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Welcome to this week's edition of wrestling rumors we hope are true and those we hope aren't! It's been a rather interesting week as the first round of the WWE Draft has wrapped up while AEW finished their second episode of Dynamite.
Things are certainly getting interesting in the world of wrestling and as of this writing, the Draft in WWE is still incomplete. We're going to get a clear picture of the direction ahead for the coming few months.
For all we know, the seeds for WrestleMania may even begin to be planted. With that being said, October may not be the most exciting month in WWE as we're building towards Crown Jewel, a PPV that doesn't have too much buzz or excitement surrounding it. With that being said, the long-term direction of things is probably going to be quite entertaining. We're going to have quite the week coming ahead and here are the rumors we hope are true and those we hope aren't!
#5 Hope is true: Major hint at CM Punk securing the FOX analyst role
By now you're probably well aware of CM Punk having allegedly secured his role as an analyst for FOX Sports, where he'll be alongside Renee Young. He revealed that he went for the tryout because it meant that he would have to answer to FOX and not WWE.
He also stated that he will be honest if he thinks something is bad and isn't planning on sugarcoating it. An update on that has come to light. Pro Wrestling Tees has now pulled all of CM Punk's merchandise on the website, indicating that he may have signed the contract.
It's no secret that he has impressed FOX officials and we may be onto something interesting here!
#5 Hope isn't true: The future of Full Sail University for NXT
Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida has been the venue of NXT for around 7 years now. It's a very small but intimate venue that hosts roughly 400 people for every taping. Naturally, it sells out rapidly and the audience belongs to the more "hardcore" demographic. As a result of that, the reactions are always louder and the crowd has been a vital part of NXT's rapid growth over the last 7 years.
However, things have changed drastically in NXT now. Not only have they extended an hour to the show, but they're now live and competing directly with All Elite Wrestling. The latter aspect has led WWE into reconsidering keeping Full Sail as the venue for NXT. Since AEW is now being hosted in larger arenas, the feel of it is much bigger.
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE is considering bringing NXT to the road weekly by booking 5,000 seat venues like AEW is. Since they were busy with the USA Network premiere last month, they didn't have time to look for venues, but they're going to look to expand.
We hope this isn't true because Full Sail has been a large part of NXT for many years. However, we do understand WWE's perspective.
#4 Hope is true: AEW has huge plans for Jack Hager fka Jack Swagger
Jack Hager was the big surprise debut as AEW Dynamite debuted in early October. He got a better reaction than he ever got in a while and the MMA superstar seems to have a new lease of life in the pro wrestling world.
Things have changed quite a lot for him and many believe that he's just there to be Chris Jericho's bodyguard and a part of The Inner Circle faction. However, Wade Keller of PWTorch reported that AEW has huge plans for Jake Hager and plans to turn him into a huge star rather than just making him a side character.
"People in AEW are telling me he is super-motivated, he’s regained his confidence that he lost in WWE and there’s some powerful people in that company, influential people, who think he is going to be not a support player, a guy standing behind a star, but be a star,” Keller explained. “And if that’s what they think and he can deliver deliver on that, then that will show itself in the next couple months.”
We really hope this is true because Hager has always been a talented superstar and it's great to see him regain all that lost confidence. Don't underestimate him. He may just surprise you.
#4 Hope isn't true: Vince McMahon rejected Chris Jericho's offer for Jack Swagger to be his bodyguard in WWE
Chris Jericho and Jake Hager are now together in a new faction known as The Inner Circle. Perhaps Hager being in the faction was as per Jericho's request because he first did so 10 years ago in WWE, according to Bryan Alvarez on the Wrestling Observer Radio.
Alvarez revealed:
"Apparently, like a decade ago, Jericho wanted Jack Swagger to be his bodyguard. And he presented it to Vince and he just said no. And so, 10 years later, he's finally got the opportunity and he doesn't want....this must be the Bellator Jake Hager...this cannot be WWE Jack Swagger. But he apparently feels that he can get this guy over"
We hope this isn't true because Hager has always been a really good talent. He wasn't exceptional 9 years ago, but WWE made the mistake by pushing him far too soon and afterward, he fell down the pecking order quite easily.
It's good to see that he has found some redemption and it's sad to think that he may have had a higher ceiling had the storyline gone through.
#3 Hope is true: A positive change in Sasha Banks and Vince McMahon's relationship
Sasha Banks used to be scared of Vince McMahon for a few years upon her main roster debut. However, things had changed and Banks revealed earlier this year that she goes directly to Vince McMahon to discuss things because she'll get the most direct answer possible.
It seems as though the respect has eventually become mutual, as Sasha Banks has earned the respect of McMahon, according to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful. Over the past few months, Sasha Banks has reportedly been in the good graces of McMahon.
This may come as surprising to some since she just lost a title feud against Becky Lynch, but the circumstances were entirely different. For one, WWE is completely committed to Becky Lynch as the face of the women's division and there's no stopping her now. Moreover, October is the time when the 2K games release annually and this year, Lynch happens to be the cover star alongside Roman Reigns, so they obviously needed to make her look strong.
With that being said, Banks has moved to SmackDown and will have a fresh start. We expect huge plans for her on the Blue brand.
#3 Hope isn't true: The original finish to the Hell in a Cell main event
The entire Seth Rollins-Bray Wyatt feud instantly went from being the most exciting Universal title feud in its 3-year history to the biggest flop. It turned out that WWE didn't want Rollins to drop the title and at the same time, they didn't want The Fiend to lose. Why book the match when there's no way to protect both without making it look bad.
The feud seemed to come to an end at the Draft as The Fiend attacked Rollins and a while later, he was drafted to SmackDown. The assumption as of this writing is that Rollins will be on RAW. That was a disappointing end to the feud and the original finish wasn't any better.
On the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer wrote what the plan was originally:
The finish of the match was from McMahon, obviously. His idea was always that he wasn’t beating Wyatt this early, but wanted Lesnar, Rollins, Lynch and Flair as the four champions going into the draft and the new beginnings. The original idea for the finish was that Wyatt would take a gimmicked bump off the top of the cage and be unable to continue and the match would be stopped. Then, after it was stopped, he would pop up like Undertaker and take Rollins out with the mandible claw.
We don't really need to go into detail as to why we hope this isn't true. Everything about that feud is quite perplexing.
#2 Hope is true: Another twist in the Edge return saga
The rumors have been rampant lately about Edge being cleared for an in-ring return. Based on experience, when rumors circulate this heavily, there's usually a large aspect of truth to it. Yes, we're aware that Edge denied it in a tweet, but what would you expect him to do? Spoil his return?
There have been multiple sources, ranging from WON to PWInsider to Front Row Brian and more. Fightful has now joined that list in providing a small update on Edge being cleared to return. They said:
This week, Front Row Brian reported that Edge has gained clearance to work in the ring and a return was set. Despite Edge posting a tweet denying the news, there was speculation, bordering on confirmation backstage at SmackDown last night that Edge had indeed been cleared. We haven't heard of any plans or if a return was set.
We hope this is true because it would be exciting to see Edge back. If he is cleared for an in-ring return, we hope it's on a part-time basis similar to what The Undertaker used to do at WrestleMania. This could be incredible!
#2 Hope isn't true: Paul Heyman and Vince McMahon had a tense meeting backstage
Nobody was happy with how Seth Rollins vs Bray Wyatt ended. It seems as though people backstage weren't either and Sportskeeda's own Tom Colohue spoke to Korey Gunz about it on Dropkick DiSKussions, saying that the fallout led to a tense moment between the two.
Colohue started by saying:
“Paul Heyman, in charge of RAW, was obviously in a production meeting with Vince McMahon, in which they were deciding how RAW was going to go. They laid out earlier that they would work on it from there. Paul Heyman was not happy with that situation. I don’t think Vince McMahon was very happy with that situation as a result.”
He continued:
I know it was a tense moment in the production meeting where they just had to have that discussion [how to book Rollins and Wyatt], clear the air a little bit and decide where they’re going next.
This was before the draft and we hope that this tense meeting didn't happen because it could lead to an inevitable clash of egos backstage and we all know how that would end for Paul Heyman if it escalated.
#1 Hope is true: Sheamus set for an in-ring return soon
Sheamus has been out of action since after WrestleMania 34. The rumor was that he had suffered a concussion and wasn't cleared for a while, but Batista had rubbished these rumors, stating that he as just on a hiatus.
Whatever you choose to believe, The Celtic Warrior had a half-year long break from the ring and it's certainly well-deserved given all that he's done for the company. As a result of this, Cesaro was separated and moved to RAW, where he has had a moderate singles run.
According to PWInsider, Sheamus is all set to be on the road very soon. He's going to be involved in autograph sessions on the same day as shows which means that he'll be traveling again.
It looks like we're going to get an in-ring return from The Celtic Warrior and we can probably expect him to return once the draft wraps up. We hope this is true and we also hope that he reunites with Cesaro because The Bar would be a huge boost to any brand's tag team division.
As of this writing, Cesaro was unpicked and is a free agent.
#1 Hope isn't true: Ember Moon out for an extensive period
Ember Moon has struggled a bit on the main roster. It's been 2 and a half years now and she's done nothing of note minus challenging for the SmackDown Women's title at SummerSlam. Even then, that wasn't exactly a high-profile feud by any means.
She is one of the few superstars who suffered injuries recently. Samoa Joe suffered a thumb injury while Sasha Banks' injury was undisclosed, but a relatively minor one from the look of things. However, Ember Moon has suffered some bad luck as she suffered either an Achilles or Ankle injury, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Ember Moon will be out of action for a decent length of time with either an ankle or an Achilles injury. The latter is really nasty, as that can be close to a year. Ankle wouldn’t be nearly as bad.
We hope this isn't true because it's a long time away from the ring. It's not as often that we get injuries this extensive but it will affect her in the long-run. All we hope is that the injury is not as bad as rumored and that she comes back sooner and in a better state!
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