WWE Rumor Roundup: Next possible WWE Champion revealed, Vince McMahon unhappy - 25th November 2019
We have an incredibly stacked roundup for you today. It's Survivor Series weekend, what else did you expect?
There are tons of newsworthy rumors to discuss coming out of WWE's latest PPV offering. Despite the positive reviews about the show, Vince McMahon is reportedly unhappy with one of the biggest matches on the card.
There was another interesting piece of speculation about the same match that came to light.
There was also a backstage note about a tantalizing plan that WWE has in store for CM Punk.
The man of the moment, Keith Lee, predictably also features in the rumour lineup for today.
There was a lot of buzz surrounding the ongoing controversy between Mauro Ranallo and Corey Graves that has also been covered.
That's not all, Bray Wyatt, Matt Riddle and Finn Balor make it to today's edition as well. We have a lot to cover, so let's check out the biggest rumors doing the rounds.
#1. Vince McMahon unhappy with the Survivor Series main event
Survivor Series was a solid show. However, the main event, quite frankly, was a major disappointment.
The 18-minute headliner between Becky Lynch, Shayna Baszler and Bayley felt pale in comparison to all the other matches on the night.
It has now been revealed via WrestleVotes that even Vince McMahon wasn't a big fan of the closing match.
Heard even Vince himself didn’t like the main event last night. Major disappointment.
We can't argue with the WWE boss here as the Triple Threat main event failed to keep the fans invested. The All-State Arena was dead all throughout the match and that hurt the overall impact of the contest.
The heavily-rumoured return of Ronda Rousey also didn't happen, which may have diverted some of the attention from the lacklustre affair.
Shayna Baszler managed to have her moment under the sun by beating the RAW and SmackDown Women's Champions before Becky Lynch attacked the Queen of Spades to end the show on top. There were a lot of booking decisions that could have been made here, but WWE instead went for the least interesting one of the lot.
#2. Backstage reaction to Keith Lee's push, a source wants him to become WWE Champion
Everyone is talking about Keith Lee. The NXT Superstar rose to the occasion at Survivor Series and almost won the match for his team. However, he couldn't overcome Roman Reigns, who pinned Lee in the end to get the win for SmackDown in the Men's Elimination Tag Team match. Irrespective of the outcome, a star was born at Survivor Series.
There has been a lot of backstage talk about Keith Lee since his star-making performance at the PPV.
WrestlingNews.co reports that Vince McMahon likes Lee a lot and everyone backstage are very happy to see the Superstar finally get the recognition he richly deserves.
Lee was described as a hard-working individual who never complained and showed up to do the work. A backstage source also went on to say that he would like to see Lee show up on RAW with a manager and defeat Brock Lesnar to become the new WWE Champion before going on a long reign with the title.
Here's what is being talked about backstage as revealed in WrestlingNews.co's report:
“He doesn’t complain and he shows up to do the work. We all know how good he is and this was his night to show everyone what he can do. Vince likes him and I think he’ll be on RAW or SmackDown in a few months."
"I would put one of the main belts on him. If they don’t want to beat Bray then put him in there with Brock. I think people can believe Keith can beat Brock. He has what Vince is looking for. I would maybe give him a manager and give him a long run as champion. He works as hard or harder than anyone and never b***hes or complains about anything. I’m so happy for him.”
#3. WWE's plan for CM Punk
CM Punk may have no plans to wrestle anytime soon but the WWE can always coarse him into activities that don't require him to step into a ring.
As revealed by a report from PWInsider, the company plans on having CM Punk on Stone Cold Steve Austin's Broken Skull Sessions podcast on the WWE Network.
The Undertaker has already appeared on Steve Austin's show and the WWE wants Punk to also show up and have a chat with the Hall of Famer in the future.
There are no updates regarding when and how it may come to fruition but the idea has been pitched backstage.
For now, you can catch Punk on WWE Backstage on Tuesday nights on FS1.
#4. Backstage news on the Mauro Ranallo-Corey Graves situation
While Survivor Series went by without any hassles, the day wasn't short on controversy.
Mauro Ranallo missed Survivor Series after he seemingly got offended by a tweet put out by Corey Graves. Here's the tweet in which Graves took a dig at Ranallo:
Ranallo was unhappy with Graves' tweet and that led to the NXT commentator deleting his Twitter handle altogether.
Dave Meltzer opened up about Ranallo's status on the Wrestling Observer Radio. Ranallo is expected to return to the commentary booth on the next NXT episode. It is believed that he will not be leaving WWE and should continue in his role as the lead commentator in NXT.
Meltzer also added that the company was not pleased with Graves.
"Mauro Ranallo and Frank Shamrock went to the building, I guess, I mean I guess the gist of everything is that they left and they were very, very upset. And Corey Graves, I believe, he did take down the tweet at some point and Frank Shamrock wrote, 'Social media has made too many of you comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the mouth for it and he sent that to Corey Graves.
This is not some random thing where you are trying to, 'oh you're connecting the dots', I mean that's exactly what it is."And it was the tweet and that's why he didn't do the show.
He did not quit, obviously, everything is fine, everything seems to be fine between Mauro Ranallo and WWE, I was told tonight that he absolutely is expected to be there Wednesday commentating on NXT and that, from his side, he absolutely expects to be there, and that, I think they were not happy with Graves although Graves did do the show tonight.I guess we are going to watch this thing play out or maybe it's just over, again, it didn't feel like, umm, you know I was hearing about it, and it's not like this was a blowup.
It's not anything bad but he did leave and you're not supposed to do that and they understood and they are going to have sympathy or, I don't even know if sympathy is the right word, but there is going to be leeway. They don't want him leaving for a number of different reasons."
Ranallo has a history of depression and bipolar disorder and had previously taken a break from WWE due to a bullying incident that involved JBL. We hope Corey Graves and Ranallo bury the hatchet and move on from this incident as soon as possible.
#5. Backstage news on Finn Balor wrestling while being sick
Wondering why Finn Balor was not on Team NXT at Survivor Series? We have the answer.
As revealed by Fightful Select, Finn Balor was suffering from illness before his NXT Takeover: WarGames match against Matt Riddle.
Despite the sickness, Balor put on a 14-minute match against Riddle and came out victorious. He was, however, given the night off on the next night at Survivor Series and that is a smart decision on WWE's part as the Men's Elimination Tag Team match had enough star power and talent to be successful.
#6. Reason why the Women's Triple Threat main evented Survivor Series
As reported earlier, Vince McMahon was not a fan of the match that closed the Survivor Series PPV. However, what was the reason behind WWE's decision to let the match go last in the first place?
Dave Meltzer provided the answer on the post-Survivor Series of the Wrestling Observer Radio.
Meltzer stated that the company wanted Shanya Baszler, who the officials are quite high on, to have a big moment by picking up the win in the main event against two main roster champions. Additionally, it was believed that Becky Lynch's star power warranted a main event slot for the match.
It was also revealed that the triple threat had the best build-up amongst all the three-way matches that were featured at the show.
Meltzer explained:
"I think they felt that, number 1, I think they wanted to end the show with Shayna, I think Shayna is really high on their list of people they want to push as Stars. I feel they think they felt that Becky is the biggest star, so she could be going last. And I think that they just expected, from the build, of all the three-ways that certainly had the best build, that it would get the most reaction and it didn’t. I mean reasoning, I can see where they came up with the reason to put it last, but it didn’t work in that position, unfortunately."
#7. Original plans for Bray Wyatt at Survivor Series
The Fiend took on Daniel Bryan at Survivor Series and successfully retained the WWE Universal Championship at the show.
However, that was never the original plan.
As revealed by Dave Meltzer, Bray Wyatt was originally slated to take on The Miz in a Universal title match at the PPV. It was also added that the nixed Wyatt vs. Miz match would have been an easy squash in favour of The Fiend.
#8. The possible reason why Michael Cole doesn't mention Bray Wyatt's name during matches
Ever since Bray Wyatt introduced his Fiend avatar, there is one commentary change that has caught the attention of many fans. Michael Cole and the commentary team quite often refrain from addressing Wyatt by his name and instead, refer to him as a 'thing'.
This change was discussed on the Wrestling Observer Radio. Bryan Alvarez was annoyed by Cole constantly referring to Wyatt as a thing. Dave Meltzer explained that The Fiend character is being pushed as a superhuman entity and not as a human being.
Bryan Alvarez: I had to listen to Michael Cole. I’m sick about his commentary about the Fiend. He won’t call him a person. He’s got to call him a thing. That damn thing is back on his feet. That thing won’t stay down. This Ogre ruling the Earth on SmackDown.
Dave Meltzer: He’s not supposed to be human.
Alvarez: Oh, come on. It’s Bray Wyatt. The freaking storyline is that Bray Wyatt is putting a mask on. That’s the storyline. That’s not me ruining Kayfabe.
Meltzer: I know but he supposed to now have supernatural powers. The mask gives him supernatural powers.
Alvarez: Well, that doesn’t make him a thing.
Meltzer: True.
Alvarez: That makes him a dude with powers, which is preposterous on top of itself.
Meltzer: He’s like supposed to be a monster out of the movies as opposed to a human being that sells.
#9. The reason why WWE allowed Matt Riddle to pin Randy Orton
Matt Riddle had a decent outing at Survivor Series as the King of Bros eliminated Randy Orton. However, he would get eliminated soon after by Baron Corbin.
It was revealed by Dave Meltzer on the Wrestling Observer Radio that the plan was to get Riddle over so that he could be dumped out of the match by King Corbin. This was done to get more heat on the heel. The strategy of the match was to get a few popular Superstars eliminated at the hands of Corbin, which was guaranteed to get the boos from the audience.
Meltzer: The whole thing is, is like if you noticed, the guys who they expected the people would like the most were the guys Baron Corbin beat because the idea of that, we can guarantee we’re going to get lots of boos because they are not going to want to see Matt Riddle pinned right there, so we’ll get Baron Corbin pin him. That was a part of the strategy of the match. They booed when Riddle got beat.
Alvarez: Well, of course, they booed when Riddle got beat, but he’s pinning other guys later and nobody cared. Dude, if I was Randy Orton, I would be f***** furious. You put over Matt Riddle all to be a setup for Baron Corbin pinning the guy to get some heat?
Meltzer: That’s how they do it!
What did you think of the matches at Survivor Series? Head over to our main page and rank them all!
What makes Sting special? His first AEW opponent opens up RIGHT HERE.
Quick Links
Kevin Christopher Sullivan