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Welcome to this week's edition of WWE/wrestling rumors we hope are true, and those we hope aren't. Here's what's been happening behind the scenes in the world of WWE and wrestling:
#5. Hope is true: WWE's decision on Andrade and Angel Garza's future
Andrade and Angel Garza were always going to be a short-term, temporary tag team like many in WWE. Angel Garza was never even supposed to get a full-fledged WWE main roster call-up. His debut in February 2020 was solely due to Andrade serving a one-month suspension, and a report had stated that Angel Garza was supposed to move back to NXT after Andrade returned.
Instead, Angel Garza had a few people pushing for him backstage, and he got the permanent call-up. While former faction/tag team member Austin Theory has quietly returned to NXT, there seems to be something different planned for Andrade and Angel Garza.
According to PWInsider, WWE has quietly broken up the duo of Andrade and Angel Garza.
"We are told the Andrade and Angel Garza tag team is no more going forward."
It's a bit of a tricky situation, but we hope that it's true. On one side, you have two extremely talented WWE Superstars who evidently have more individual potential than they do together.
It feels as though the move to make them a tag team was purely to have The Street Profits feud with someone. Now that they are finished with The Street Profits after losing many matches, the Champions have shifted their attention to the recently-returned Robert Roode and Dolph Ziggler, who have re-formed their tag team.
The only concern with the duo breaking up is that one will benefit while the other may not. Given how the two have been positioned, it seems as though WWE may have a slight preference for Angel Garza. As long as it doesn't affect Andrade in the long run, then it's a good decision.
#5. Hope isn't true: WWE drops a major storyline for Roman Reigns
Roman Reigns as the Universal Champion has been some of the most exciting programming on WWE TV for a long time now. One could even argue that Roman Reigns is the best character that WWE has had in a long time.
There is just so much potential with him as a heel character, and it appears as though WWE is taking their first steps with that in his feud against Jey Uso.
It's no secret that Roman Reigns' original WrestleMania 36 opponent was going to be The Fiend Bray Wyatt. However, plans changed, and he was then scheduled to face Goldberg before he pulled out of WrestleMania due to personal reasons.
According to WrestleTalk, WWE has dropped the idea of doing the Roman Reigns-Fiend storyline. Sportskeeda's Lennard Surrao wrote:
"The long-term goal was always to have Roman Reigns engage in a feud with Bray Wyatt and his twisted alter ego. The company even dropped hints at transitioning to the angle with the introduction of the Paul Heyman-inspired 'Wobbly Walrus' puppet. Alexa Bliss' dead cold stare at Roman Reigns from a recent episode of SmackDown also hinted at WWE pulling the trigger on the storyline sooner rather than later. However, as noted earlier, the angle seems to have been dropped for now."
We hope this isn't true unless it's being postponed for a big stage like WrestleMania 37. It's a big money feud that needs to happen.
#4. Hope is true: Finn Balor went off-script to end the match early at WWE NXT TakeOver 31
The WWE NXT Championship might be on a bad streak. Finn Balor is now a year into his return run in NXT after a mixed but somewhat successful stint on WWE's main roster. His latest NXT title defense was against Kyle O'Reilly in the main event of WWE NXT TakeOver: 31. Kyle O'Reilly proved to be great main event material as he had what many considered one of the best NXT title matches in the brand's history.
Unfortunately, Finn Balor broke his jaw during the match, and the status of his NXT Championship reign is now uncertain. Bryan Alvarez revealed on WOL that Finn Balor stopped the match early due to the injuries that happened to both himself and Kyle O'Reilly:
"It appeared that he called for the match to go home early. If you watched the match and didn't know about the injuries, the finish quite frankly did just come out of nowhere. They were doing the match. Everything was going along great, and all of a sudden Finn Balor starts going up to the top rope, and at that exact moment my stream froze, and I was irritated because I thought, well, clearly they are going a little bit longer here. It makes no sense to jump off right now and ping the guy. But when my stream back on, he was standing there with the bell. So, they went home a little bit early; I don't know how early, but that's what happened last night."
We hope this is true because it would be a quick and better way to end the match over risking the possibility of injuring themselves further. It would be bad for the performers and for WWE.
#4. Hope isn't true: Why WWE kept delaying Sasha Banks vs. Bayley
Sasha Banks and Bayley finally started feuding after they lost the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships and failed to recapture them in a rematch a few days later.
They're now set to compete inside Hell in a Cell, and there are reports of WWE wanting the SmackDown Women's title match to headline the pay-per-view. However, there has been criticism that WWE took too long to break the duo up.
At first, it seemed as though WrestleMania would be the destination, but things changed. Then the plan appeared to be a SummerSlam match, but that didn't pan out either.
WWE finally pulled the trigger, but according to WOR, the feud was pushed back because of their dynamic as a heel tag team:
Sasha Banks and Bayley’s feud has long been the plan, but according to Wrestling Observer Radio WWE kept pushing it back because of how great their heel tag team act was.
While we can't deny that they were a great tag team, the feud should have ideally happened by SummerSlam at the latest, which is why we hope this isn't true.
#3. Hope is true: WWE planning a heel faction for Roman Reigns?
Roman Reigns' feud with Jey Uso has been phenomenal so far, and it seems like WWE has presented us with more character from Roman Reigns than he has shown in the last five years.
With Paul Heyman by his side, Roman Reigns is now SmackDown's top heel and the Universal Champion. With WWE fully behind his new heel character, one aspect which would further his status would be to lead a faction.
Now declaring himself as The Tribal Chief, WWE could end up giving Roman Reigns a heel faction. Paul Davis of Wrestlingnews.co reported that the feud with Jey Uso might be WWE's way of getting to a new Roman Reigns stable:
"For what it’s worth, there has been talk in creative about Reigns leading a stable with Jey and Jimmy (when he’s healthy) and others added in the future. We were told that the match at Hell in a Cell would be the next big chapter in the story being told and there are many other players that will be involved in the storyline with Reigns."
We hope this is true because it would be an incredible addition to Roman Reigns' character.
#3. Hope isn't true: WWE removes Mercedes Martinez from RETRIBUTION?
It turns out that WWE's big twist for RETRIBUTION was revealing Mustafa Ali as the leader and mastermind behind the faction. Before that, we only knew that RETRIBUTION comprised of many people and had five core members - T-Bar (Donovan Dijakovic), Slapjack (Shane Thorne), Reckoning (Mia Yim), Mace (Dio Maddin), and Retaliation (Mercedes Martinez).
However, with Mustafa Ali's arrival, it appears as though WWE quietly removed Mercedes Martinez from the faction. She didn't get a Twitter handle for her character like the rest, and Mustafa Ali put out a tweet indicating that there are now only four of them.
To add to that, T-Bar, the most active RETRIBUTION member on Twitter, only followed Ali, Slapjack, Mace, and Reckoning. We hope the rumor about Mercedes Martinez being removed isn't true because it would have been a good spot for her.
But the way things seem, it could be more than just a rumor. We will likely notice her absence in the coming episode of RAW.
#2. Hope is true: WWE planning a Samoa Joe return soon?
Samoa Joe hasn't had the best 2020 from an in-ring perspective. But according to his interview on the Wilde On podcast, he seems to be happy "exploring things" while not denying that his in-ring career isn't over.
He said that he's happy in his role on commentary and it has only come as a result of the concussion issues that he has had to face in 2020. WWE is always cautious with concussions and gave him his role on commentary instead.
According to Dave Meltzer on the Wrestling Observer Radio, WWE still has no plans to keep Samoa Joe as an announcer permanently. However, he admitted that WWE does value Samoa Joe and considers him to be a great announcer:
"Probably not, but for now, he does such a great job with announcing, and he's had a lot of concussions, but for now, he's doing this. I know that when he first did the announcing, and of course, things changed, I was told that it was temporary because he's too valuable as a talent to have him as an announcer. But obviously, minds changed from when I was told that to when they decided to revamp it, and he is great as an announcer."
We hope this is true because Samoa Joe's in-ring return will happen at some point and until he's all clear, he is perfectly suited to his commentary role.
#2. Hope isn't true: WWE's canceled plans for a Brock Lesnar-Lars Sullivan feud
Brock Lesnar isn't around much in a calendar year for WWE minus the big four pay-per-views and the Saudi Arabia shows. A dream match that many thought would happen was Lars Sullivan - who ended up debuting in 2019 a night after WrestleMania.
It was delayed because of an anxiety attack that Lars Sullivan had faced. But that wasn't where the controversy stopped. Lars Sullivan returned on the WWE Draft special episode of SmackDown after over a year away. According to Fightful Select, WWE originally planned a Brock Lesnar-Lars Sullivan feud:
According to Fightful Select, WWE had major plans for The Beast Incarnate. Had Lars Sullivan's debut gone as planned, The Freak was slated to face Brock Lesnar on his main roster call up.
We hope this isn't true because it would have been too early. In hindsight and with all that has happened, it was likely a better decision for WWE to hold off on it.
#1. Hope is true: Roman Reigns and ThunderDome boosting the backstage morale in WWE
Roman Reigns' return has changed the landscape in WWE, especially on SmackDown. That and WWE moving into the ThunderDome (Amway Center) venue has resulted in better overall programming.
It's no coincidence that this is the case, and according to WrestleTalk, the ThunderDome has resulted in an improved atmosphere backstage in WWE:
WrestleTalk's Louis Dangoor now revealed that the atmosphere backstage in the WWE is much more positive after the company moved to the Amway Center. The morale on RAW and SmackDown has been much better over the past month.
WrestleTalk also revealed that Roman Reigns' return has done wonders in boosting the backstage morale in WWE. Roman Reigns is a locker room leader, and former WWE Superstars like Doc (Luke) Gallows stated that the Universal Champion has changed the locker room culture.
We hope this is true because high backstage morale always translates to better programming to a certain extent. Good storylines are what facilitates it.
#1. Hope isn't true: Otis and WWE's plans for his MITB briefcase:
Otis is Mr. Money in the Bank and the WWE Universe was confused about why that was the case. While it's clear that he has Vince McMahon's backing, his current storyline with The Miz and John Morrison makes it clear that WWE has no concrete plans for him as Mr. Money in the Bank.
According to WrestleVotes, WWE is looking at different options for Otis to drop the Money in the Bank briefcase, but Vince McMahon is still his biggest fan:
We hope this isn't true because Otis shouldn't have been given the Money in the Bank briefcase if WWE never had any plans for him. With Otis on SmackDown and Roman Reigns as the Universal Champion, it's hard to see a scenario where he successfully cashes in the Money in the Bank briefcase.
The best-case scenario is to have Roman Reigns beat him in a cash-in attempt to gain heat, but WWE may want to protect Otis, which is why they're likely attempting to take the briefcase off him.
