5 wrestling rumors we hope are true and 4 we hope aren't: WWE's plans for Roman Reigns' faction, 2-time Champion returning after 9 years, Character direction for The Fiend and Alexa Bliss revealed?

Welcome to another edition of the wrestling rumors from the past week. Once again we take a look at those we hope are true and those we hope are not. It's been an interesting week for pro wrestling fans and with WWE Survivor Series coming later this month, let's take a look at the past week's rumors.

#5 Hope is true: WWE interested in bringing back Davey Boy Smith Jr

It looks like both WWE and AEW are interested in signing Davey Boy Smith Jr, according to a report from Dave Meltzer of Figure Four Online. WWE are interested in signing the 2-time WWE Tag-Team Champion.

Davey Boy Smith Jr is also drawing interest from AEW and spoke to Tony Khan at Chris Jericho’s recent Halloween party. However, it is believed that Tony Khan and Davey Boy Jr won’t talk business until his MLW contract is up next month.

Great time seeing my old pal @IAmJericho for a proper Halloween Blast and watching Fozzy live 🎵🎵😎🤘🤘🎃 pic.twitter.com/KQM0Ux3bT1
— Davey Boy Smith Jr. (@DBSmithjr) November 2, 2020

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Here’s what Dave Meltzer wrote:

"Relations between Court Bauer and Smith are said to be fine. Smith said he's known Bauer since 2004 when he was a teenager and he's always liked him. He's under contract through 12/18. He was going to start as a regular with All Japan at the Champion Carnival tournament and then the pandemic hit. He was at Chris Jericho's Halloween party this past week and spoke to Tony Khan but they aren't talking any business until after his MLW deal is up. He's had interest from WWE, Khan expressed interest, and there is interest from All Japan, Impact and MLW and has no favorite or leaning past saying this decision will be made based on offer and whatever makes the most sense business-wise."

Davey Boy Smith Jr would be a good fit in either AEW or WWE. It would be great to see him return to WWE after nine years away, with a whole roster of fresh opponents for him. Someone like Davey Boy Smith Jr is exactly what WWE needs to add depth to their mid-card on either RAW or SmackDown.

#4 Hope isn’t true: WWE have no plans for Tucker

Tucker turned on his best friend and tag-team partner, Otis, at WWE Hell In A Cell costing him both his match and the Money in the Bank contract. Fans were hoping that WWE would build towards a feud between the two former tag team partners but that no longer seems to be the case with both men on separate brands.

According to Dave Meltzer of Figure Four Online, WWE don’t have any plans for Tucker:

"Tucker was wearing old sweatpants that read "Knight" on the back, a name he stopped using a long time ago. He was treated like the jobber of jobbers so he's deader faster after the Otis split up than was hinted to me. The angle was shot to get the briefcase off Otis with no plans of building an Otis vs. Tucker feud, and was just a way out and dropped."

We really hope this isn’t the case. Tucker has potential and if WWE don’t give him a chance, they will have broken up one of the most entertaining tag teams in WWE for no reason.

#4 Hope is true: The Fiend and Alexa Bliss won’t be traditional babyfaces

A recent update from PWInsider revealed the character direction for The Fiend and Alexa Bliss. According to the report, WWE still consider The Fiend as a babyface. However, WWE are thankfully not going to book him the way they traditionally treat babyfaces and they could possibly give him much more of an edge. The report also compared The Fiend and Alexa Bliss to The Joker and Harley Quinn:

"Wyatt had considered been a babyface on the Smackdown roster but given the nature of The Fiend character, obviously, he's not a babyface in the traditional sense. With the addition of Bliss at Wyatt's side, playing roles similar to DC Comics' The Joker and Harley Quinn, the question as to where they stand came up again overnight. Internally, they are considered babyfaces by the company."

We hope this report is true and that WWE realize that The Fiend can’t be booked as a traditional babyface. A character like The Fiend needs to have a sense of sinisterness.

#3 Hope isn’t true: Vince McMahon doesn’t enjoy tag team wrestling

In a recent interview with Stephanie Chase, FTR said that Vince McMahon does not enjoy tag team wrestling. Dax added that it was fine because it was Vince McMahon's money and his "playground":

"Cash and myself, we both worked in 2019 more than any — we had more matches than any other talent in the WWE. So they kept us booked because they knew we’d work hard on the live events, but if that were a problem, they wouldn’t have us in 155 matches in 2019, and then there’s the talk of, ‘Well they have to pay two talents.’ Yeah, they had to pay two talents but me and Cash were also two of the least paid guys in 2019. We worked the most and got paid the least, so I don’t believe that. It’s just an opinion that Vince McMahon has on tag team wrestling. He owns the company, it’s his playground, it’s his money and that’s okay. There’s things that I don’t like and if I owned a company, I wouldn’t — if I owned a coffee company, there’s no way I would serve gas station coffee, you know? It’s just not what I enjoy, and I just think he [Vince] just doesn’t enjoy tag team wrestling." H/T: Post Wrestling

Although this may seem evident with how WWE sometimes books the tag team division, it will still come as a disappointment to many WWE fans who love the art of tag team wrestling, if the rumor is true.

#3 Hope is true: Vince McMahon is a big fan of Chad Gable

Chad Gable recently dropped the Shorty G gimmick after a loss to Lars Sullivan on RAW. According to reports, the former tag team champion has number of influential supporters backstage including Vince McMahon. WrestlingNews spoke to a source involved in the creative process in WWE who told him that Vince McMahon is high on Chad Gable. He also believes that Vince McMahon sees Chad Gable as someone who is a genuine tough guy.

The Shorty G gimmick was reportedly given to Chad Gable because Vince McMahon saw it as an opportunity to work on his character.

Chad Gable fans were worried about his position in WWE because of the comedic Shorty G gimmick,especially because it came after such an impressive run in the King of the Ring tournament. We definitely hope this rumor is true because Chad Gable has the in-ring ability and potential to be a top guy in WWE.

It will be interesting to see how WWE book Gable going forward.

#2 Hope isn’t true: Cain Velasquez could return to WWE

Rey Mysterio was recently interviewed by Ariel Helwani. During the interview, Rey Mysterio hinted that we could see former UFC Champion Cain Velasquez return to WWE:

"I really don’t — I can’t dig into the exact situation with Cain [Velasquez]. I do know for a fact that he’s very dedicated. He’s very passionate about Lucha Libre and about wrestling. I know this was one of his biggest dreams to be part of WWE. I honestly don’t think that he’s gone for good. I think he’s gonna make an appearance and a comeback, and it’s very hard to put a mask on someone that has created their own history within the UFC, like Cain. I think the best thing for him was to wrestle without a mask." H/T: Post Wrestling

Velasquez was signed last year by WWE but was released earlier this year. His only match in WWE came against his former UFC rival Brock Lesnar in Saudi Arabia and Velasquez lost the match in short order.

This is one rumor we hope doesn’t come true. After Velasquez’s short but impressive run in Mexico, WWE really dropped the ball on him and fans would prefer to see what Velasquez can do in a promotion like AEW.

#2 Hope is true: No new member will be added to RETRIBUTION after Mercedes Martinez's departure

Mercedes Martinez was removed from RETRIBUTION and won't be replaced by another member

Mercedes Martinez was removed from RETRIBUTION soon after the faction identified themselves on RAW. According to reports, Mercedes Martinez herself made the request that WWE remove her from the faction before the rest of the faction signed new contracts.

We don’t yet know what WWE’s plans for the 39-year-old Superstar are as of right now. There is a good chance that Martinez could head back down to NXT although there is always a chance that WWE could repackage her and keep her on the main roster.

The report also stated that WWE have no plans to replace Mercedes Martinez with another member. We hope this rumor is true because RETRIBUTION have enough manpower at present. Another reason is that it looks like WWE may have given up on RETRIBUTION already, and if that is the case, there would be no point in adding another member to the faction.

#1 Hope isn’t true: Daniel Bryan set to feud with Roman Reigns after Survivor Series

Roman Reigns is set to wrestle Randy Orton at WWE Survivor Series later this month. With Reigns and Jey Uso now on the same page, we could see Daniel Bryan as the WWE Superstar who could challenge Roman Reigns following the Survivor Series PPV. This was reported by Dave Meltzer in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

"He's scheduled to work with Daniel Bryan, out of necessity it seems, because Bryan wasn't positioned like a main event title contender at all when he returned. The funny part is that Reigns vs. Bryan is a planned title direction shortly which makes no sense if you watched the match with Uso."

Although fans love Daniel Bryan, this is amongst the rumors fans would rather not see come true, at least at this point in time. It’s clear that SmackDown is the Roman Reigns show right now and having him run through Daniel Bryan this early may not be the best decision, especially because Bryan is probably the biggest babyface on the Blue brand.

#1 Hope is true: Big plans for Roman Reigns’ new faction

WrestlingNewsCo recently reported that WWE have big plans for a Roman Reigns-led faction on WWE SmackDown. The report states that Roman Reigns will be joined in the faction by his cousin brothers, Jimmy and Jey Uso. The Usos could follow Roman Reigns’ lead and wrestle without shirts going forward. Rumors suggest that The Usos will go after the SmackDown Tag Team Championships when Jimmy Uso returns from injury.

There are also reportedly plans to give the faction new entrance music to cement them as a unit. This would see The Usos' Day One-ish thing being retired, at least for now.

Jey Uso recently beat Daniel Bryan in a singles match on SmackDown to book his place on the men’s team for SmackDown at Survivor Series. Uso then told Roman Reigns that he was with him before turning his attention back to Daniel Byran and inflicting a further beatdown. Jey Uso’s beatdown of Bryan continued well after SmackDown went off the air.

WWE clearly have big plans for Roman Reigns' new Samoan faction and it will be interesting to see where the storyline goes from here.