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Welcome to the new year and the new decade! Today we bring to you the first edition of "Wrestling rumors we hope are true and those we hope aren't" of the new year and this week, things have been interesting.
Things are changing big time in the world of wrestling. As of this writing, we're coming off an incredible couple of days of Wrestle Kingdom where Tetsuya Naito became a double-champion in what was one of the finest pieces of long-term storytelling this past decade. NJPW continues to deliver every year despite losing some of their biggest stars.
AEW has been gaining momentum, as has WWE with some interesting stories and matches. What we do know for sure is that the coming year and decade are going to present something fresh and new - ushering an entirely different era of wrestling, which is something that we've all craved for a long time.
Without going much further, welcome to the first edition of the series this decade!
#6 Hope isn't true: WrestleMania 36 card still up in the air?
WrestleMania season begins late this month and it's the most exciting time of the year. Unfortunately, it seems as though there's a bit of uncertainty concerning this year's card. According to WrestleVotes, there's a bit of backstage trouble with regards to the show of shows as the card hasn't been fully decided upon yet. They tweeted:
We hope this isn't true because if things aren't mapped out for WrestleMania by January, it's a matter to be concerned about. We understand that plans can change, but if WWE doesn't have a rough blueprint for the biggest show of the year, it may not turn out to be as good as expected.
#6. Hope is true: Paul Heyman behind the recent push of a RAW star
Paul Heyman's presence backstage for Monday Night RAW has seen a big change creatively and there are now a whole new set of superstars who are being set up as future superstars. According to Wrestlingnews.co, Liv Morgan wasn't originally supposed to be a part of the Rusev-Lana-Bobby Lashley storyline but was added because of Paul Heyman.
Liv Morgan was not originally supposed to be in the story, but was added because Paul Heyman wants to push her.
We hope this is true because Liv Morgan's addition was a nice little twist, especially since she appeared as Lana's past lover and not Lashley's. Hopefully, she's one of the big priorities of Paul Heyman on Monday Night RAW and this storyline can be one that shoots her into singles stardom. She has all the potential for it.
#5 Hope isn't true: Royal Rumble winners revealed
Royal Rumble is late this month and the road to WrestleMania officially begins. According to Sportskeeda's own Tom Colohue, the two names to win the men and Women's Royal Rumble are Roman Reigns and Shayna Baszler.
He said:
The current betting favourites, previously these were just favourites from management, to win the Royal Rumble, I mentioned it was Shayna Baszler and Roman Reigns, they are now the betting favourites on a lot of betting sites, and a lot of betting companies are taking less and less odds of the chance for Roman and Shayna winning. It’s worth remembering, I believe the time was 2016 when Randy Orton won, the betting averages narrowed day by day to get closer and closer to Randy Orton, at that time you had Goldberg, Lesnar and The Undertaker in the Royal Rumble, so they were favourites the day before but Randy Orton was the betting favourite on the day. So it’s very telling when the betting favourites start to move.
While we like the idea of Roman Reigns vs The Fiend at WrestleMania 36, we fear that winning the Royal Rumble may derail his momentum as a babyface. Shayna Baszler's time on the main roster is undoubtedly approaching, but we're doubtful as to whether a direct Royal Rumble win would be the way to go about pushing her right off the bat.
#5 Hope is true: RAW management happy with two RAW stars
When Buddy Murphy and Aleister Black were on SmackDown last year, there were mixed feelings. Buddy Murphy was getting his chance to shine but was yet to be emphasized as a legitimate star, while Aleister Black kept sitting on the sidelines waiting for somebody to knock on his door.
When both were drafted to RAW this past October, it presented a fresh start. The two have been feuding with each other and all rumors and indications have suggested that it has been the opportunity for both men to get over.
There's no denying their success in doing so and Tom Colohue said that the two men were given simple instructions. He also tweeted saying that RAW management has been happy with both men. This seemingly confirms the rumors that both men are in Paul Heyman's "top priority" list along with the likes of Ricochet and others.
We hope this is true because both men deserve the push they're getting.
#4 Hope isn't true: SmackDown star to move to NXT permanently?
NXT has been gaining a lot of momentum in the Monday Night Wars, fully utilizing the extra hour added to increase the quality of the show. Finn Balor's addition on the USA Network debut gave it an "anything is possible" feeling.
Sami Zayn is one Superstar who has a high ceiling but has undoubtedly been underutilized. This past year, he's served as a manager to Shinsuke Nakamura, but that could end soon as Tom Colohue reported that Zayn could be one of the names to move back to NXT permanently.
With regards to NXT, Sami Zayn is still the favourite name I’m hearing, but there is a lot of discussion about that, so I can say for certain. Sami Zayn is the one I’m hearing the most as I’ve mentioned in the Sportskeeda podcast as well as potentially someone like Nakamura. There is a level of people they are interested in bringing back to NXT, people who have been there before, people who have a lot to add, the Samoa Joes, that sort of level. Those are the people they want working and I would quite enjoy seeing Samoa Joe vs. Adam Cole. Is that just me? Is that just a sadist in me? I watch wrestling, you watch wrestling, we’re both sadists, let’s just accept it!
We hope this isn't true because NXT doesn't need Sami Zayn and it would be a big shame if he went his entire main roster career without winning a single championship.
#4 Hope is true: Rusev's contract status and future in WWE
When Rusev's controversial storyline with Lana and Bobby Lashley began, nobody would have imagined that he would utilize the opportunity to get over as a babyface. It's worked out for him and it's no secret that his contract is expiring soon. According to Tom Colohue, Rusev's signing is a "top priority".
Everything I’m hearing so far about new contracts. Now there is s couple of people I want to focus on. I have written a report in Sportskeeda saying that the signing of Rusev is a top priority now. The company and the management are increasingly confident that Rusev will sign a new contract. It’s one of the reasons they are pushing so hard with the current storyline and once we know something, we will be able to report it. But it’s really up to Rusev at this point what he wants to do, obviously, the contract, to my knowledge, has not been signed, so it’s up to him.
We hope this is true because it goes to show that the company values Rusev and if they're confident over putting the ink to paper on a new deal, then the Bulgarian deserves a raise.
#3 Hope isn't true: WWE not afraid of AEW bidding for The Revival
The Revival to AEW is something that has been teased for a long time. The Elite have called the tag team out many times and during their contract negotiation stage, The Revival made sure to throw a few hints over potentially joining All Elite Wrestling.
Tom Colohue said that WWE is not particularly worried over losing The Revival to AEW.
In addition to that, we have the Revival, once again, increasingly confident of signing. There were discussions before the tag titles were taken away to whether or not that was a good move. Given that they are particularly confident with the company right now, in fact, the impression that I am getting is that the management is very confident that the Revival will sign a new contract. They are not particularly afraid of AEW attracting them away. They weren’t with Randy Orton either. That’s how that happened. They weren’t with Styles, that’s how that happened. It tends to be the case that once you are with the WWE it’s very hard to attract you away unless you are a very special case, example, Jon Moxley, who was attracted away.
While we like the confidence that WWE has, taking AEW's approach for granted could cost them big time in the long run. We hope they're able to secure The Revival to sign a new contract as soon as possible.
#3 Hope is true: Two major WWE stars offered big money to return to Japan
Io Shirai and Kairi Sane are two women who currently have a lot of momentum in their respective brands. While Kairi Sane is a Champion on RAW, Io Shirai has become one of NXT's top stars as a heel. She appears to be one of the next in line to challenge for the NXT Women's Championship as well.
However, there's one problem. Io Shirai is working more and getting paid less in NXT than she was at Stardom. Because of this, Dave Meltzer reported that Bushiroad is trying hard to get the two women back to Japan.
“Io may be moved to the main roster real quick to keep that from happening because then her pay goes way up because her pay in NXT is nothing special. I heard she was making more money [with STARDOM],"
We hope this is true - not because of them leaving, but the possibility that WWE will try to one-up Bushi Road and it will result in the best paycheque for the two women.
However, Meltzer also revealed that Shirai doesn't like being away from her husband - NJPW superstar EVIL.
#2 Hope isn't true: Lars Sullivan's canceled WrestleMania plans
It hasn't been an easy year for Lars Sullivan. His debut was delayed because of an anxiety attack and once he overcame them, he returned, only to be injured shortly after. He's been out of action as a result and it recently emerged that he had a past in adult cinema as well.
We're not going to get too much into that because it's irrelevant here. What this is about, however, is the big plans that WWE had for Sullivan last year prior to his anxiety attack.
Fightful seemingly confirmed that WWE had big plans for Sullivan to face John Cena at WrestleMania 35. He was expected to do so until the anxiety attack took over.
While it's good that they had big plans for him, we hope this isn't true as it's turned out to be quite the disappointment over how things have been working out for him.
#2 Hope is true: Injured superstar expected to make Royal Rumble return
Royal Rumble is the time for big returns and later this month, we could see the return of a current champion. We're talking about none other than Kairi Sane, who suffered a concussion a few weeks ago at TLC 2019.
According to Tom Colohue, she's expected to be cleared and to compete in the Royal Rumble match.
The plan is still to give her (Kairi Sane) an assessment before the Royal Rumble, to check if Kairi Sane can be involved in that match. The opinion backstage is quite high. They find it very likely that she will appear at the Royal Rumble, probably get a nice pop. If she doesn’t, not the worst thing in the world, because Asuka is already in the match, so they don’t need the Tag Champions.
We hope this is true because Sane deserves a good spot on the card and being a contestant in the Royal Rumble is a big one to have.
#1 Hope isn't true: Reason why Roman Reigns won't turn heel
Roman Reigns had a great 2019 and in 2020, he remains one of WWE's biggest babyfaces. There had been a long-standing desire among fans from 2015 to 2018 for Roman Reigns to turn heel, but it never happened.
He currently has a great spot as a top babyface and being on SmackDown, his popularity has increased. However, the possibility of seeing him turn heel still seems interesting, but Wade Keller of PWTorch revealed why it's never going to happen.
He will be a very good heel if he gets into it. But he could be like John Cena or other babyfaces, and be like 'I genuinely don't want to let down my fans'.
He further stated:
There are fans still reeling from Bayley's heel turn. Maybe Roman just doesn't want to do it because of all the good stuff he does in charity and it will just get too confusing or hard to split those personalities.
While we don't blame Reigns by any means, it's a shame because it shuts the door on some possibly interesting storylines.
#1 Hope is true: The man responsible for the Randy Orton injury angle
The Randy Orton-AJ Styles storyline on RAW has garnered more interest than it did earlier this year. Heading into WrestleMania 35, Styles was the babyface and Orton was the heel. The match didn't deliver and with the roles reversed, the story has taken a new life - given more time to build.
The most recent happening in the storyline was where WWE reported Randy Orton to be "injured" and he even went as far as walking in the ring with crutches. AJ Styles confronted him and even kicked a crutch off, but Orton did what he does best and hit Styles with a smooth RKO - confirming that he faked his injury.
According to WON, Paul Heyman is the man responsible for the storyline. We hope this is true, but what we hope isn't is the rumor that management was unhappy over the angle being leaked and fans figuring out that Orton being injured was a work.
