5 wrestling rumors we hope are true and 5 we hope aren't: Brock Lesnar's potential replacement for SummerSlam, Recent Champion set to unexpectedly retire from WWE?

Welcome to this week's edition of wrestling rumors we hope are true and those we hope aren't. It's been a crazy week in the world of WWE and wrestling and there's been a lot of news over WWE's testing of staff and talent along with the emergence of several positive cases of COVID-19.

This edition won't center around that, but there are some interesting notes as the pandemic era of WWE and wrestling in general continues. Without dragging it on much further, let's jump right into the rumors of the week!

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#5. Hope is true: Brock Lesnar's reported WWE SummerSlam replacement in case of travel restrictions

Brock Lesnar is reportedly expected to be Drew McIntyre's main event opponent at SummerSlam 2020. It will be a rematch from the main event of night two at WrestleMania 36, where Drew McIntyre defeated Brock Lesnar to win the WWE Championship.

Brock Lesnar resides in Canada and given how unpredictable the nature of the COVID-19 situation is, WWE has to look into the possibility of replacing Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam in case of travel restrictions.

According to Tom Colohue, Edge being out of the picture with an injury means that it's opened up a slot for a 13-time World Champion:

"Orton vs. Edge was supposed to be the SummerSlam match with Brock Lesnar lined up for Drew McIntyre. Now that Edge is out of the picture, they have given Orton something to do while they work out what to do next.

Colohue said that should Brock Lesnar not be available for SummerSlam, Randy Orton could be Drew McIntyre's opponent:

If they can't get Brock Lesnar into the country, or if they just need someone for McIntyre, we may end up with McIntyre vs. Orton, but we need to kill a little bit of time on the way."

We hope this is true because we feel that this should be the actual SummerSlam main event anyway. Brock Lesnar vs Bobby Lashley would be a better direction to go while Randy Orton challenges for the WWE Championship.

Despite his underwhelming SummerSlam match against Kofi Kingston last year, Orton would be a perfect WWE Championship opponent for Drew McIntyre to get through as a title defense. This is arguably the best that Randy Orton has been in the last decade and we're interested to see where it could go.

#5. Hope isn't true: Kairi Sane's reported retirement plans?

Former NXT Women's Champion and most recently WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Kairi Sane has been absent from TV ever since her head injury against Nia Jax recently. According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE initially had plans to send Kairi Sane back to Japan to be an ambassador. It goes both ways since she reportedly wants to go to stay with her husband.

However, an unexpected retirement from WWE and potentially wrestling could be in Kairi Sane's future. Sportskeeda's Lennard Surrao wrote:

It has been reported that Kairi Sane would be returning to Japan to be with her husband. It was noted that WWE knew about Sane's plans to return to Japan since May and possibly before.

Dave Meltzer also added that WWE purposely avoided mentioning Kairi Sane's name following her injury:

The decision was reportedly made by the WWE to 'not harp' about Sane's injury on TV while to also not address it publicly. WWE has refrained from mentioning Kairi Sane's name, and that was all part of the plan.

We hope this isn't true because Kairi Sane is just 31 years old and has a lot to offer to the WWE Women's division. While she isn't a big enough name to be a part-timer, a contract with limited appearances might suit her well.

#4. Hope is true: Positive update on Renee Young's health

WWE personality Renee Young is perhaps the most popular non-talent in the company. She was the first in WWE to reveal that she tested positive for COVID-19 and since then, she's been staying self-isolated in her house in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Her husband, AEW World Champion Jon Moxley, was removed from Fyter Fest and his match against Brian Cage was pushed by a week. He's reportedly been testing negative and is set to undergo another test before he appears in AEW, as he doesn't want to affect his co-workers.

With Moxley and Renee Young self-isolating in different rooms, Dave Meltzer of WON provided a health update on Renee Young. Sportskeeda's Kishan Prasad wrote:

F4WOnline.com's Dave Meltzer has reported an update about the health of Renee Young. According to Meltzer, Young is making progress but still felt funny, and her chest felt heavy. But overall, the WWE announcer is feeling a lot better.

We hope this is true and that she recovers as soon as possible. She recently announced her plans for a cookbook.

#4. Hope isn't true: Reported reason for the recent Ric Flair-Randy Orton pairing

Ric Flair returned to WWE TV on the RAW after Backlash, where he first interacted with Christian about his return unsanctioned match against Randy Orton. He hit Christian with a low blow and assisted Randy Orton in taking another legend out.

Tom Colohue said that Ric Flair's pairing with Randy Orton mostly has to do with WWE bringing back the legend killer and giving him another prey:

The most obvious suggestion from where I'm sitting would be that the WWE has brought back the Legend Killer, and want to close the angle out by punting one of the biggest legends in the history in the face. Certainly possible, wouldn't like to see it myself.

He also added that WWE has been very careful about their utilization of Randy Orton since he's on limited dates as per his contract. It also explains why he's only wrestled once since WrestleMania 36:

Since WrestleMania, he's in fact, only wrestled the WrestleMania match and The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever. There would be times when Orton isn't there, and that means that they need someone to be a mouthpiece in those moments.

We hope this isn't true because Randy Orton doesn't need a mouthpiece. Moreover, it seems wrong to utilize someone like Ric Flair when he's had preexisting health issues and could be extremely prone to COVID-19. Even if he wants to appear, WWE shouldn't let him.

#3. Hope is true: WWE reportedly films two endings for NXT title match

This could contain possible spoilers for the upcoming "Winner Take All" match between Adam Cole and Keith Lee. If you want to avoid it, we suggest you skip to the next page.

NXT Superstar Indus Sher aka Saurav Gurjar posted a spoiler on his Instagram story of the outcome of the "Winner Takes All" match between NXT Champion Adam Cole and NXT North American Champion Keith Lee.

The shot showed Keith Lee celebrating with confetti spilling over him as he held both Championships. It instantly led to outrage backstage within WWE and an NXT talent put out an interesting tweet about WWE filming two finishes.

We hope this is true because that would be the best way to get out of the situation. It could also add a sense of anticipation for their match and which outcome they'll go with. Either way, it's going to be a great match and we hope that if Keith Lee does win, the spoiler doesn't take away from his moment.

#3. Hope isn't true: Speculation on multiple WWE stars testing positive for COVID-19

The reports of 30+ positive cases of COVID-19 have caused a lot of concern in WWE and while Renee Young and Kayla Braxton confirmed their result on Twitter, other WWE Superstars and staff have reportedly been instructed to keep it all under wraps.

There was speculation from Dave Meltzer about the possible positive cases among talent. He first mentioned The Street Profits, saying that if one of them tested positive, then it would make sense to have neither on TV. No mention was made of Austin Theory when Seth Rollins and [Buddy] Murphy were on RAW.

With regards to Kevin Owens, he pulled out of the tapings to be with his family after his wife's grandfather passed away due to COVID-19 complications, making it hard for him. As for Natalya, he said that she didn't test positive but she didn't attend the tapings because her husband and WWE backstage producer T.J Wilson was sick.

However, he specified three names in a way that implied that they may have tested positive:

Morgan, Rose, Deville and Lana were all on a boat trip together days before the testing. Lana was the only one on television.

We hope this isn't true, but Dave Meltzer confirmed that there was an active talent that tested positive. We hope that they weren't the ones.

#2. Hope is true: Backstage reaction to Kayla Braxton announcing her COVID-19 positive result

This will be the last COVID-19 bit from this week's edition. As you know, Kayla Braxton took to Twitter to reveal that she had coronavirus before and wasn't aware that you could contract COVID-19 more than once.

Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful reported that WWE praised Kayla Braxton backstage for being transparent about the situation. Sportskeeda's Shruti Sadbhav wrote:

Kayla Braxton was praised backstage for disclosing the details about her personal battle against the pandemic. The WWE presenter's transparency with respect to the entire issue went down very well with the WWE officials as she did what was right to ensure the safety of others.

While WWE has been encouraging talent to keep the positive cases under wraps, Fightful's report stated that Kayla Braxton personally chose to go out with her test result. We hope that the backstage reaction is true because there was some speculation earlier about how WWE wasn't happy about Renee Young or Kayla Braxton going public.

#2. Hope isn't true: The Undisputed Era's reported main roster-NXT situation

When talking about the Adam Cole-Keith Lee situation, one has to wonder what The Undisputed Era's situation in NXT could be. The Undisputed Era has been in NXT for nearly three years now. Roderick Strong has been around for longer but only joined The Undisputed Era over two years ago.

Either way, they've dominated NXT and many have criticized Adam Cole's reign as being a bit stale after his record-setting title reign. If he does happen to lose the title, there's speculation on his future, but Tom Colohue said that not all four members of the faction are into the idea of a move to RAW or SmackDown:

The Undisputed Era are in an interesting position. There are contract offers on the table for long term deals which include call-ups but not all four members like the idea. Some of them want to stay in NXT. Of course, there are a lot of people in NXT at the moment who don't want to leave, and this is no exception."

We hope this isn't true because The Undisputed Era would add a lot of value to a brand like RAW. However, we don't doubt that Adam Cole will eventually transition to RAW or SmackDown at some point.

#1. Hope is true: Reported long-term plans for Andrade and Angel Garza

It seems as though the immediate future for Andrade and Angel Garza will be as a tag team. They're poised to face The Street Profits for the Tag Team Championships after attacking them.

Dave Meltzer spoke about the Mexican duo on Wrestling Observer Live and said that there are long term plans for both the Superstars:

"Andrade and Garza are okay. I know they are in the long-term plans. They are okay for now, and I think Garza more than Andrade for the long-term. But short-term, you know I think Garza and Andrade are destined for the tag team title. If not, certainly championship matches."

We hope this is true because Andrade and Angel Garza are extremely valuable to WWE. The company has been looking to break into the Latin American market for a while now and they know that they can't always rely on Rey Mysterio.

They have two incredible Superstars capable of filling in big shoes and we hope that there are, in fact, long-term plans for them.

#1. Hope isn't true: People backstage are insisting that Vince McMahon signs Tessa Blanchard

Tessa Blanchard's departure from IMPACT Wrestling, or at least the nature of it, shouldn't come as any surprise. She's been in Mexico and was reportedly asked to send videos from her phone to use for the programming.

However, she refused to do so and at the end of her contract, it seems that both parties decided to go their separate ways. While Tessa Blanchard is not only a WWE-caliber talent but a main event level star, her attitude problems seem to be an undeniable part of the package that she brings along.

This will cause major issues in WWE and unless she spends time away and rebuilds her reputation, she should probably stay away from WWE.

However, Tom Colohue on Dropkick DiSKussions revealed that there are people backstage "chewing Vince McMahon's ear off" to sign Tessa Blanchard to WWE:

"There definitely is, I've mentioned this already. She's a big name now, and there are a number of people in the WWE who have been singing Tessa's praises for a while. I don't know for sure whether they'd take the punt, but it wouldn't surprise me. I'm not going to name any names of who in the company has been essentially chewing Vince's ear off as to, 'you should hire Tessa Blanchard', but he finds it very difficult to get away from it, I'll tell you that."

We hope this isn't true because all signs seem to indicate that WWE should avoid signing Tessa Blanchard for a while longer.