4 Wrestling rumors we hope are true & 3 we hope aren't: WWE to give recent Roman Reigns opponent a "serious push", Rejected plans for AEW star to beat Brock Lesnar revealed

Welcome to this week's edition of WWE/wrestling rumors we hope are true and those we hope aren't. We're approaching the final two months of 2021, and fans attending wrestling shows seems to be commonplace again. A lot is going on right now in the world of wrestling.

This week's edition includes backstage news about the rumored Becky Lynch-Charlotte Flair confrontation, plans for the WrestleMania 38 main event, alternate WrestleMania plans for 2020, a record that's set to be broken, and so much more. Let's begin:

---

#4. Hope is true: WWE backstage officials considering a "serious push" for recent Roman Reigns opponent

On the September 24th episode of SmackDown, Montez Ford took a shot at Roman Reigns, prompting The Tribal Chief to demand a match against The Street Profits member later that night.

Ford was never going to topple Reigns, but he put on a great fight before eventually losing to the Universal Champion. It seems as though that was WWE's tease of what Montez Ford could be as a singles star.

Despite The Street Profits' success in 2020 and their importance to the tag team division, there seem to be no plans for the company to keep them together in the long run. According to a report from Louis Dangoor of GiveMeSport, WWE is considering a serious push for Ford as a singles star.

PWInsider reported around the time of the Draft that the company had considered splitting The Street Profits to different brands. However, both Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins were drafted to RAW, while WWE chose to split Mace and T-Bar instead. Sportskeeda Wrestling's Kartik Arry wrote:

"As per GiveMeSport, the objective behind potentially breaking up the popular duo was for Ford to receive a serious singles push. The report also noted that the 'door is still open' for him to break out as a solo star on the same brand as Dawkins."

We hope this is true because there aren't many teams that Vince McMahon's promotion keeps around for years, and Ford deserves an opportunity at being a big singles star. The New Day's tenure has been unparalleled, and there's a reason why they've never had any betrayals within the faction.

As for The Street Profits, it was always a matter of when and not if they split up. WWE always looks for singles stars without prioritizing tag teams and the possible tenure they can have.

It will be interesting to see how the promotion eventually splits Ford and Dawkins.

#3. Hope isn't true: WWE's rejected plan for an AEW star vs. Brock Lesnar

WWE views Brock Lesnar's WrestleMania match with the utmost importance. Because of his megastar status, lucrative contract, and larger-than-life presence, some of the biggest WrestleMania bouts of the past decade have featured him.

His opponents at The Show of Shows since 2013 include Triple H, The Undertaker, Roman Reigns (twice), Dean Ambrose (Jon Moxley), Goldberg, Seth Rollins, and Drew McIntyre.

Lesnar has headlined WrestleMania thrice since his 2012 return. Although McIntyre didn't get to have his coronation in 2020 in front of a live crowd, his victory over The Beast Incarnate at WrestleMania 36 marked the start of his incredible run in the pandemic era.

According to a report from Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Paul Heyman wanted current AEW star Malakai Black (fka Aleister Black in WWE) to be in Drew McIntyre's position by WrestleMania 36.

During Heyman's tenure as the RAW Executive Director, Black proved to be one of his most important projects. Once he was removed from that role, Aleister Black's push ended as well.

The report from Meltzer stated that Vince McMahon rejected the plan:

"Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter recently stated that [Paul] Heyman wanted [Aleister/Malakai] Black to be in McIntyre's position at The Show of Shows, but Vince McMahon had other plans. Heyman wanted the former NXT Champion to win the title from Lesnar at WrestleMania 36."

We hope this isn't true because in this case, Vince McMahon was right, and not Paul Heyman. While Aleister Black would undoubtedly have been a top name if utilized right, Drew McIntyre proved to be the right choice to carry WWE on his shoulders in 2020. It's unlikely that Black would have been ready for that role.

#3. Hope is true: WWE officials "thrilled" with Crown Jewel 2021

WWE's shows in Saudi Arabia haven't been that well-received since the deal began in 2018. While it started with The Greatest Royal Rumble, Super ShowDown and Crown Jewel have come to be the company's two annual shows in the Middle East.

Due to the pandemic, Vince McMahon's promotion could only hold one show each in Saudi Arabia, with Super ShowDown in February 2020 and Crown Jewel in October 2021 marking an 18-month gap - the longest since the deal began.

Crown Jewel turned out to not only be an excellent show but one of the surprising candidates for pay-per-view of the year in 2021. While there were no title changes on the show, it was reportedly well-received backstage in WWE as well, as per a report from PWInsider:

"Those who spoke to within WWE was really thrilled with today's Crown Jewel PPV as the feeling was it was one of the better major shows they have produced over the last year," said the report.

We hope this is true because it was undoubtedly the best show in Saudi Arabia to date. Even Goldberg had what many considered one of the best matches of his run against Bobby Lashley.

#2. Hope isn't true: WWE's plans for Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 38

At WWE Crown Jewel, Roman Reigns picked up only his second victory against Brock Lesnar, who had his first match in 19 months. It seems certain now that Reigns is scheduled for his sixth WrestleMania main event in 2022 as the company returns to the AT&T Stadium for The Grandest Stage Of Them All.

The last time WWE was at that stadium, the circumstances were completely different for Roman Reigns. The promotion was trying to establish him as the top star by giving him a WrestleMania coronation - one that had already been delayed for a year.

That coronation was rejected, but in 2021, Reigns is the full-fledged top star of WWE. According to a report from Dave Meltzer of WON, the plan is for WWE to drag on the Roman Reigns-Brock Lesnar feud until WrestleMania 38.

''The storyline on where Paul Heyman stands also couldn’t be resolved, as this is likely heading to WrestleMania, since right now there doesn’t appear to be anything on the horizon bigger,'' said Meltzer.

We hope this isn't true, because the Roman Reigns-Brock Lesnar saga had already played out more than it needed to three years ago in 2018. It's time for a new direction, and this doesn't sound fresh or appealing for the WrestleMania 38 main event, no matter how good Reigns is now.

#2. Hope is true: Charlotte Flair wanted WWE to push Bianca Belair for another title win

Charlotte Flair has been a hot topic in the WWE rumor mill for the wrong reasons lately, but this one is a bit more positive. The Draft situation between Flair and Becky Lynch caused a lot of confusion, as the RAW Women's Champion was drafted to the Blue brand, while the SmackDown Women's Championship was drafted to the Red brand.

The title exchange hasn't been well received by fans, and from recent reports, it wasn't backstage either. However, Charlotte Flair reportedly pushed for Bianca Belair to win the RAW Women's title from her, as per TalkSport:

"She also campaigned to lose clean to Bianca Belair on Monday Night RAW. She’s understood to be a huge fan of Belair and believed the finish killed what could have been a big win for her," said Alex McCarthy of talkSPORT.

We hope this is true because it's a selfless gesture from The Queen even though she has been on one of her better heel runs this year. It also would have helped avoid the title swap that has caused a lot of trouble in hindsight.

#1. Hope isn't true: Charlotte Flair has heat in WWE following SmackDown segment

There seems to have been a disagreement between Charlotte Flair and WWE with regards to how the latest SmackDown main event segment played out. While it should have been a simple title swap, both women threw their championships on the floor, and Flair doing so was reportedly not planned.

Things didn't play out so well when it got backstage, and there were reports of a verbal dispute between Becky Lynch and The Queen - and it wasn't part of any storyline. Not only this, but PWInsider noted that people within the company have heat with Charlotte Flair:

"There is heat on Flair in certain circles for disrespecting Lynch and some who felt Flair took a segment that was supposed to build herself vs. Sasha Banks and instead put all the attention back on herself and Lynch when Banks was being placed in a position to be the top babyface for the Smackdown brand. There are some who felt this undermined Banks, whether that was a planned strategy or not," read the report.

Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful confirmed PWInsider's report, and he mentioned that there were words exchanged backstage.

A report from TalkSport added more to what happened. Not only was Vince McMahon unhappy with Flair for walking away from the gorilla position without talking to him, but it was noted that her relationship with Lynch has been strained for a while:

"Flair walked away and Vince McMahon wasn’t happy Charlotte left gorilla without talking to him. Flair is now heading to Orlando to support Andrade at AEW Dynamite," wrote Alex McCarthy of talkSPORT.

We hope this isn't true because Charlotte Flair is an important asset to WWE. Hopefully, the matter gets resolved, although the numerous sources confirming what happened seems to indicate that the rumor is true.

While more information will likely be available soon, the actual matter may only be revealed by either party years later.

#1. Hope is true: WWE's plans for Roman Reigns following his win over Brock Lesnar

Roman Reigns has had a career resurgence in WWE since his 2020 return. As predicted by several fans since 2015, a heel turn was, in fact, the solution for turning Reigns into the star that the promotion always wanted him to be.

After over half a decade of resistance, WWE decided to turn him heel, something that was supposedly upon his own request. He is now closing in on CM Punk's 434-day World title record, and will surpass it.

The figure that he has to get past next is 503 - the length of Brock Lesnar's Universal title reign from April 2017 to August 2018. Reigns defeated Lesnar, but as we previously mentioned, the plan is for their feud to extend until WrestleMania.

According to a report from Wrestlingnews.co, Vince McMahon's promotion plans for Roman Reigns to surpass Brock Lesnar's 504-day title reign. Sportskeeda Wrestling's Vatsal Rathod wrote:

"As reported by WrestlingNews.co, Roman Reigns won't drop the Universal Championship this year. Further, WWE's plan is to build Roman Reigns into the greatest champion of all time. To accomplish that, Vince McMahon wants Reigns to beat Brock Lesnar's record of the longest Universal Championship reign in WWE history."

We hope this is true because Reigns is already the greatest champion in the Universal title lineage, especially when accounting for the fact that Lesnar only had title defenses once in a few months.

With that said, surpassing that reign is well-deserved, and there's nobody who seems to be in a position to be ready to topple off The Tribal Chief from his throne.