Welcome to the weekly Rumor Look Back, where we look at the rumors from six months ago and see which played out as originally stated. Let’s get right to it!

December 7, 2019

• According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Vince McMahon now believes that PPVs are about new sign ups for the WWE Network and they think those come in bigger the last day before a show and that’s why cards are being announced so late.
• That’s an interesting theory. Not sure if I completely buy it.
• They also says Vince has “changed course several times” on the TLC card.
• That is not at all surprising.
• Aleister Black vs. Buddy Murphy, and The Viking Raiders vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson are likely for the show.
• Both matches happened. Black beat Murphy, like he did each time they met. The OC ad Raiders ended in a double countout. (2/2)
• PW Insider mentions the rumor that WWE is making sure its stars don’t appear on conventions featuring AEW stars is likely true.
• It sounds like something that would be true.
• The belief is Chris DeJoseph will end up working on SmackDown, says the Observer.
• I’m seeing a few places that he was “lead writer” (I guess under Bruce Prichard) but not seeing any official WWE announcement. I’ll count it though. (1/1)

December 9, 2019

• PW Insider said there were rumblings of additional releases coming from WWE beyond the four who were let go yesterday.
• There weren’t any releases until the big slew in March. (0/1)
• Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that Bayley vs. Lacey Evans and AJ Styles vs. Randy Orton are currently planned for TLC.
• Neither of those matches made the card. (0/2)
• He also said the reason WWE has gone to Bray Wyatt vs. The Miz at TLC was to prolong the story with Daniel Bryan, which is what Bryan wanted.
• That was the smart play.
• Finally, he noted there was one point where Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode were scheduled to wrestle The New Day for the SmackDown tag team titles but those plans were changed.
• Whatever happened to Roode? Can he not travel due to COVID given he lives in Canada? That’s the only thing I’m seeing on the interwebs.
• Per WWE Network News, the Broken Skull Sessions featuring Goldberg will premiere after TLC. They also say a new episode of WWE Chronicle will feature Rey Mysterio later this week.
• Accurate to both. Honestly, I haven’t watched any of the Broken Skull Sessions even though I like Steve Austin’s interviews, and those are some really good guests. (2/2)

December 10, 2019

• Braun Strowman missed this weekend’s house shows due to a back issue, according to PW Insider. Wrestling Observer says the official word is a sore hip, but it’s actually back spasms. It’s not considered serious and he should be back in action soon.
• He was back in a couple weeks. (1/1)
• If you’re wondering when you’ll next be able to see Luke Harper wrestle, WWE confirmed to The Observer the talent released on Sunday are under 90 day non-competes.
• A confirmation isn’t really a rumor. It was 90 days.
• Future releases could come from NXT, per Fightful’s sources. They’ll happen in January or February if they do.
• I don’t recall any of these either before the pandemic releases. (0/1)
• There’s not expected to be any more fallout from the Corey Graves/Mauro Ranallo Twitter issue, as a source told PW Insider Elite Vince McMahon “loves Corey Graves”.
• Corey can be abrasive but I think he’s a very talented announcer.
• On Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said Oney Lorcan had not signed his new WWE contract when he tweeted about it on Saturday, but he is officially sticking around.
• He’s still with the company. (1/1)

December 11, 2019

• There’s been some talk of Roman Reigns vs. Baron Corbin headlining TLC.
• It was actually the women’s tag title match. (0/1)
• Dave Meltzer mentioned on Wrestling Observer Radio that if Braun Strowman’s injury isn’t too bad, they could shoot an angle leading to a match at TLC on SmackDown this week.
• He didn’t work TLC. He came back pretty soon but missed this PPV. (0/1)
• Said match could very well be Strowman vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for the Intercontinental title, as that’s a planned direction.
• That plan did eventually happen, but not at TLC.
• Meltzer also said that while there’s been talk of more releases from WWE, they’ve also gone back-and-forth on it, so there may not be any more.
• There weren’t any more for a little while. (1/1)
• The Observer notes WWE’s Tribute to the Troops will not air on television this year.
• It was not. (1/1)

December 12, 2019

• Seth Rollins is cleared to wrestle with his broken pinky, WWE officials told Wrestling Observer.
• The pinky injury gave us the one glove.
• Which means a Rollins/Kevin Owens could be a late addition to the TLC card.
• That was not on the card. It was drawn out until WrestleMania. (0/1)
• At one point, plans called for Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson to challenge Viking Raiders on Sunday’s PPV.
• The OC have since been released.
• Back to Owens, Tom Colohue of SportsKeeda claims he was originally set to be drafted to SmackDown in October. When it became clear the pool was released in spoiler order, Paul Heyman called an audible to bring him to Raw because Heyman knew he could “do very good things with” KO.
• His feud with Rollins was pretty good at times but they dragged it out so long with long stretches that added nothing new to the program.
• With injury time WWE added, Luke Harper’s contract would have been up on Mar. 25, per Wrestling Observer. With the 90 day non-compete, he’ll be free to wrestle elsewhere on Mar. 8. So the company granted him two-and-a-half weeks of early freedom.
• That’s how Harper discussed it on Jericho’s podcast after his release. (1/1)

December 13, 2019

• Per the Observer, the wrestlers who were recently released had no knowledge it was going to happen beforehand and were surprised by the announcements.
• That’s not too surprising.
• It’s likely at least two more matches will be added to the TLC card before Sunday.
• Only match I’m seeing that was not already on the card was a preshow match with Humberto Carrillo and Andrade. (0/1)
• WrestleVotes notes that NXT will have some kind of presence on the WrestleMania 36 card next year.
• The NXT Women’s title match was on that card. (1/1)
• Ryan Satin found a clip of Chris Jericho on Konnan’s podcast saying he called a meeting backstage at AEW where he called out the tag team division for not tagging in and out.
• Jericho was right that there was too little rule following and refs were being buried.
• According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, John Morrison has been at the WWE Performance Center filming things for his return.
• His return has been fun.

This week: 11/19 – 58%

Overall: 3,345/5,965 – 56.1%

Have a good week, everyone. Stay safe out there.