.” GUNTHER becoming Rollins’ opponent actually stemmed from Bronson Reed’s injury, because Logan Paul was planned for a celebrity match involving IShowSpeed, which left Rollins without an opponent.
Same idea as the prior rumor, but the details dispute each other. (1/2)
For what it’s worth, Cody Rhodes said on The Breakfast Club that no one has ever even come close to speculating the real reason he and his wife, Brandi, left AEW. Take that for what you will.
I don’t think anyone has thought about it in a long time.
Bryan Alvarez said on Wrestling Observer Live that WWE is no longer planning to do El Grande Americano vs. Original El Grande Americano at WrestleMania 42, instead saving it for AAA.
That’s accurate. (1/1)
Self Made Pro claims WWE has finally figured out how they are going to launch Royce Keys’ career on the main roster.
By putting him as part of a random team against iShowSpeed and the Vision. Only now are they really focusing on him.

April 2, 2026

Responding to talk he’d lost the United States championship so he could take time off for his wedding and honeymoon with Kelani Jordan, Carmelo Hayes told Battleground Podcast, “The wedding is in October, everybody.”
They’re really wasting him.
Opening as favorites in recently announced WrestleMania 42 matches at sports books like betonline: Jacob Fatu over Drew McIntyre, Trick Williams over Sami Zayn, Gunther over Seth Rollins, and Finn Bálor over Dominik Mysterio. Je’Von Evans and Penta are getting the best odds in the Intercontinental title Ladder Match, while The Irresistible Forces and The Bella Twins are in the Women’s Tag title 4-way.
I’m only doing the ones that don’t give multiple winners – and those are all correct. (4/4)
Lines in the matches we shared last week have shifted some as early money comes in, but none have flipped entirely.
Odds are always shifting.
After their Dynasty match was booked last week, Fightful Select reported that MJF vs. Kenny Omega had “been in the plans for months”.
MJF won this one but Kenny would win the title ahead of All In.
Regarding Willie Mack’s AEW contract status, Fightful reported Mack was “put back on a tier zero deal”, which is essentially a per-appearance one. PWInsider claimed Mack opted not to sign it the new AEW contract he was offered when his existing one expired a while ago, but Mack responded to aggregation of that report by asking “When did I turn it down?” along with a GIF of the late Charlie Murphy from The Chappelle Show saying “wrong, wrong”.
I remember loving Willie Mack in Lucha Underground but haven’t really followed his career a ton afterwards.
And from the “for what it’s worth” department… Fresh off pitching Tony Khan on an AEW/Juggalo Championship Wrestling team-up that would “blow the WWE INTO OBLIVION!!!”, Vince Russo said on Coach and Bro that WWE bringing John Cena back to host WrestleMania 42 “just reeks desperation”. Russo claims WWE’s ”literally tried everything”, so now they’re “bringing back a guy that retired two months ago.”
I mean he’s not even wrong, but I can’t take anything he says seriously after that Juggalo thing (and couldn’t really prior).

April 3, 2026

PW Insider says the belief backstage is that Chris Jericho signed a new deal with AEW prior to his surprise return on this week’s Dynamite. He was apparently driven to the venue minutes before the show began and went right to the Gorilla position for his entrance.
This return just started leaking the day it happened.
After Wrestling Observer Radio’s Dave Meltzer said WWE wanted Jericho back for a retirement run, there is speculation that he chose to stay with AEW because he plans to wrestle for a few more years, and isn’t interested in a retirement angle right now.
That’s fair. I don’t disagree with WWE just looking for that last year run as they don’t really need him there. If Jericho wants to keep going, he made the right call. And even though Jericho isn’t a lode bearing wall in AEW, it makes sense for them to keep their first real big signing.
Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp was told that one factor in Jericho’s decision to choose AEW over WWE is his desire to do outside projects, and the likelihood that WWE would make him give most of that up.
That makes sense, though if WWE wasn’t willing to work with him on that, then they probably didn’t value his return that much.
According to WrestleVotes, there were no plans for John Cena to host WrestleMania 42 when he retired from WWE in December. WWE came up with the idea in February, and Cena agreed to do it. He also signed a new long term deal with WWE that doesn’t involve wrestling matches.
That makes sense. That was a quick return.
Wrestling Observer Live’s Bryan Alvarez claims that Cena was “never supposed to be back this early” after the end of his WWE farewell tour. WWE’s request for Cena to host WrestleMania was a “panic move” due to sluggish ticket sales.
There were some desperate feeling moves around this time.
Votes says WWE is thinking about adding “established names” from SmackDown and AAA to Penta’s Intercontinental title ladder match at WrestleMania 42.
Unless you’re counting Rey Mysterio for AAA (which I’m not), this was not the case. (0/1)
The outlet also mentioned that GUNTHER vs. Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 42 was not finalized until late last week, after WWE considered multiple opponents and creative directions for each star. Paul Heyman is expected to be involved in their story going forward.
Yeah, that never made any narrative sense. Heyman was kind of involved, and facilitated Gunther’s move to SmackDown, so I guess that’s correct. (1/1)
After Trick Williams invited Lil Yachty to attend tonight’s episode of SmackDown, Votes said there are discussions in WWE about an appearance for Yachty at WrestleMania.
Yachty is very involved. (1/1)
It was mentioned on Fightful Select that Mattel has been “given the green light” to produce action figures for AAA wrestlers, with Mr. Iguana being a priority. They are planning to have the new toys on sale by the fall.
It looks like there’s a Mr. Iguana on the Mattel creations site. (1/1)