Welcome to the weekly Rumor Look Back, where we take a look back at the rumors from six months ago and see what played out as originally stated. Let’s jump straight to that.

August 12, 2022

• According to Fightful Select, now that Vince McMahon is gone, WWE has discussed designing Bray Wyatt for a possible return to the company. One person pointed out that McMahon was tired of Wyatt protecting his gimmick. It was alleged that McMahon did not like Bray and said derogatory things about his body.
• Bray is back. Looks like Vince was a real dick about it. Given that Vince has some control, even though he’s not the creative lead at the moment, I wonder if that will affect Wyatt if it will at all. (1/1)
• PW Insider was told that despite his return to AEW television, CM Punk is still rehabbing his foot injury, and the severity of his injury has never been a business. It didn’t look like Punk would ever wrestle Everyone out On September 4, Punk’s comeback was not hidden backstage. It was “in plain sight”.
• Punk wrestled Before All Out, losing the title back to Mox in a unification match. It was kind of squash, but it was a match. (0/1)
• Meanwhile, Fightful reports a no-go area backstage, and Punk’s return was kept a secret from “much of the crew” and staff, including some people “actively involved” in the Dynamite show closing brawl. A title unification match between Punk and Jon Moxley is currently planned Everyone out.
• this is not true. Address standardization has happened before. Everyone out Punk was challenging for the title. (0/1)
• Insider also reported that “almost everyone” believes Kenny Omega will return as The Young Bucks’ partner for the AEW Triple Threat Championship next week. dynamite.
• That’s accurate. This elite and punk rumor cascading is something else – if only we knew what would happen. (1/1)
• Adam Cole is expected to be allowed to compete “relatively soon,” according to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio.
• It took at least six months for him to return to television, and we haven’t had any news that he’s actually been exonerated until now. (0/1)

August 13, 2022

• According to Fightful, there is internal speculation among WWE talent that this year’s draft will happen right after Clash in the castlepossibly as soon as September 9 (smack down) and September 12 (raw). It appears that any plans to repackage certain wrestlers will wait until after the draft.
• There was no draft in the era of Triple H. I suspect rocking the rosters then WrestleMania. (0/1)
• Brian Alvarez of Wrestling Observer Live said WWE released Top Dolla last year because he was a “heat magnet” backstage. However, Dolla knew she wasn’t a heat magnet with Triple H. Their relationship never soured, which helped with Top Dolla’s comeback with Hit Row last night. smack down.
• I have a suspicion the heat is on, Michael Cole buries the guy in every chase he gets (which I don’t think he does without instructions) and Hit Row never gets off the blocks, and was recently beaten by Bray Wyatt and Uncle Howdy. Honestly, Hit Row just wouldn’t be the same without Swerve (and I’d argue his current staff doesn’t do as much for him as Hit Row). Ashante Thee Adonis has potential and Dolla works like a big guy, but they needed an established, seasoned, charismatic Strickland as glue as the others grew.
• Andrew Zarian told Matt Means that there are “a lot of plans” for Cody Rhodes in the series WrestleMania 39.
• He’s going to the main event. I assume that was one of the plans? (1/1)
• Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio noted that AEW originally planned to book Bryan Danielson against Chris Jericho at All Out 2022.
• Originally planned? That was the match. They just had an earlier first.
• Playstation Game Size tweeted that THQ Nordic release date for AEW: Fight Forever It is February 2023.
• It doesn’t seem that way. (0/1)
• With so many questions lingering about the future of NXT UK, PW Insider says several talents from the brand are scheduled to be in Florida later this month. Gallus and William Regal’s son Charlie Dempsey is mentioned in the report.
• The Gallus are the current NXT Tag Team Champions. Dempsey began making matches for them in November.

August 15, 2022

• Like most of us, Dave Meltzer wrote in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that he thinks Sasha Banks & Naomi will make a surprise comeback after the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship.
• This was definitely not the case. (0/1)
• WON also notes that it looks like wrestlers will be getting full names again. Angel Garza recently got his name back and they say Humberto Carrillo will likely get his name, too.
• Angel never got his full name. Nor did Humberto. (0/2)
• Ringside News claims that there has been no promotion for Bray Wyatt’s creative return within WWE, only gossip that there may be discussions happening.
• He eventually returned with the White Rabbit teasers.
• According to WrestleVotes, after his appearance on Monday Night Raw Back on July 4th, GUNTHER fell out with “those in power at the time” and was scheduled to be buried on TV.
• It never seemed that way, but it might be coming. He’s definitely not buried in the Triple H era. He booked like a lucky stud and won that booking.
• Although AEW and the NWA haven’t worked together since 2021, Tony Khan grumbles about not getting enough credit for the all-female NWA program. EmpowererFightful Select reports that both companies are still doing well.
• I don’t think they really shared the talent but that may still be true.

August 16, 2022

• Fightful reports that Triple H plans to stay aggressive when it comes to talent acquisition, as he wants to add depth to the roster. Several wrestlers who had previously worked with the company were discussed as potential returns, and the “feeling out process” began.
• This is the situation. The roster was definitely lacking in depth and Triple H has put in some work to fill in the ranks. (1/1)
• On the PW Torch VIP Audio program, Wade Keller confirmed Fightful’s report that Bray Wyatt will likely return to WWE soon.
• He is back. (1/1)
• Dave Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio that WWE wants to sign a “big Japanese guy”, and predicted that AEW & DDT’s Konosuke Takeshita would fit in with what they were looking for and could be a potential target. However, Takeshita told Cultaholic, “Honestly, right now I’m not interested in WWE. My next goal is more fights in AEW I hope.”
• Takeshita is all elite.
• WWE is “active” with early ticket sales numbers for WrestleMania 39According to PW Insider. WrestleTix reported that there were approximately 49,000 tickets for each night of the night’s event.
• It must be a big event.
• The Wrestling Observer Bulletin ran over the contract expiration dates for many of the original AEW superstars. Kenny Omega has signed a four-year deal that is set to expire in February 2023, but the company could add in injury time to extend that. The Young Bucks and Hangman Page signed three-year contracts with two-year options and could be free agents at the end of next year.
• Word has it that WWE might be interested. I don’t think any of these guys will ever leave AEW. But then again, I didn’t think Cody would either…

August 17, 2022

• According to Fightful Select, someone within WWE reached out to the wrestler currently under contract with AEW to inquire about coming. The wrestler, Saeed, reported this connection to the highest levels within AEW and apparently said they weren’t interested.
• It will happen. I suspect it happened both ways.
• Fightful also noted that there has been a lot of talk of major changes in NXT, with the emergence of NXT UK talent.
• NXT UK talent seems to be slowly creeping up. Alba Frye was actually there and Tyler Bate came in the night before this rumour. But people like Gallas and Ilya Dragunov came to bolster the list. (1/1)
• PW Insider says Brandi Rhodes worked a match at the WWE Performance Center last Friday. However, she is not included in any WWE roster internally.
• Brandy is not involved with WWE at this time.
• There’s at least some speculation that Shotzi might be getting her locker back, as she’s been posting possible hints about the same on her Instagram.
• Shotzi has got her tank back. (1/1)
• For what it’s worth, DDP claimed on his podcast that Conrad Thompson approached him about making one last match like Ric Flair did and said he refused.
• DDP is a huge operator so I always take what he says with a grain of salt. But I understand rejecting this if true.

August 18, 2022

• Sources tell Bodyslam.net’s Cassidy Haynes that Johnny Gargano is open to returning to WWE now that Triple H is in charge of creating.
• This is where he landed. (1/1)
• Dave Meltzer told Wrestling Observer Radio that there are currently plans for AEW wrestlers to appear in the New Japan Championship. Kingdom Wrestle Displayed at the Tokyo Dome next January.
• FTR and Kenny appear to be involved. (1/1)
• Mark Henry at Busted Open said the rumors of difficulty working with Top Dolla during his first run in WWE were a result of talent who were worried about losing their place “putting negative publicity”, and because “people can’t make a strong black dude telling them the right thing”. which they ought to do.” Henry said that Triple H realized all of that and “stop the bleeding” before bringing Hit Row back to WWE.
• Again, Dolla’s standing doesn’t seem to be that strong right now.
• There is speculation from WrestlingNew.co and elsewhere that Pete Dunne may be returning to his Bruiserweight gimmick after he recently changed his Twitter handle to Pete “BUTCH” Dunne, tweeting this teaser about Clash in the castle.
• Still butch. (0/1)
• Deonna Purrazzo is currently negotiating with Impact about her future with the company, according to Fightful Select. Impact believes its current contract has an option for 2023, “but it’s not clear.”
• She’s still with Impact.

This week: 9/18 – 50% off

Total: 4,456 / 7,826 – 56.9%

Have a great week, everyone!