One of the best parts of being a WWE fan is speculating on what may happen. However, with so many rumors, spoilers, and leaks, it’s a hard market to keep up with, let alone find validity in a world that deals so regularly with Fake News.
However, we’ve done some of the work for you by sifting through every rumbling and grumbling this week to handpicked some of our favorites. It’s worth noting that even though we like these rumors, it by no means is a measure of their likelihood. In WWE, nothing actually happens until it actually happens.
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That said, here are the 5 Juiciest Rumours n WWE this week.
Enjoy!
SmackDown Rumble Winner?
With the Royal Rumble just three weeks away, now is the appropriate time for reckless predictions. However, the field of potential winners may very slim.
Cagesideseats is reporting that a SmackDown Superstar is expected to win the Royal Rumble and march to WrestleMania for his WWE Championship opportunity. This significantly reduces the list of winners as SmackDown only has a handful of wrestlers who are ready for such a bright stage.
This likely makes Shinsuke Nakamura the de facto favorite barring AJ Styles losing his Championship before the Rumble or John Cena competing as a representative of SmackDown.
Big Match Shane at ‘Mania?
Since returning to WWE in 2015, Shane McMahon‘s in-ring usage has been reserved exclusively for marquee moments. And by the sounds of it, the trend of blockbuster matches will continue at WrestleMania 34.
According to Wrestlevotes, Shane is currently scheduled for a “major match” at the New Orleans mega show. The expectations have him working against Kevin Owens and/or Sami Zayn, but it’s unknown as to if Shane will have a partner or not.
This doesn’t come as too much of a surprise as Shane has mixed it up with the Undertaker and AJ Styles in consecutive WrestleMania’s, but his involvement, while likely, was never guaranteed. However it appears that he will be an integral part of the April 8th show, we just don’t know in what fashion.
The fan will be clamoring for Daniel Bryan to enter the fray, but that may prove to be a pipe dream. WWE has remained rigid in their stance against letting Bryan compete again due to concussion-related issues. However, Bryan has teased physicality on multiple occasions over the past few months and his rivalry with Shane McMahon could conceivably lead to violence.
The Miz to Hunt the Intercontinental Championship?
The last time we saw The Miz on WWE television, he was losing the Intercontinental Championship to Roman Reigns. But when he comes back to RAW next week, his first order of business may be to reclaim his precious title.
On Monday’s episode of RAW, WWE announced The Miz will make his return next week after missing over a month to film the Marine 6. In his absence, Roman Reigns has kept the Intercontinental Championship warm, but according to Cagesideseats, WWE plans to insert The Miz into the title picture.
This doesn’t come as too much of a surprise as Miz and the Intercontinental Championship have become synonymous over the past few years. However, it has been nice seeing it around Reigns’ waist, maybe because of the sheer novelty, but the world may actually be a safer place when the Miz is Intercontinental Champion.
Daniel Bryan’s WrestleMania Deadline
Now that Daniel Bryan is in a combustible storyline with Shane McMahon, there’s growing sentiment that their feud may lead to a WrestleMania match. However, WWE has remained rigid in their stance against Bryan returning to in-ring action and the SmackDown GM himself believes that his window to wrestle in WWE is rapidly closing.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Bryan opened up about the complicated situation.
“I assume that if I don’t wrestle by WrestleMania, I probably won’t be wrestling with WWE at all,” said Bryan. “That’s my assumption.”
Bryan has become increasingly physical over the past few weeks which lead to further speculation that WWE may be considering allowing him to actually wrestle.
“It’s not a black and white answer,” said Bryan. “There are a lot of issues with me getting cleared by WWE. They have a very strict protocol, which is a good thing, but the timeline of all that happening was not the best for me. It’s an interesting situation that will develop.”
This is narrative that seems to get more complex by the day. The issue at hand is that Bryan was forced into a premature retirement due to concussion-related injuries. Since, Bryan has been militant in his efforts to get healthy and has actually been cleared by several doctors to wrestle again, even getting the public support of his wife Brie Bella to do so. However, WWE has yet to give Bryan the greenlight, and it’s possible they never will.
US Championship Prophecy
Even though the US Championship tournament is in its infant stages, the results may have already been decided.
A report from Cagesideseats suggests that the tournament’s final round will set Jinder Mahal and Bobby Roode against one another. Even more, they assert that it will be Roode who becomes the new US Champion.
If things do unfold as such, it wouldn’t be too much of a deviation from early predictions. Given that most of the tournament’s field was unlikely to be given such a big opportunity, a former WWEChampion like Mahal and a highly touted NXT call-up like Roode made for easy choices to jockey for the belt.
Roode becoming US Champion could the launching point his devoted fan base has been awaiting. However, earlier reports signal that Roode’s reign as US Champion will almost instantly be contested by Dolph Ziggler.
Over the weekend, news broke that WWE is concocting a story reminiscent of WrestleMania 10’s iconic feud between Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon. Like Michaels did, Ziggler “left” the company as a title holder. However, Michaels would make a return after Ramon become Intercontinental Champion and the dispute over the true champion lead to the greatest ladder match of all time.
The current expectations have WWE uncorking a similar, if not identical, premise for Ziggler’s return.
