Rumor Look Back: Mar. 13 – 19, 2020

WWE.com

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.

March 13, 2020

• TalkSport’s Alex McCarthy tweeted that moving WrestleMania 36 to June or July is one of WWE’s contingency plans.
• That did not happen, though very well could have been a contingency plan. It’s good they didn’t go this way given given nothing would have been different then.
• Whenever WrestleMania happens this year, Rob Gronkowski won’t have a match. Wrestling Observer Newsletter says the recently signed Gronk isn’t set to appear on the show in an in-ring capacity.
• He was the host. However he got physical and won the 24/7 title. That wasn’t in the ring so this is a real iffy one. I’ll say it’s true given this seems to be implying a real match. (1/1)
• The Observer Newsletter also says Nia Jax is expected to work Raw when she returns to action.
• That’s true. (1/1)
• The latest on The Revival, WWE has apparently sent Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder home. Fightful says they’ve also stopped paying or “extremely scaled back” their pay because they’ve already hit their downside guarantees.
• They’d show up on AEW pretty much as soon as they could.
• Lots of places, including Wrestling Inc, have speculated that the angle that started with guys in lucha libre masks abducting Raul Mendoza on this week’s NXT will lead to the debut of Jorge Bolly (aka King Cuerno and El Hijo del Fantasma).
• This is technically incorrect. El Hijo del Fantasma debuted as part of the the interim cruiserweight title tournament. They were associated with him, but he had already debuted. (0/1)

March 14, 2020

• WWE is still in talks regarding signing a PPV deal somewhere, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
• That still hasn’t happen. (0/1)
• The WON also says the photo of Ronda Rousey at the WWE headquarters recently caused “quite the stir” because her being there was supposed to be a secret.
• It didn’t lead anywhere so it didn’t spoil anything.
• Per the Observer, there are “key people” within WWE who have said they believe WrestleMania 36 will go forward on April 5 as planned.
• That’s the case. The date did not change (though it also aired on April 4.) (1/1)
• They also say it’s expected that every NXT show for at least the next month will take place at the WWE Performance Center.
• They never announced one way or another, but they never really left Full Sail. (0/1)
• Expect Rob Gronkowski to be in a major match at SummerSlam this year in Boston.
• There was no SummerSlam in Boston. But even if there were, Gronk was back in the NFL to join Tom Brady in Tampa by that point. (0/1)

March 16, 2020

• All the big names scheduled for Monday Night Raw this week, like Stone Cold Steve Austin, Undertaker, AJ Styles, and Edge, are all still going to appear on the show.
• They were all on the show still. They had that weird Stone Cold segment with Byron Saxton. (1/1)
• PW Insider notes that WWE sent out an email to employees telling them to work from home if they have the ability to do so.
• One of the more responsible things they did throughout this.
• According to the Observer, wrestlers have been told they don’t have to come to television tapings if they aren’t comfortable right now and there will be no repercussions if they don’t.
• That may be true, but we don’t know who felt they’d be judged if they did that.
• For whatever it’s worth, Vince McMahon wasn’t at SmackDown this past week.
• I wonder if he calls in to direct everything when he’s not there in person.
• On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted AEW are going to go ahead with current booking for the immediate future, but farther out is unclear.
• Cody once claimed that Double or Nothing was similar to what was planned prior to the pandemic, but I’m not sure I totally believe that. I have a hard time buying that they were going to have Brodie Lee lose a title match so soon after debuting. That felt like an audible.

March 17, 2020

• There still isn’t a “firm decision” about how long WrestleMania 36 from the Performance Center will be, per Ryan Satin.
• It was two nights long, which was the right choice.
• WWE confirmed to Wrestling Observer that NXT TakeOver and the 2020 Hall of Fame Ceremony “will not take place as previously scheduled”. The site says the “prevailing sentiment” sentiment is that TakeOver will happen on Weds., April 1 and run opposite AEW Dynamite.
• Those things didn’t happen as previously scheduled. TakeOver never happened. They just ran the matches over a few weeks instead of having a TakeOver special. (1/2)
• They also speculate that Hall of Fame inductions could be taped and air on Raw and SmackDown, as those shows will need content while operating under the current conditions.
• That did not happen. Word is they may do this HOF class next year. (0/1)
• WrestleVotes tweeted that while there was very little support within the company for moving WrestleMania to the Performance Center, that support came from a “high place”.
• They didn’t have much of a choice.
• Triple H was only supposed to be on for the initial segments of last Friday’s SmackDown, according to Fightful, but positive social media reaction lead to a change being made on the fly.
• People love Trips on commentary I guess.

March 18, 2020

• Dave Meltzer mentioned on Wrestling Observer Radio that while WrestleMania 36 is planned for April 5 at the Performance Center, it’s still at least possible the show doesn’t happen on that date.
• It did happen on that date. (0/1)
• He also said the reason it was moved to the Performance Center instead of postponed was they’re unsure of a possible future date within the next couple months.
• That’s smart. They were in the PC up until less than a month ago when they started the ThunderDome.
• Speaking of WrestleMania, it probably won’t have 16 matches as it was originally planned to.
• It had more, but spread over two nights. (0/1)
• WrestleVotes notes that before all the big changes, there was a plan in place to do a Heavy Machinery & Mandy Rose vs. Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode & Sonya Deville match.
• I would think they would just run the same Dolph vs. Otis match that they did. But I forget Bobby Roode was around prior.
• Georgia Smith, daughter of the British Bulldog, said she talked to WWE and the Hall of Fame ceremony will be moved to SummerSlam weekend.
• It was not. Not that she was lying but they probably told her that as a possibility that didn’t happen. (0/1)

March 19, 2020

• The WWE roster’s reaction to WrestleMania moving from a stadium to closed sets has included bewilderment and anger, says Sportskeeda’s Tom Colohue.
• That’s understandable. But I think it was also understandable to rightly assume things wouldn’t be close to normal in a couple months. So it was run from the PC or take time off. I think taking a month off to figure things out would have been smart, the “Show must go on” mentality would never have allowed that.
• Alberto El Patron has again been claiming he’s been in communication with WWE about a return, but TalkSport’s Alex McCarthy says his sources deny that.
• I don’t know if there were talks but he’s thankfully not there.
• WWE will lose around $22 million due to WrestleMania week being cancelled, estimates Wrestlenomics (via NoDQ.com).
• Yeah, no surprise there. WrestleMania weekend brings in the money.
• Becky Lynch’s custom semi from Raw was originally intended for her WrestleMania entrance, per PW Insider.
• That is very easy to believe.
• The closed set show from Freelance Wrestling that Mustafa Ali is supporting was renamed from In Our Warehouse to Warehouse Wars, allegedly because WWE sent them a cease & desist over the original name.
• WWE loves their Cease and Desists.

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This week: 5/14 – 36%

Overall: 3,479/6,196 – 56.1%

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

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