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Welcome to yet another edition of "WWE rumors that didn't come true this month". This past month, July 2020, wasn't very great for WWE as the ratings of its flagship show WWE RAW took a massive hit, drawing its lowest ratings in history. But the same was not the case for WWE NXT, who won the Wednesday Night rating wars with AEW three weeks in a row but lost afterward.
From stuff about WWE Extreme Rules to Kairi Sane leaving WWE, the rumor-mill was at it's best and while most of them turned out to be true, there were some which didn't. And we are here to look at this latter category!
So without further ado, let's take a look at the five WWE rumors that didn't come true in July 2020. Be sure to comment down and let me know what impact these rumors could have had if they were true!
#5 Vince McMahon reportedly "giving up" on WWE Superstar Shayna Baszler
Reports surfaced earlier this month that Vince McMahon had soured on former NXT Women's Champion Shayna Baszler. The Queen of Spades looked set to make a huge impact on RAW when she destroyed the entire competition at WWE Elimination Chamber to become the #1 contender for Becky Lynch's RAW Women's Championship. But she was unable to defeat her at WrestleMania 36, and later lost the Money in the Bank match as well.
Sportskeeda's Tom Colohue later reported that this was not true and Vince has not "given up" on Shayna Baszler.
"Well, I know there have been a lot of rumors about Shayna Baszler. A lot about Vince McMahon being a fan and then not being a fan. From everything I have been told, that simply isn't true."
"She has not been off TV because of that; she has been off TV because her whole storyline, or at least the plan for it, was built around the feud with Becky Lynch and Becky Lynch isn't available. It has been confirmed that Shayna Baszler was the original plan to win the Royal Rumble. I had reported that in my YouTube in January a couple of weeks before the event."
With her being absent from WWE programming for a few weeks, this report initially looked to be true. But she has now returned to Monday Night RAW and is looking determined than ever before to rule the women's division on the Red brand. It is yet to be seen what are the SummerSlam plans for her.
#4 WWE management "furious" over NXT spoiler leak
This month, NXT Great American Bash saw one of the biggest matches in WWE's Black and Gold brand's history as Keith Lee and Adam Cole took on each other in a "Winner Takes All" match for the NXT and the North American Championships. It was Keith Lee who ended up victorious and walked out as the double champion, but this ending was unfortunately spoiled in advance.
Saurav Gurjar, one half of NXT's Indus Sher posted a photo of the ending of the match with Keith Lee holding both the titles on his Instagram story and while he was quick to realize his mistake and delete it, screenshots began circulating all over the internet. Reports suggested that the WWE management was furious with him and that he was in trouble with the WWE bosses.
But the recent reports revealed that WWE held a backstage meeting regarding the above incident where Saurav Gurjar issued an apology for his mistake. The report further mentioned that there is no significant heat on him and he will likely get away without any punishment. But at the same time, we haven't seen Indus Sher on TV since then!
#3 WWE filming alternate finish for NXT title match
As mentioned in the last slide, the ending for the "Winner Takes All" match at NXT Great American Bash between Adam Cole and Keith Lee was unfortunately leaked by NXT Superstar, Saurav Gurjar. Later, Taz took a shot on WWE for the leak on AEW Dynamite for running a sloppy shop.
This led to an NXT talent tweeting that they don't run a sloppy shop and went on to hint about there being two endings and that WWE fans will find out the real ending when NXT Great American Bash airs next week. The rumors were further fueled when Adam Cole revealed that he won't be streaming on Twitch because of some changes coming up at work.
But as we saw at NXT Great American Bash, WWE did not change the ending of the match as it was Keith Lee who defeated Adam Cole to win the NXT Championship and become a double champion. Last week on NXT, Keith Lee relinquished the North American Championship and a ladder match is set to take place at NXT TakeOver XXX for the vacant title.
#2 Reported finish for "Eye for an Eye" match at WWE Extreme Rules
This past month, "The Horror Show at Extreme Rules" witnessed one of the most bizarre matches in WWE history as Seth Rollins took on Rey Mysterio in an "Eye for an Eye" match. As soon as WWE announced the stipulation that a Superstar will have to extract his opponent's eye to win the match, WWE Universe started wondering how do they plan to achieve this.
It was then reported that WWE has planned to tape the match in advance and will use CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) effects for the ending of the match to simulate an eye being pulled out. As horrific that it may sound, that seemed to be a logical way to achieve the task.
Fast forward to WWE Extreme Rules, Seth Rollins and Rey Mysterio had an amazing match except for the disastrous finish. The uncomfortable ending of the match saw Rollins win and then went on to puke his guts out after looking at Rey. Of course, it was not properly shown on TV, except a very fake-looking eyeball which might just have been a sugar candy.
Reports later suggested that WWE did tape the match and used prosthetic makeup to make it look like Mysterio's was extracted, but Vince McMahon hated the look of the effect and hence it was edited out in the end.
Many fans questioned the purpose of this ending, as it came out pretty weird on-screen, and WWE even went on to mention that Mysterio had been taken to a "local medical facility" and he might retain his vision!
#1 Asuka's WWE SummerSlam plans
When WWE booked Sasha Banks to challenge Asuka for the RAW Women's Championship at Extreme Rules, no one expected the Legit Boss to walk out with a victory. There were speculations of either Bayley costing Sasha the match, or Asuka winning clean.
Kairi Sane then told Asuka on RAW Talk that she would love to face her for the RAW Women's Championship, which led to rumors of Asuka vs Kairi Sane at SummerSlam, with that potentially being Sane's last WWE match. But at Extreme Rules, a confusing ending led to a match between Asuka and Sasha Banks for the RAW Women's Championship this past week on RAW. Surprisingly, Sasha walked out with the victory and the title after Asuka was counted out for going backstage to save her friend Kairi.
Reports later mentioned that all the original plans for Asuka at WWE SummerSlam were changed.
“There were so many changes made including the Asuka and Sasha Banks stuff. That was all changed. Originally Asuka was going to defend the title against whoever injured Kairi and that was as of, at least Sunday night or Monday morning of last week right before the tapings [and] they tore that all up.” (h/t WrestlingNews.co)
It is to be seen what is next for Asuka after losing her RAW Women's Championship to Sasha Banks. She might challenge either Sasha or Bayley for their title.
