Rumor Look Back: Nov. 28 - Dec. 3, 2022

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.

November 28, 2022

• WrestlingNews.co claims they have sources telling them Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens is currently planned for Royal Rumble in January.
• That was the match. It served as the moment that Sami Zayn finally broke with the Bloodline. (1/1)
• What’s more, they claim Reigns vs. Zayn is happening at Elimination Chamber in Montreal in February.
• Also the case. That was such an atmosphere. (1/1)
• On top of all that, they claim it’s also planned that Owens and Sami Zayn will team up in a match against The Usos for the tag team titles at WrestleMania 39.
• Accurate yet again. The plan was set for awhile. (1/1)
• On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said there’s been continued talks of doing another WWE Draft after WrestleMania 39.
• They did soon after. (1/1)
• Fightful Select says Brian Kendrick was listed internally as a Producer for matches at Survivor Series. He hasn’t been seen since he was fired by AEW over controversial remarks made in a 2011 video that surfaced shortly after he was announced for a match there.
• I believe it was not a long term thing.
• WWE is planning a major event on Jan. 18, 2023, in India, says Sportskeeda.
• It looks like that never ended up happening. (0/1)

November 29, 2022

• According to Fightful Select, Roman Reigns was “visibly upset” after Survivor Series 2022 due to an unplanned spot with Kevin Owens in the men’s War Games match. Roman wanted the spot “to go as originally planned.”
• I can imagine sometimes things just don’t go as planned. It’s almost surprising that things go as they should as often as they do.
• Reigns mentioned that he may have suffered a ruptured eardrum. There was a lot of profanity and he was clearly unhappy with what happened. This might be why Roman did not make his planned appearance at the Survivor Series post-show press conference.
• Roman & Kevin still worked together plenty after.
• It doesn’t sound like there was a physical altercation backstage as a result of this situation. There are people in WWE who believe there won’t be any enduring heat coming out of it. Reigns and Owens are expected to remain professional and work together without issue going forward.
• That’s how it went, at least from what we can see. If there was residual heat backstage, we can’t speak to it, but we probably would have heard about it.
• PW Insider indicated that Brian Kendrick was only trying out for a backstage producer role at Survivor Series, and he has not been hired by WWE. Fightful mentioned that he helped produce the Women’s War Games match and Ronda Rousey vs. Shotzi.
• The man has a good mind for the business, but some of the things he’s said in the past are difficult to accept.
• F4WOnline heard that Kendrick’s return to WWE was “a surprise to most people, including those at NXT who know him.”
• It looks like like he was requested by Ronda Rousey, who is someone who certainly doesn’t have her own history of bad comments.
• Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer clarified that William Regal signed a three year contract when he joined AEW earlier this year. As a result, it’s hard to believe that Regal will be leaving AEW to return to WWE any time soon.
• He was able to get out of his contract and return to WWE. That was rather surprising at the time. AEW hadn’t been in the habit of letting folks out of their contract. But perhaps since Regal wasn’t going to be wrestling and his son was working for WWE, that was enough to sway Tony. (0/1)

November 30, 2022

• Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that some have said the Roman Reigns/Kevin Owens ordeal at Survivor Series was “blown out of proportion.” However, he also says some others have said Reigns isn’t completely over it right now.
• I can imagine being upset if you think someone was a bit sloppy out there no matter who it is. But Kevin Owens has been doing this a long time and does not have a reputation for being dangerous in the ring at all.
• Meltzer also gave an update on William Regal’s three-year contract with AEW. He said there’s something going on with him and there’s no guarantee he’s leaving but there’s no guarantee he’s staying either. WWE very much wants him back.
• That’s a very muddled rumor.
• There’s been a push within WWE to do Bianca Belair vs. Rhea Ripley for the Raw women’s championship at WrestleMania, according to F4Wonline.com.
• They have not run that match yet. (0/1)
• For whatever it’s worth, PW Insider says Brian Kendrick was not brought in to work Monday Night Raw this week.
• Given his comments were too much for AEW to work with him, I can imagine WWE didn’t want to deal with the PR aspect of that long term if they didn’t have to.
• On Renee Paquette’s “The Sessions” podcast, Stokely Hathaway claimed The Firm was supposed to work with CM Punk at some point and now it won’t happen because Punk is no longer with AEW.
• That really derailed what Stokely was doing for awhile. That sounded like it was going to be a bit spotlight and he really hasn’t found that since.

December 1, 2022

• Sasha Banks and Charlotte Flair both stirred up speculation they could be returning soon: Flair with a pic of her wrestling boots on her Instagram Story, and Banks with a TikTok of her training in Mexico City with the caption “She’s coming” and WWE, AEW & Joshi Puroresu hashtags.
• Both returned about a month later. Charlotte immediately won the title while Sasha worked WrestleKingdom. (2/2)
• Kevin Owens is “still hurt”, per Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, but Owens should be able to continue working through his knee injury.
• He didn’t take any time off.
• An internal WWE memo promoting the success of Survivor Series got into Fightful Select’s hands. It claimed the Nov. 26 PLE was the most viewed Survivor Series on record, with the best in-venue merch sales in event history, increased year-over-year social media video views, and a 48% improvement in “fan enjoyment rating” from 2021’s show.
• It was a very good show. Most PLEs have been lately. I don’t know how they calculate the “fan enjoyment rating” though.
• In his interview with Fightful, Dax Harwood said FTR thought their AEW contracts were up this year, but their current understanding is they expire in April of 2023. He also said the team is considering taking a year off from wrestling for major companies so they can take indie bookings that seem like fun to them.
• They did not take a year off. They re-signed. (0/1)
• Andrade El Idolo tweeted that he tore his pec in his Aug. 17 trios match with RUSH & Dragon Lee against The Elite, which would mean he worked All Out’s Casino Ladder Match with the injury. Ric Flair commented on Andrade’s injury on his latest To Be The Man podcast: “I know it was a bad tear, so he’s going to be out awhile with it.”
• He still hasn’t been back yet, but when he is, he’ll be on Punk’s AEW show.
• Dakota Kai told the Getting Over podcast that a couple years ago Bayley wanted her, Candice LeRae & Tegan Nox for a Damage CTRL-like stable. A pitch for an “updated version” that included Kai, IYO SKY, Kay Lee Ray (now Alba Fyre) & Raquel González (now Rodriguez) earlier this year got to the point group photos were taken and introductory videos filmed before plans changed.
• All those women are currently on the main roster now, though Tegan has been MIA for awhile.

December 2, 2022

• Wrestling Observer Radio’s Dave Meltzer said “there’s something up” with William Regal’s AEW contract situation, and there’s “certainly a possibility” that he will leave AEW and return to WWE.
• He did leave and return to WWE. (1/1)
• Wrestling Observer Live’s Bryan Alvarez elaborated on the matter, stating that he was “given sort of the indication” that this week’s angle with MJF turning on Regal was “the end of William Regal on AEW...that was writing him off the show.”
• That was the end of Regals run on AEW. They played a video of him the next week that was supposedly taped prior to the MJF attack. (1/1)
• Alvarez added that “the belief among people within WWE” is that when Regal signed with AEW, he had an agreement that he can go back to WWE if Triple H returns to power.
• I’d be surprised if that clause would ever be added to a contract.
• CM Punk’s Instagram stories included a photo of his dog missing some teeth, leading some people to conclude that Punk’s camp was telling the truth about what happened in the backstage fight with The Elite at All Out 2022.
• I mean, it’s definitely possible. But also, that type of dog could just have somewhat of a jacked up mouth with the underbite and all.
• According to WrestlingNews.co, WWE’s plan is for Raquel Rodriguez to challenge Ronda Rousey for the SmackDown women’s championship at next month’s Royal Rumble 2023 event. The site was also told that Rousey will go into WrestleMania 39 as champion.
• Ronda wasn’t even champion by this and that title wasn’t even defended at Royal Rumble. (0/2)
• Fightful Select confirmed that Kevin Dunn was absent from Survivor Series 2022. However, Dunn is still with the company, and there are currently no plans for that to change.
• He’ll probably be there forever.

December 3, 2022

• According to WrestlingNews.co, there is talk in WWE of booking a Hell in a Cell match at next month’s Royal Rumble 2023 pay-per-view event.
• They booked one at WrestleMania, but there wasn’t one at Rumble. (0/1)
• Dave Meltzer writes in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Cody Rhodes’ recovery is “going well.” Cody is “working heavily with top-level trainers to put on size and strength and hit 240 pounds legit, which may be the thickest he’s been in his life.” There’s no word yet on when he’ll return to WWE television.
• He returned in the Royal Rumble.
• Based on what BeltFanDan and XeroNews have been told, it sounds like WWE will be issuing new tag team championship belts to The Usos. Roman Reigns could be presenting the new belts to them in the coming weeks.
• Still waiting on those new titles. They definitely need to merge them. Given they finally did gave Roman a new title, maybe they’ll get around doing the tag belts as well. (0/1)
• When asked if CM Punk will still be in the Fight Forever video game, “AEW representatives told Sportskeeda that if anyone already shown to be a part of the game needed to be removed, they would make an announcement to the fans.”
• The development of this game has taken long enough that Punk left and came back by the time of release.
• Fightful’s Will Washington also says AEW confirmed to him Fight Forever will be rated T for Teen.
• Maybe given there’s a ton of blood.
• Per PW Insider, Johnny Gargano and Kevin Owens are both scheduled to be at next week’s SmackDown taping, though it might just be for a dark match.
• Neither were on the show that aired.
• The Observer notes that Kota Ibushi’s contract with NJPW expires at the end of January 2023.
• There’s theories he’s going to be coming to AEW to join team Elite.

This week: 8/16 - 50%

November 2022: 38/63 - 60%

Overall: 4,585/8,033 - 57.1%

Have a great week, everyone!