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With less than three weeks away from WWE's next pay-per-view Extreme Rules, fans witnessed eventful episodes of Raw and SmackDown Live this past week with many storylines moving forward and a few matches being confirmed for Extreme Rules.
We saw the former team Hell No - Daniel Bryan and Kane - re-unite on SmackDown against the Bludgeon Brothers, with GM Paige setting a match between the teams for the blue brand's Tag Team Titles; Shinsuke Nakamura was missing on SmackDown Live and was replaced by Eric Young as Jeff Hardy's opponent; Kurt Angle cancelled a multi-man match for Extreme Rules and more.
Sportskeeda is the one-stop destination for latest WWE rumors and wrestling news.
With all that in mind, let us have a look at the top rumours in the world of WWE this week. Make sure to watch this space every Friday for the weekly rumour round-up going forward.
#5 Jeff Hardy struggling with injuries
The United States Champion was missing in action from WWE's last pay-per-view Money in the Bank. Though the reason for this was not exactly thought to be injuries but had more to do with WWE not carrying any storyline into the PPV, there was word going around that Jeff was struggling with some nagging injuries.
Now the same rumours have surfaced again, though Hardy has been in action on SmackDown Live since then, competing against SAnitY member Eric Young this past week.
Apparently, a nerve injury has lead to Hardy feeling numbness in his fingers according to the Wrestling Observer. Due to this, Hardy is supposedly being protected in-house shows by being a part of multi-man matches, so that he can take a lesser number of bumps. However, fans need not worry too much as Hardy has continuously been in action, whereas this wouldn't be the case if his injuries were too serious.
#4 Rey Mysterio might be returning to WWE
After being away from the company for quite a while, Rey Mysterio made his return as a surprise entrant in the 30-man Royal Rumble match back in January this year to a huge pop. He later made another appearance as part of the 50-man match at the Greatest Royal Rumble.
Since then there have been rumblings about the high-flyer making a return to the company full time, but so far, contract negotiations between the two parties have not borne fruit. Now there is a word that Mysterio might finally return home, as he was seen in the commercial for the new video game 2K19.
There might be some solid weight behind this rumour, as Goldberg and Sting previously made their WWE return right after their characters appeared in the video game series. Here's hoping we see the master of the 619 back in a WWE ring soon.
#3 Reason why The Bar have been missing from TV
The unlikely duo of Cesaro and Sheamus found great success as a tag team - The Bar - over on Raw, even winning the Raw Tag Team Championships. After a dominant run on the red brand, the SUperstar Shake-up 2018 saw the team being moved to SmackDown Live.
Since then, however, the team has been more or less directionless, have random singles and tag team matches against members of the New Day and others. In fact, they have been conspicuous by their complete absence from WWE television since the past few episodes of SmackDown Live.
The reason behind this is thought to be the creative team having nothing significant planned for the duo. This is unfortunate, as a program with the Bludgeon Brothers, with four big men going head-to-head in the ring would have made for an interesting watch.
#2 Steel Cage match set for Extreme Rules
WWE started the rivalry between Kevin Owens and Braun Strowman in a subtle fashion with Owens going around trying to rally the rest of the competitors of the Money in the Bank Ladder match to team up and take down the Monster Among Men.
However, this plan backfired on the Prizefighter as Strowman took offence to his tactics and put him through a table from the top of a ladder during the match. Last week's episode saw the Monster in the Bank destroy Owens' car.
For now, speculation is that the two men will go against each other at Extreme Rules, probably inside a Steel Cage. It remains to be seen how Owens plans to retaliate next week on Raw.
#1 Who will be the number one contender for the Universal Title
Two weeks ago on Raw, GM Kurt Angle announced a multi-man match at Extreme Rules to determine the number one contender for Brock Lesnar's Universal Championship, with Bobby Lashley and Roman Reigns competing in the match.
However, this past week, Angle stated that the match would not be taking place due to a snag in contract negotiations with The Beast Incarnate. While this reason is clearly just a part of the storyline, according to Bryan Alvarez of Wrestling Observer, the real reason behind the match being cancelled is simply Vince McMahon changing his mind about the same.
The Universal Title scene is now murky at best, with Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Bobby Lashley and Braun Strowman all supposedly in line to take on Lesnar next. However, Lesnar is not expected to defend his Title until SummerSlam this year.
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