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.
- During an interview on Wrestling with Rip Rogers, Ace Steel’s lawyer Stephen P. New stated that Steel and CM Punk will never tell the story of what happened in the backstage fight with The Elite at All Out 2022, because the non-disclosure agreements are in place for life.
- So far we haven’t heard anything but I don’t know if I believe “for life.” I bet we’ll hear something eventually as time passes. But probably a lot of time.
- The lawyer claims that Steel’s wife Lucy is not bound by an NDA, so she is the only person who can talk about what happened.
- Can’t wait for her tell-all shoot podcast.
- This week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter notes that the WWE Hall of Fame falls “under creative,” which means Triple H is in charge of it for the first time for the 2024 class. He will have to “sign off on everyone” that is inducted in the upcoming class.
- There was talk that this most recent class felt like a Triple H (and Dwayne Johnson) class.
- According to Fightful Select, WWE is “engaged in talks” with Cody Rhodes for a long-term contract extension. This has been a top priority for the company ever since Endeavor’s purchase of WWE became official in September.
- Cody confirmed that this did happen. (1/1)
- PW Insider says Charlotte Flair is scheduled for surgery in early January, so it looks like her estimated return to WWE is around October 2024.
- We’ll have to wait and see on that. She recently gave us a positive update.
- Insider mentions that WWE’s “tentative” plan for Xavier Woods is to be “back on the road within the first two weeks of January.”
- Looks like he returned Jan 15. (1/1)
- AEW has “never made a serious play” to sign Stardom wrestler Giulia, per WON. There have been no conversations between AEW and Giulia, so she will either stay in Japan or go to WWE.
- She signed with WWE (and is working with the new Marigold promotion).
- The Wrestling Observer Newsletter says Logan Paul vs. Kevin Owens for the United States championship is expected to be booked for Royal Rumble 2024.
- That was the match. (1/1)
- The Observer mentions that Charlotte Flair’s new lucrative deal with WWE “was actually signed several months ago.”
- It feels like the new regime has kept some more things under wraps. But scoops still happen.
- Fightful Select notes that there was a new theme made up for Randy Orton but after just one play through ahead of using it at a show it was decided not to use it.
- This rumor was expanded on months later. I wish more people could tell Def Rebel “that doesn’t work for me, brother.” I feel Def Rebel (who I only recently learned is a production company and not the name of a smaller group like CFO$ was) gets flack online, but I also feel they deserve it. While they’re not without some good tunes (I like LA Knight’s tune, Roman Reigns’ song, and Iyo Sky’s music was an early banger of theirs), it’s mainly very generic and forgettable. Last Royal Rumble, fans were like “Who is this?” when they heard generic tune after generic tune. There needs to be some change, even if it’s Rebel’s group dedicating people who are a bit more talented (less lazy?).
- Dana Massie, wife of Matt Jackson, is “set to finish up with AEW as things stand now,” according to Sean Ross Sapp and Raj Giri.
- It serves as a remind how much of a friends & family operation AEW started as. And that’s not a bad thing but eventually, it was going to outgrow those parameters.
- During an interview on The Wrestling Time Machine, Teddy Long claims someone who works for AEW walked up to him and said, “Oh by the way, AEW told me to let you know we’re not hiring any old people.”
- That’s weird.
- Sources at the North Pole indicate that Mrs. Claus had five missed calls from The Ryback last Monday night demanding Hungry Hungry Hippos for Christmas. When Santa Claus heard about what happened, he stopped singing Seth Rollins’ theme music and made a HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT to all of his elves that The Big Guy was instead getting his stocking stuffed with pictures of Vince McMahon’s jet black mustache.
- The Big Guy on the naughty list.
- The Western Australia tourism board who paid WWE to bring Elimination Chamber to Perth initially asked for Dwayne Johnson to appear at the show, per f4wonline. The site specifies it was only a request and there are no reports The Rock will be there.
- The Rock was not there.
- AEW Vice President of Live Events and Touring Rafael Morffi is leaving the company, per Fightful Select. On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said Morffi is taking a job booking acts for Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.
- These moves happen.
- Meltzer also talked about Dana Massey’s departure, saying he thought it “just got too tough” for her to stay as “she felt they [The Young Bucks] were never defended at a time when they probably should have been defended by the company.” Meltzer also thinks AEW not sticking up for Massie when CM Punk used his Instagram Story to call out an error on merch for July’s ROH Death Before Dishonor show could have been a factor in Massie’s decision.
- The Punk situation permeated.
- Before William Regal appeared in a video announcing who NXT is sending to All Japan, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that “Regal’s non-compete as far as appearing on television is just about over.” When he left AEW Regal said he wasn’t interested in appearing on television, but there’s still speculation he could take on his old old-screen authority figure role.
- He hasn’t take on an authority role. (0/1)
- WWE signed fourth generation wrestler Brogan Finlay for NXT, PW Insider reports. Fit Finlay’s son (and NJPW’s David Finlay’s brother) took part in a tryout at the Performance Center back in September.
- He signed with them and wrestling as Uriah Connors.
- Insider also says Madi Wrenkowski has now officially signed an NXT deal.
- She’s in NXT currently. (1/1)
- For what it’s worth, Goldberg told the Steve & Captain Evil podcast that he has tried to be a part of Sting’s retirement match at AEW Revolution next year.
- He failed.
- According to Fightful Select, Omos hasn’t had “many creative pitches thrown his way” and the feeling on him from their sources is he can be used as an attraction.
- He’s barely on TV at all.
- Fightful also says El Phantasmo heavily hinted to them that his contract with New Japan Pro Wrestling will be up on Jan. 31, 2024.
- He still wrestles with them, but he may have re-signed.
- Regarding Dana Massie’s exit from AEW, Nick Hausman mentioned on his Rumor and Innuendo podcast that “there were a lot of talent upset for a long time about merchandising.”
- Sounds like it could have been a mix of some personal stuff, such as her feeling the Bucks were properly defended, and maybe some business stuff, such as possibly AEW outgrowing her capabilities.
- Satnam Singh told the Hindustan Times, “We are planning to bring AEW to India and expose it here so that the people in this country know what it is.”
- That has not happened.
- For what it’s worth, Wrestling Observer Radio’s Dave Meltzer doesn’t think the potential merger of Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount will play a factor in whether WWE Raw or AEW end up on WBD with their next TV deals.
- Raw did not. They got the big Netflix deal.
- WWE’s Dec. 26 house show at Madison Square Garden was not only a sellout, Fightful Select’s WWE sources told them it was the highest grossing domestic non-televised event in the company’s long history.
- That was Punk’s first match back too.
- Unsurprisingly then, the site reports WWE officials were “pleased with the buzz that the MSG show got in general.” Fightful also pointed out the merchandise stands were stocked with CM Punk merchandise, another sign his return has been a big success for the company.
- Even hurt I think he’s still moving merch.
- As you can tell from their online outlets, WWE had cameras filming in the Garden and Fightful was told parts of the show could end up on television.
- Outside a brief recap, nothing was on TV. (0/1)
- Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp also posted that Tuesday night’s Baltimore show was the highest grossing non televised WWE event in that market’s history.
- Business is booming for the E.
- In another story about the large number of stars whose WWE contracts are coming up in 2024, Fightful said Randy Orton, Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, and Big E are all expected to be signed through next year after injury time was added to the five-year contracts they signed in 2019.
- I wonder if Big E is going to end up with a different type of contract that mainly covers pre-show panels and ambassadorship.
- WWE’s been selling Ken Shamrock merchandise online, leading to speculation he could be headed to the Hall of Fame now that Triple H has final say on all inductees.
- He was not. (0/1)
- Former NWA Women’s champ Kamille gave notice to the promotion in October, per Fightful Select. She declined a a six month option which included a pay increase and will be leaving when her contract expires on Jan. 1.
- Reports were that she has signed with AEW but, she hasn’t appeared yet.
- According to PW Insider, Zelina Vega has “come to terms wth WWE and signed a new multi-year deal with the company.”
- A ton of contracts seem to have come up in this time. I wonder if these were the contracts they tried to lock up when AEW was new on the scene to avoid folks jumping ship.
- Metro.co.uk says WWE NXT will no longer air on TNT Sports in the United Kingdom. Starting with next week’s New Year’s Evil episode, the only way for fans in the United Kingdom to watch NXT will be to stream it as a subscriber to WWE Network.
- Any UK readers that this affected?
- Fightful Select heard there was a “tentative idea” earlier this year for Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland to fight each other when they were paired together in AEW’s Blind Eliminator Tag Team Tournament.
- I don’t know if that’s ever going to happen.
- The site also mentioned that Vince McMahon was not at WWE’s New York City house show at Madison Square Garden earlier this week.
- That’s significant because Vince seemed to really care about Garden shows.
- Wrestling Observer Radio’s Dave Meltzer heard that a surprising number of fans left the MSG house show after CM Punk’s return match was over, instead of staying through intermission and watching the final matches of Cody Rhodes vs. Shinsuke Nakamura and Seth Rollins vs. Drew McIntyre.
- That is crummy for the last matches, but also shows the draw of Punk.
- Meltzer says the main event match of Rollins vs. McIntyre was “very rushed.” They had to ”cut a lot of stuff out” due to time constraints after the early part of the show ran long.
- If show was running long, it’s also possible those fans just got tired.
- Following WWE’s DVD release of Survivor Series 2023 this week, Insider said it’s “the final WWE DVD set to be released.”
- While I bemoan less physical media, I don’t know if theres ever really a market for re-watching PPVs.
This week: 4/7
Overall: 5,131/8,919 – 57.5%
Have a great week, bitches!
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