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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 jump right to it. Rumor Look Back: Feb. 23 - 28, 2026 - Bryan Alvarez notes WWE has been affected by “massive weather delays” for Raw this week but that it’s “mostly on the production side.” - Remember the Raw when it snowed so bad that no one could make it and JBL did weather reports on the roof? - There has been talk of changing Lyra Valkyria’s character and making her more aggressive, claims Bodyslam.net. - They eventually got there with her new heel persona. (1/1) - Fightful Select says they still haven’t heard of Britt Baker being brought up in AEW recently but her contract could be extended well into 2027 for all the time she has missed. - If we don’t see her on the AEW Rebel Heart show for Tanea Brooks (and I think we will), we never will. - Ricochet vs. Jack Perry, Kevin Knight vs. Kazuchika Okada, Thekla vs. Kris Statlander, and Willow Nightingale vs. Megan Bayne are all expected to be added to AEW Revolution, per the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. - The only of these matches that happened was Thekla vs. Statlander (2 out of 3 falls). Willow wrestled twice but amazingly not was a singles match with Bayne. One match against Lena Kross and then the Babes of Wrath vs. Divine Dominion. Ricochet and Jack Perry closed a battle royal. And Knight and Okada were on the other side of a tag team match, but also not one on one. (1/4) - Bodyslam.net notes WWE is planning to bring in Timothy Thatcher as an authority figure on Evolve. - He’s the on screen GM. (1/1) - PW Insider notes Robert Stone, Jinder Mahal, and Mike Chioda were all backstage at the NWA Powerrr taping over the weekend. - Cool. - Jonathan Coachman is now claiming on the Coach and Bro Show that Vince McMahon is quietly exploring buying WWE back with some Saudi backing. - I love Coach rumors because they’re often ridiculous. (Though in this business, ridiculous doesn’t necessarily mean wrong.) - WrestleVotes notes Bronson Reed was originally scheduled to win the Elimination Chamber qualifier match on Raw this week before his injury. - That makes sense. Looks like they see him as a guy who could be featured as a pretty big deal. - They also say the current idea for Drew McIntyre’s championship match at WrestleMania 42 is “anything but a singles match” but the expectation as of now is “a five-pack or six-pack challenge.” - He didn’t have a title match at 42. (0/1) - Fightful Select says storms in the northeast have led to several promotions making backup plans for wrestlers who may not be able to make it to shows. Creative changes are expected. - Weather & travel can often be a wildcard. - Despite wrestling Mina Shirakawa at a recent ROH taping, Fightful Select’s AEW sources say Charlie Evans has not signed with either of Tony Khan’s promotions. - Makes sense given she hasn’t worked any other AEW matches. (1/1) - Marie Malenko took part in last week’s WWE tryout in Orlando, per Fightful. Dean Malenko’s daughter just made her pro wrestling debut in Japan last month. - She’s signed with them, but so far only dark matches and house shows. Does she boast knowing a certain amount of holds? - Not surprisingly, the Wrestling Observer notes AJ Styles was indeed completely in the dark on the WWE plan to have Undertaker tell him he’s been inducted into the Hall of Fame live on Raw at the end of his tribute show. - Wouldn’t he need to agree to that? Maybe he already said he’d be free Mania weekend for press or appearances and was open to a HOF bid? They’ve done these “Undertaker surprises folks with the Hall of Fame announcement” for years now and I find it hard to believe these people didn’t agree to this prior. - Meanwhile, Bodyslam.net claims WWE wants John Cena to be the man who inducts Styles. - It was the Good Brothers. (As it should have been.) (0/1) - Per Self Made Pro, WWE wanted to do Jade Cargill vs. Bianca Belair for the women’s championship at WrestleMania 42 but Rhea Ripley has been in the back pocket as a backup plan of sorts. It’s possible she wins the Elimination Chamber to set that up. - Ripley was the move. (1/1) - They also say it’s possible Randy Orton is revealed as the guy who attacked Jacob Fatu, and they have a match at WrestleMania 42 over it. Aleister Black is being used like Karrion Kross was before, as a way to signal a major shift in a character before it happens. - We never found how who attacked Fatu. And I don’t think we will. - One more from Self Made Pro: Bobby Lashley signed a two-year deal with AEW but it’s likely the company added injury time to it. - He hasn’t been used a ton lately, though has been on Collision a bit. - Bryan Alvarez says Dralistico has been cleared by doctors, and he is now just waiting for clearance from AEW to make his return. - He wrestled in March. - Rocky Romero told Wrestling Observer Live he just re-signed with New Japan Pro Wrestling and he’s still working with CMLL. - He’s carved out a good spot for himself. - Sportsbooks like betonline have CM Punk as a massive favorite over Finn Bálor at Elimination Chamber, and give AJ Lee a roughly 75% chance of beating Becky Lynch Saturday. The Chamber matches are tighter, with Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton, LA Knight, Raquel Rodriguez, Tiffany Stratton, and Asuka all getting decent odds. - The massive favorites were right. Did Rhea Ripley (the winner) not get good odds? (2/2) - Punk is the underdog in his WrestleMania 42 main event, at least initially. Roman Reigns is being given a 78% chance to win in Las Vegas. - Roman did win. (1/1) - Bronson Reed suffered a bicep tear on Raw in Atlanta Monday night, confirmed PW Insider. The site says Reed went immediately to Birmingham, Alabama after the show, and will have surgery soon if he hasn’t had it already. - He’s had bad injury luck. - While Insider didn’t know how long Reed is expected to be out, they did note that ”WWE will have to reconfigure plans as he was originally slated for the Elimination Chamber and also figured into WrestleMania”. - Hopefully he should be back pretty soon. - Chelsea Green told Busted Open her ankle is “chipped”, adding “it’s not the worst kind of break so we’re good” and that her injury is “healing up very quickly”. - Speaking of someone with tough injury luck. - Tommaso Ciampa was originally supposed to debut for AEW on the Jan. 24 Collision, per Fightful Select. The site says severe weather led to the cancellation of Mark Briscoe’s match that Saturday, and with plans calling for Ciampa to confront Briscoe his debut was bumped until the match could happen on the Jan. 28 Dynamite. - Ciampa won the TNT title early. - Ring of Honor’s standalone studio taping this weekend in Jacksonville is an “experiment” to see if filming for ROH’s weekly online show can be done separate from Dynamite or Collision. That from Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio. - I check with my man Manolo and it sounds like they do the studio taping but also pepper in some shows taped after another show. - WrestleVotes heard there’s a lot of “panic” in WWE right now regarding the uncertainty of the WrestleMania 42 card. There are “constant meetings” about the situation. It’s not just a creative problem, as marketing and merchandise plans are also in flux until more of the card is finalized. A lot of people in the company are working under pressure, and there isn’t much time left to figure this out. - Injuries surely derailed things. Feels like they also started making changes that weren’t in the original plans. - Multiple outlets say there are rumors that WWE is considering adding stars like Jacob Fatu, Randy Orton, and Sami Zayn to the WWE championship match at WrestleMania, even though most of those wrestlers aren’t even in this weekend’s Elimination Chamber match. - Randy Orton got there. - According to WrestleVotes, WWE is now considering a babyface turn for Trick Williams after noticing how the live fans respond to him each week on SmackDown. - He’s a babyface currently. (1/1) - Votes also mentioned that Logan Paul and the mystery masked man were originally planned to be part of the finish of Bronson Reed’s match on Raw, but that idea was scrapped due to his injury. It sounds like the masked man angle will undergo significant changes now that Reed is out of action. - Did it? They kind of just dropped it when Seth returned. Was that going to continue? - Wrestling Observer Radio’s Bryan Alvarez heard that the wrestlers in AEW Dynamite’s Mile High Madness match felt like “they were dying” when the match was over due to working at such a fast pace at the high altitude in Denver. - Damn. - The listings on HBO Max indicate that AEW will once again air one hour episodes of Slam Dunk Collision during the upcoming NCAA tournament. These shows will run at 11 pm ET on March 21 and March 22, after being taped on March 18 in Fresno, California. - They do well with a basketball lead in. - Earlier this week, AEW World Champion MJF filed to trademark the phrase “Big Hebrew.” - I believe he calls himself that sometimes. - While discussing the winner of tonight’s women’s Elimination Chamber match, Wrestling Observer Radio’s Dave Meltzer pointed out that Rhea Ripley is on WWE’s list of wrestlers that “they really want to be main event top dog of the division.” Bron Breakker is also on that list. - Rhea won the title but unfortunately has been out for awhile with an injury. Still technically the champion though. - The Wrestling Observer Newsletter claims that Cody Rhodes is a “virtual lock” to be in the WWE championship match at WrestleMania 42. - Of course. (1/1) - On a related note, the latest odds at BetOnline indicate that Rhodes and Ripley are the favorites to win their respective Elimination Chamber matches. - Ripley did but Orton won the men’s. (1/2) - Even though there have been rumors about Randy Orton and Sami Zayn being added to the WWE title match at WrestleMania, the Observer was told that “a match involving more than three people is not being talked about right now.” Jacob Fatu is the leading candidate to join Cody and Drew McIntyre if there is a third person added. - There were no multi-man matches. (Technically every match is a multi-man but you know what I mean.) - WrestleVotes speculates that WWE booked the Brock Lesnar open challenge angle on this week’s Raw because they legitimately still “have no idea” who to match him up with at WrestleMania 42. - Maybe but Oba answered the first one and set up that match. - For whatever it’s worth, Seth Rollins repeatedly told ESPN’s First Take that he’s “getting close” to returning to WWE. - He was able to work Mania. - Per Bodyslam.net, WWE currently does not have a tentative date or plans for a Draft show this year. - I don’t think we’re getting a Draft again. (1/1) - Regarding the gloom and doom speculation that Paramount will “kill AEW” after acquiring WBD, Meltzer said, “That’s not happening, I don’t think.” - We’ll see what happens next time they need negotiate a TV deal. This week: 12/18 - 67% February 2026: 46/68 - 68% Overall: 6,452/10,950 - 58.9% Have a great week, everyone!