Rumor Look Back: June 27 – July 2, 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!

June 27, 2020

• The Wrestling Observer Newsletter notes that Vince McMahon wants to run live television shoots in front of paying fans as early as late July or early August.
• He can want all he wants, but he can’t control the pandemic. He couldn’t do this and instead went with the ThunderDome instead. It was the right call. (0/1)
• The WON also says AJ Styles vs. Matt Riddle appears to be the next Intercontinental title feud.
• It wasn’t a long one, but it happened and that fed into a larger King Corbin/Riddle feud. (1/1)
• According to WrestleTalk, Randy Orton is campaigning to work with someone from NXT.
• He didn’t succeed. I wonder if that person was Ciampa, who he had a little Twitter spat with.
• The Braun Strowman vs. Bray Wyatt Swamp Fight at Extreme Rules will be a cinematic match with Wyatt heavily involved in creating it with Jeremy Borash and Triple H, says Wrestling Inc.
• That was a cinematic. It wasn’t my favorite. (1/1)
• Per Fightful, Michael Elgin and Sami Callihan got into a fight backstage at the last Impact Wrestling taping and Scott D’Amore had to break it up.
• Elgin is no longer with Impact after #SpeakingOut.

June 29, 2020

• Dave Meltzer mentioned on Wrestling Observer Radio that WWE has told talent not to speak publicly on anything related to Covid-19.
• This feels in line with how things played out. Some people still did, but apparently Renee Young got some heat for doing that.
• He also said someone involved with WWE has had multiple family members test positive for Covid-19 since this whole thing started.
• They were really sloppy at times with COVID.
• Sportskeeda says the plan was for Matt Riddle to come to SmackDown and feud with Baron Corbin, and Corbin wasn’t happy upon learning about this.
• I wonder why Corbin would have an issue with this.
• For whatever it’s worth, Maria Kanellis said the reveal of the father of her child in the pregnancy storyline WWE was running with her was always going to be her husband, Mike, and he was planned to turn babyface while she stayed heel until her return from maternity leave.
• I wonder how that would have played. Probably would have been pretty lame in general.
• WWE has been showing interest in Tessa Blanchard after she was released by Impact Wrestling, per the Observer.
• It’s been six months and Tessa hasn’t shown up anywhere. But she lives in Mexico with her husband Daga, which could slow down her next move during the pandemic.

June 30, 2020

• Wrestling Observer Radio’s Dave Meltzer says WWE booked the 8000+ seat RP Funding Center in Lakeland, Florida for the July 24 SmackDown and July 27 Raw as part of Vince McMahon’s plant to run shows with fans again ASAP.
• If they did, they never used those locales. (0/1)
• WWE is the “likely landing spot” for Tessa Blanchard, according to talkSPORT’s Alex McCarthy, whose sources also told him AEW isn’t interested.
• We’ll have to wait and find out.
• Fightful Select notes that Blanchard was released from her Impact contract slightly before it expired, and the release came with a non-disparagement clause.
• It was not a pretty ending to their relationship, which is saying something after they made a huge deal out of her winning the world championship.
• Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson to Impact “is a done deal,” per Sportskeeda’s Gary Cassidy. They’re expected to debut at Slammiversary or shortly after. As previously reported, they’ll be able to work NJPW, too.
• This is accurate. Their debut was at Slammiversary. As they were walking to the ring, Gallows slightly tripped and it was kind of hilarious but then Impact deleted the gif. With the pandemic, we don’t know if they’ll do work with New Japan as well. (2/2)
• On Talk is Jericho, Chris Jericho claimed The Young Bucks originally wanted Marty Scurll to be revealed as the leader of The Dark Order.
• With Scurll being named in the #SpeakingOut movement, AEW kind of dodged a bullet not bringing him in. Obviously, Brodie Lee got the spot as the leader of the Dark Order. Rest in peace, big man.

July 1, 2020

• On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer mentioned some of the missing names from Raw this week were due to positive Covid-19 tests, but some of them weren’t.
• It wasn’t a good summer for WWE & COVID.
• Per the Observer, WWE has officially cancelled the shows they had planned to run in late July with paying fans in attendance.
• Those shows obviously did not happen. (1/1)
• PW Insider notes a conference call was held with NXT UK talent that included WWE officials telling them to be ready to work “when the time is right,” so plans are for the promotion to stick around.
• The promotion still exists. It came back in the fall. (1/1)
• They also said, however, that it was made clear the company will have a hard stance against sexual abuse allegations.
• This feels very selective.
• Speaking of NXT UK, the Observer says Joe Coffey has been suspended while Joel Allen and Chris Roberts, both referees, were fired.
• Looks like Coffey is back working.

July 2, 2020

• WWE is now “very much unsure” they’ll be able to have fans in attendance for SummerSlam, a source told WrestleVotes. They don’t want to do it at the Performance Center, but that’s now on the table. The decision is “not yet imminent.”
• SummerSlam was one of the first ThunderDome shows.
• At one point, WWE was considering having this year’s Hall of Fame ceremony SummerSlam weekend. WrestlingNews.co says that’s still a possibility, but Ringside News says the HoF event is “not something that is at the top of the list of discussions.”
• It sounds like it’s going to happen at next year’s Mania. (1/2)
• Kairi Sane’s status in WWE is “complicated” according to Fightful. She could be transitioning to a non-wrestling role and at one point there was a plan to have her serve as “an ambassador for WWE in Japan.” Some in the company would like to see her continue wrestling though.
• It’s more the former than the latter. (1/2)
• Bray Wyatt’s been off television so he can be with JoJo and their kids, especially newborn daughter Hyrie. It’s not clear if he’ll be at the PC before Extreme Rules.
• I recall there was a decent amount of time Bray wasn’t in the PC.
• On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said WWE wants WALTER on the main roster, but the NXT United Kingdom champ won’t move to the U.S.
• I can’t imagine the main roster using WALTER well.

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This week: 8/12 – 67%

June 2020: 36/57 – 63%

Overall: 3,597/6,401 – 56.2%

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

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