Rumor Look Back: May 22 – 28, 2020

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 get right to it!

May 22, 2020

• Rhea Ripley told Flash Morgan Webster’s Wrestling Friends podcast that she wasn’t originally supposed to win the NXT title from Shayna Baszler. The plan was to bring Ripley in and have her tap out to Baszler in a one-off match.
• That’s hard to believe given how they presented her initially, but I don’t see why she’d lie about it. As soon as she showed up in NXT, her star power was undeniable.
• According to Wrestling Observer Live’s Bryan Alvarez, Matt Jackson is “believed” to have suffered a broken rib after a dive on Dynamite. Meanwhile, Rey Fenix is banged up after his fall, but should be okay to work Double or Nothing on Saturday.
• Fenix didn’t work the show but Matt did. (1/2)
• Britt Baker was also injured in her match on Dynamite, and Alvarez heard that it’s “probably a torn ACL”, which could put her out of action for the better part of a year.
• She was out for awhile. (1/1)
• Matt Hardy told the New York Post that his brother Jeff still has “a big chunk of time” left on his WWE contract.
• Jeff ended up re-signing, but I don’t know how much time was left at the time that he did that.
• On his podcast, Jim Ross said that Chris Jericho was supposed to be in the 4-Way main event at WrestleMania 2000, but Vince McMahon replaced him with Mick Foley, because he thought that Jericho was too short.
• Having listened to Jericho talk about his early time in WWE, they really did not trust him early on.

May 23, 2020

• The Wrestling Observer Newsletter notes that the SummerSlam situation “continues to not look promising” because Vince McMahon wants the show with fans and that can’t happen on schedule in Boston.
• They ended up running it in the ThunderDome. Boston was never going to happen. (1/1)
• For whatever it’s worth, Ember Moon mentioned on Backstage this week that her injury could be career ending.
• Maybe this was a bit of a work. Maybe at the time, her rehab had stalled. But she’s back and working in NXT. (0/1)
• FOX is expected to continue heavily leaning on WWE for content on FS1 into the near future.
• They canceled Backstage. I don’t think they air much WWE content on their sister network any more. (0/1)
• MLW should be announcing a deal with a major streaming service in the very near future.
• They announced a streaming service with DAZN in early June. (1/1)
• PW Insider notes that Ring of Honor has yet to make a decision on when live events will resume.
• They have been filming new content, but nothing with fans or anything.

May 25, 2020

• The expectation is Sami Zayn will work a program with whoever wins the Intercontinental championship tournament, per the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• That’s the case. AJ Styles won the tournament. Now by the time Sami returned, Jeff Hardy had won the gold. But Zayn’s first program was against both men. (1/1)
• They also say Shayna Baszler is still heavily in the plans at the top of the card in the Raw women’s division in the coming months.
• Not really. (0/1)
• According to Tony Khan the Stadium Stampede match was a collaborative effort among those involved in the match, who all came up with ideas for it.
• I believe that’s how Jericho described it on his podcast. That sounds like how AEW is run in general.
• Per the Observer, Fenix wanted to work Double or Nothing with his ankle injury but he was limping around and AEW convinced him to sit it out, which led to Joey Janela working the Casino Ladder match.
• Fenix is a higher injury risk given his style.
• Tony Schiavone said on the Double or Nothing post show that Britt Baker will be out around six weeks. Later, Tony Khan said it would be anywhere between six weeks and two months.
• She next wrestled in September, so a bit longer than these estimates. (0/1)

May 26, 2020

• Matt Riddle’s main roster debut is “imminent” according to Wrestling Observer. His match Wednesday is either his NXT send off, or the set-up for it.
• He debuted in June. (1/1)
• Multiple sites reported Drew Gulak is working this week’s SmackDown tapings as it looks like he re-signed with WWE. More on this here.
• He did re-sign. (1/1)
• A source told Paul Davis of WrestlingNews.co that Vince McMahon waited to use wrestlers as audience members for TV tapings because he “felt it was a bad look” given social distancing measures recommended by health officials.
• Now they have the best of both worlds with the fans on the screen but actually not working in front of anyone.
• Expect the crowd set-up from last night to be the “new normal” for Raw and SmackDown until actual fans can attend shows again.
• This is incorrect since they moved onto the ThunderDome. (0/1)
• Per his wife Dana, Matt Jackson worked Double or Nothing with a broken rib.
• Ouch.

May 27, 2020

• According to WrestleVotes, the WWE live event schedule is being rebuilt as of now but it’s still likely months before any house shows return.
• Many many months.
• Per the Observer, Matt Riddle’s call up appears to be to work on the SmackDown brand. Dave Meltzer speculated that could be due to previous heat with Brock Lesnar, who is on Raw.
• He debuted on SmackDown. But he’s on Raw now. Brock hasn’t been on TV since dropping the belt at WrestleMania and is reportedly a free agent. (1/1)
• It’s also possible Riddle will be feuding with Baron Corbin right away.
• I’d say this is accurate. He had a couple matches with AJ, but his big feud with with King Corbin to start things off. (1/1)
• PW Insider notes that WWE is likely looking at using the WCW name again soon due to recent trademark filings.
• I don’t think they’ve done anything with the name WCW, though they used “Great American Bash” in the summer. (0/1)
• Wrestling Observer Radio says an idea from NJPW is to do both the BOSJ and G1 tournament in October.
• BOSJ in November. G1 started in September but ran into October. So not both of them. (0/1)

May 28, 2020

• WWE was planning on running Sasha Banks vs. Bayley for the SmackDown Women’s title at SummerSlam, according to WrestleTalk. But now they’re considering extending the feud.
• They extended it, but just a few months longer. (1/1)
• Part of the reason for delaying is because Sasha was going to be the face, and WWE wanted a huge pop in her hometown of Boston.
• She still didn’t get that, but the angle was very good.
• Samoa Joe still hasn’t been cleared from his February concussion, says Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio. He’s not being transitioned to a full-time announcing role though because WWE believes he’s too valuable as a wrestler.
• He’s still announcing and great at it. But I am hoping he gets one more run inside the ring.
• Recently retired UFC legend Henry Cejudo accompanied Mike Tyson to the ring on Dynamite last night, then hinted to ESPN’s Marc Raimondi that “he is not currently signed with AEW but is not ruling out the possibility.”
• As a person who hasn’t followed MMA much, that name is not familiar to me. He’s certainly not in AEW right now though.
• Per Fightful, Deonna Purrazzo is not signed long-term to Impact and will work their next tapings on a per appearance deal. PW Insider says Impact will have their first tapings since early April this week in Nashville.
• She signed a long term deal with them in October. (1/1)

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This week: 11/19 – 58%

Overall: 3,556/6,335 – 56.1%

Have a good week, everyone. Still safe out there.

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