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 to it.
- According to Fightful Select, opinions backstage at WWE were “mixed” regarding the finish to John Cena’s final match at Saturday Night’s Main Event. They did say “most on the creative and booking side supported it.”
- That mixed response also applies to how fans thought of it. I was one who was a fan of the tap out, especially with the smile, as a representation of Cena acknowledging that his time is up.
- PW Insider notes they never really heard any internal chatter about Vince McMahon showing up at Saturday Night’s Main Event for John Cena’s final match, and indeed he wasn’t there. Linda McMahon, however, was in the building for it.
- Maybe he’ll go to the White House show.
- WRKD Wrestling seemed to hint that GUNTHER could be the guy in plans to retire Brock Lesnar next.
- Could be Oba. We’ll wait and see.
- Fightful says LA Knight was dealing with some sort of sickness on Raw this past week.
- Going to work sick is always crummy but when work is so physical (and you have to fly to get there), that’s got to take it up a notch.
- Bobby Lashley is indeed injured and is expected to miss quite a bit of time, according to Fightful Select.
- He did not wrestle again until April. (1/1)
- According to Fightful Select, Cody Rhodes’ emotional interview after John Cena’s retirement and other in-ring stuff with him post-match were not planned beforehand.
- I can imagine the end of show events honoring Cena were more off the cuff.
- Jake Paul teased doing something with WWE during an interview with Bleacher Report, saying “something big is coming.”
- Nothing big came. (0/1)
- It’s now much more “relaxed” and easier for employees of WWE on the production side to work for the company than it was under Kevin Dunn, says Fightful.
- That’s a good thing.
- A number of TNA talent have signed short term deals to remain with the company.
- That’s good. There has been a few talents that recently asked for their release. And some re-signing.
- PW Insider claims Tony Khan wanted to reward AEW fans in Cardiff with something “unique and special”, and that’s why he brought back AEW Dark.
- Is the return of Dark that special?
- Self Made Pro claims GUNTHER vs. Brock Lesnar is planned for WrestleMania 42.
- That did not happen. Gunther faced Seth Rollins and Brock faced Oba Femi. (0/1)
- They say original plans apparently called for Lesnar to face Bron Breakker but the latter is now looking at getting a title match on that show against CM Punk.
- The latter was unfortunately injured and did not wrestle a match on the show. (CM Punk was going to face Roman by that point anyway.) (0/1)
- On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said WWE was completely blindsided by the reaction to John Cena tapping out to GUNTHER in his final match.
- I’m surprised that they were surprised. They should have expected the reaction and understand that heat that would have gone to Gunther 30 years ago would go to creative (and therefore Triple H) today.
- He also said that those backstage within WWE were impressed by the NXT stars who were featured on Saturday Night’s Main Event with Cena’s final match and “they see Oba Femi, Sol Ruca, Je’Von Evans, and Leon Slater as superstars.”
- Everyone but Slater is on the main roster right now. (Slater is in TNA.)
- Regarding Thea Hail winning the North American championship on a botch, Fightful Select notes creative has quickly been changed because there were other plans in place, even some that have affected others. No one is being blamed for the incident right now.
- Of course that would change plans.
- Raquel Rodriguez is in the concussion protocol after a spot on Raw this week, according to Bryan Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Live.
- It looks like she didn’t miss any significant time.
- Sting’s son, Steven Borden, is expected to be under contract to AEW before long, per Fightful.
- He wrestles dark matches for them (and trains with NJPW) but we don’t know the level of deal that is.
- WWE’s ”officially confirmed” next month’s Royal Rumble will start at 2 p.m. Eastern, per WrestleVotes/Fightful Select. That would mean a 10 p.m. start Riyadh time.
- That was not a great show, and that early start time here combined with the late start time there was a factor. We’ll how it plays for WrestleMania next year. I have a feeling it will underperform but I guess we’ll see. It’s going to be a weird one, which many of the fans who would travel opting not to (despite what Nick Khan says), it airing early in the day in front of a crowd who is super late. Even if creative is strong going into the show, I’m sure there will be resentment amongst some fans that it is in Saudi Arabia.
- Royal Rumble is currently planned as a four match card, according to Wrestling Observer Newsletter. There will be two championship matches in addition to the two Rumbles, but Dave Meltzer writes those title matches “are not finalized even though it’s just under two months away.”
- That’s accurate with the number but one of the matches was the AJ Styles retirement match and not a title match. (1/2)
- NXT’s unplanned title change on Tuesday night happened because Thea Hail knocked the wind out of Blake Monroe, and didn’t know to give Monroe time to recover before going for a pin. That from PW Insider, which added that WWE referees are told to call all pin attempts as legitimate.
- There are times on the main roster that they did not count the pin, such as when Damien Priest didn’t kick out in a match against Seth Rollins.
- Fightful Select added that NXT had already pre-taped material with Monroe as North American champion for use through the end of the year, and Hail’s win caused “a pretty frantic rush to try to correct things that had already been filmed in order to make sense of them”. An ”NXT higher up” told the site that they expect new policies to be put in place requiring all talent involved in Monday pre-tapes to be at Tuesday live shows.
- That’s chaotic.
- Unsurprisingly, Fightful says a Hail/Monroe rematch is already being discussed. It’s expected to happen at New Year’s Evil, but that’s not confirmed.
- Monroe did win the title back at New Year’s Evil. (2/2)
- Despite reports of how impressed WWE officials were with Oba Femi, Sol Ruca, and Je’Von Evans in their recent main roster appearances, Bryan Alvarez told his X subscribers, “I had been told at this point, nobody has been called up”.
- It was minutes for Je’Von and Oba.
- Alvarez also reported on Wrestling Observer Live that Jake Something, Zachary Wentz, Steve Maclin, and AJ Francis are among the talent TNA recently signed to three-month deals.
- Wentz & Jake are in AEW right now. Steve Maclin was just granted his release from TNA.
- WrestleVotes Radio says WWE is making a documentary about John Cena’s retirement tour. The documentary is expected to be released on Peacock in mid-2026.
- Nothing yet.
- Wrestling Observer Radio’s Dave Meltzer claims the reason why WWE is marketing Maxxine Dupri as a wrestler who works really hard to improve is so most fans don’t realize that she’s actually being pushed “because of her looks.”
- I never fully understood this rumor. Everyone to some degree is pushed because of their looks or their look.
- A source told Front Office Sports that WWE and Fanatics plan to expand their podcast network that currently includes shows hosted by Stephanie McMahon, Cody Rhodes, Undertaker, and Logan Paul. In fact, they “recently vetted talent for new programming.” It sounds like there will be a push to move the video broadcasts of these shows over to Netflix.
- I don’t believe they’ve added a podcast nor have they put them on Netflix. (0/2)
- The New York Post says 42-year-old WWE Hall of Famer Nikki Bella and 22-year-old Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Cooper DeJean are “at the center of wild dating rumors” following some of their posts on social media related to her recent appearance at Lincoln Financial Field.
- It was nothing of significance.
- Votes mentioned that WWE is planning for AAA Rey De Reyes 2026 to take place on March 14 in Puebla, Mexico, at El Auditorio GNP Seguros.
- That’s correct. (1/1)
- Per Fightful Select, a promotional crossover between WWE and Stranger Things is expected to happen soon.
- It was fine. (1/1)
- Former WWE announcer Todd Grisham told Chris Van Vliet that Kevin Dunn once said his voice was too high-pitched, and maybe he should start smoking cigarettes to get it lower. After everyone in the room laughed, Dunn said, “I’m serious, you should start smoking cigarettes.”
- Jesus.
- According to Bodyslam.net, it’s expected that NXT star Trick Williams will “soon” be called up to the WWE main roster. In fact, he’s already listed internally on the SmackDown brand.
- He was up within the month. (1/1)
- The Wrestling Observer Newsletter claims that “talent from both TNA and AEW” who recently contacted WWE “have been told that they aren’t looking at hiring new people” right now. This is because WWE has plenty of wrestlers in its developmental system who are ready to perform on Raw and SmackDown.
- Eventually there are too many wrestlers if you keep signing folks.
- That being said, WWE’s apparent hiring freeze doesn’t apply to “guys the level of Chris Jericho or Leon Slater.”
- Jericho went back to AEW anyway.
- A source told Self Made that WWE has “offered a contract” to IWGP Tag Team Champions Yuto-Ice and OSKAR, the Knockout Brothers.
- If they did, they didn’t accept it. They’re still a NJPW tag team.
- Per Fightful Select, the rumor that Jake Something and Zachary Wentz recently signed new TNA deals is not true.
- Makes sense since they were in AEW pretty soon after. Split the rumors. (1/2)
- F4WOnline’s Dave Meltzer was told that “a few” WWE stars will be “taking time off to heal up” so they are ready for Royal Rumble through WrestleMania 42.
- I guess one of those can be LA Knight?
- Meltzer also mentioned that Raquel Rodriguez has “been cleared” by WWE following some concern that she suffered an injury on this week’s Raw after Nikki Bella threw her head into the steps.
- That’s good.
This week: 8/15 – 53%
Overall: 6,332/10,774 – 58.8%
Have a great week, everyone!
