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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.
- Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that fans will be in attendance for both nights of WrestleMania 37 in Tampa, though it’s unclear how many tickets will be sold.
- That’s accurate. They ran at about 35% capacity. (1/1)
- He also said the plan for the Hall of Fame, at least as of right now, is to have it virtually with no fans.
- There were no fans. (1/1)
- Per PW Insider, Fast Lane will return this year as a WWE PPV on Mar. 21 from the ThunderDome.
- Accurate - Mar. 21 and in the Dome (2/2)
- The Observer says Drew McIntyre is expected to return on next week’s episode of Monday Night Raw.
- That’s the case. (1/1)
- Insider notes Taya worked the latest set of Impact Wrestling TV tapings following her loss at Hard to Kill.
- She moved onto NXT but they wrote her up by saying she was the person who shot Johnny Bravo before she left. (1/1)
- PW Insider confirms that was David Krumholtz of The Santa Clause, Harold & Kumar, and Numb3rs fame as the Drew McIntyre impersonator on Raw last night.
- The fact it was him was wild.
- “It looks like there could be a big AEW presence” on Impact in the coming weeks, says WrestlingNews.co.
- There were a decent amount of talent, and Tony Khan was there watching ringside. (1/1)
- WWE Senior Producer Steve Conoscenti told Wrestling Inc a second season of Ruthless Aggression is “coming soon” to the Network.
- Looks like it’s just happening now. (0/1)
- Per Fightful Select, Michael Elgin has said he won’t go back to New Japan because he thinks Tama Tonga is an unsafe worker who only got a push because his father is Haku. New Japan officials say Elgin was fired.
- Elgin trying to save face. He was recently in the news again. It wasn’t good.
- Superstar Spectacle will film Friday at the Capital Wrestling Center, according to PW Insider. Rehearsals will held ahead throughout the week so they can go live-to-tape.
- I wonder how that did for their intended Indian audience.
- Per PW Insider, WWE hopes Drew McIntyre will be cleared to be at the Superstar Spectacle taping on Friday.
- He worked that show.
- Triple H’s recent return and match on Raw isn’t expected to lead to anything more and he’s back on the sidelines indefinitely.
- I don’t remember this at all. But apparently he worked an unsanctioned match against Randy Orton that led to Randy getting a fireball to the face.
- Anthony Henry has signed with WWE, according to Insider. He’ll be working in NXT.
- He’s in NXT and 205 Live. (1/1)
- Taya Valkyrie is officially done with Impact Wrestling and there appears to be interest from both WWE and AEW.
- That’s the case. She ended up in WWE, now working NXT. (1/1)
- Riho may not be returning to AEW anytime soon, says the Observer, because overseas travel is still such a hassle.
- She returned in February. (0/1)
- WWE is planning for both nights of WrestleMania 37 to run approximately three hours and be finished by 10 p.m. Eastern, according to PW Insider.
- Both went over 3 hours and after 10 pm - the first night more so because of the rain delay. (0/1)
- They’re “planning on permitting upwards of 25,000 fans” each night at Raymond James Stadium, per WrestleVotes.
- That’s pretty accurate. (1/1)
- That Twitter account says discussions are ongoing regarding what to do after WrestleMania. With baseball, basketball and hockey all running a full schedule at that point, finding a ThunderDome location will be difficult, so a “a soft “reopening” of the touring schedule for Live TVs” is possible.
- That’s not the way they went. They returned to the Dome. It was jarring to go back to the screens. They’re finally back in front of a live crowd. (0/1)
- Fightful Select reports Jessamyn Duke is not injured, but is not in the Women’s Dusty Classic because she’s focused on creating content for UpUpDownDown. NXT’s plan was always for Marina Shafir to have a different partner.
- Both have since been released.
- That site also says James Storm is not under contract with Impact, but he’s not done working with them yet, either.
- He did some work for them after this. (1/1)
- Wrestling Observer Live’s Bryan Alvarez said that even though it sounds crazy, a person in NXT told him that this week’s (Jan. 20) episode was the beginning of a heel turn for Kacy Catanzaro and Kayden Carter.
- It was not. They’re still babyfaces. (0/1)
- On WWE’s The Bump, Chad Gable said that Jason Jordan is “trying to get back” from his career-threatening injury, and he hopes there will be an American Alpha reunion one day.
- It was so unfortunate that Jordan had to stop wrestling right when he had a super hated heel character he was playing.
- Jonathan Coachman mentioned to Chris Van Vliet that one of Vince McMahon’s quirky rules is that nobody is allowed to sleep on his private jet unless Vince is also asleep. It was a frustrating experience, because McMahon rarely went to sleep.
- A lot of wrestlers were probably spiking his drink with sedatives.
- According to PW Insider, Vice’s Dark Side of the Ring is working on an episode about Chris Kanyon.
- That’s accurate. (1/1)
- Fightful says that Parker Boudreaux, a football player who has an uncanny resemblance to Brock Lesnar, was backstage at this week’s NXT.
- The resemblance is pretty wild.
- WrestleVotes says the WWE creative team started working on bigger ideas for WrestleMania 37 once the decision was made to run a two-night event. The belief is they need four major matches, two per night. For that matter, they say John Cena and Bill Goldberg are “nearly locks” for the show.
- Neither man worked the show. (0/2)
- As for what the top of the card will look like, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter says WWE is still undecided on all the major matches as of right now.
- Roman vs. Edge vs. Daniel Bryan & Sasha Banks vs. Bianca Belair were the two main events.
- They do say that there are currently two names being considered for Roman Reigns, so Daniel Bryan is not locked in yet.
- I wonder if Edge was the other.
- Lastly, Meltzer says WWE hopes to have 30,000 fans in the building for both nights at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay.
- They didn’t hit that mark.
- Per the Observer, AEW is trying to bring Riho back and it could happen as early as February.
- It did happen in February. She’s just working for them now, not Stardom. (1/1)
This week: 13/20 - 65%
Overall: 3,815/6,786 - 56.2%
Have a great week, everyone!