Categories
The Rumor Mill

The Rumor Mill: Featuring CM Punk, John Cena, The State of ECW and More.

Welcome to The Rumor Mill, I’m The Informant and I’ll be your host! Think you know what’s really going on in the wrestling world? Find the latest rumors doing the rounds here. Truth or fiction? You decide!
The big rumor going around currently is CM Punk reportedly being in the “dog house” with WWE officials. Apparently, the now former World Heavyweight Champion got a talking to by The Undertaker about how CM Punk dresses outside of the ring and that he is the World Heavyweight Champion and should appear accordingly. However, it was not Punk’s attire that got him in “hot water”, but it was he said to The Undertaker. When Undertaker gave him the talk, Punk responded by saying “well, what about John Cena?” This did not go over well with The Undertaker and the people within ear shot. WWE management then got wind of the comment and that is when the trouble started for CM Punk. At Sunday’s Hell in a Cell event, The Undertaker defeated CM Punk to win the World Heavyweight Title in a Hell in a Cell match. The general consensus is that dropping the title to The Undertaker is not all the punishment that CM Punk is going to get. Don’t be surprised to see CM Punk lose some matches and generally be presented as weak on television for a little while now.
Coming off of a pay-per-view where there are title changes and some rough matches, there are almost always a lot of rumors to be discussed. It is pretty much general knowledge by now that The Undertaker is not in good shape nowadays. As previously reported, Undertaker’s hip surgery over his time off was more severe than originally thought; he might have even had a hip replacement. A sharp-eyed fan (or a fan with high definition) might notice that The Undertaker was wearing padding around his “hip” during the Hell in a Cell Match against CM Punk. After a little while, Undertaker did adjust his tights to hide the padding, but “that area” was still puffy looking, so the cat was out of the bag at that point. Given Undertaker’s condition, there are discussions ongoing about having Undertaker retire at Survivor Series next month instead of WrestleMania as there is doubt that Undertaker can make it until March 28. There are also some backstage that believe Undertaker’s career ending at Survivor Series might be more appropriate since Undertaker made his WWE debut at Survivor Series in 1990. Whether or not The Undertaker will retire early is yet to be seen, but the general idea is that Undertaker can not have a long reign as World Heavyweight Champion and, whether he retires or not, he is expected to drop the title at Survivor Series.
On Monday’s RAW, it was announced that the Randy Orton/John Cena feud will come to an end in about three weeks time at WWE Bragging Rights when Randy Orton defends the WWE Title against John Cena in a 60-Minute Iron Man Match. In addition to an Anything Goes stipulation, if John Cena loses the match, he will be forced to leave RAW. Reportedly, the Iron Man Match has been planned for awhile to take place at the end of October pay-per-view (discussions were going on before the decision was made to change Cyber Sunday to Bragging Rights). Originally, it would be a 60-Minute Iron Man Match where the fans would get to vote for an additional stipulation, with Anything Goes being one of the voting options. However, with the Cyber Sunday pay-per-view being replaced with Bragging Rights, the decision was made to add the Anything Goes stipulation to the contest. Initially, there was no stipulation for Cena leaving RAW if he loses, but after WWE officials realized how bad of shape Undertaker was in, talk of moving Cena to SmackDown was discussed. As it stands, there is no definite answer being made available as to who will win the match, but if Cena loses, it will become apparent that he will move to SmackDown. The fact that they put the WWE Title back on Randy Orton less than a month after John Cena won the title may prove as backup to this rumor.
Anyone who watched or read about Sunday’s WWE Hell in a Cell event will notice that the lineup of the card was kind of odd with the Hell in a Cell Match for the World Heavyweight Title actually opening the event and then having the tag team Hell in a Cell Match between D-Generation X and Legacy as the main event of the evening. Now anyone who saw the Hell in a Cell Match with CM Punk taking on The Undertaker will notice the match was kind of short. As with Breaking Point, WWE are going with short matches for Undertaker and with the match being short, the decision was made to have that Hell in a Cell Match open the show as it was originally going to take place in the main event. Basically, they swapped the World Heavyweight Title Match with the DX Vs. Legacy match as the idea for the event was always to have a Hell in a Cell Match first regardless.
On Friday’s Decade of SmackDown special, we learned that former General Manager of both RAW & SmackDown, Vickie Guerrero, would be returning, full-time, to the WWE to manage her “boyfriend” and newest SmackDown Superstar- Eric Escobar. Back in June, Vickie Guerrero “quit” her job as RAW General Manager on-screen, but the reality was that Vickie wanted to take some time off so that she could spend time with her kids. The rumor is that once Vickie’s kids went back to school in September, Vickie contacted the WWE and inquired about a role for her in the company. With the Guest Host idea replacing the General Manager position on RAW, Vickie returning as the GM was not an option. When Vickie called the WWE, they had already made plans for what went down at Breaking Point, resulting in SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long being abducted by The Undertaker, resulting in the Hell in a Cell match that took place on this past Sunday’s pay-per-view. With a plan laid out for Long, a spot for Vickie as the GM was also not an option and the general feeling was that having Vickie return as the Assistant General Manager would seem out of place. There was also talk of Vickie returning to her General Manager role, but this time on ECW and, with General Manager Tiffany out with a broken arm, it seemed like the spot was wide open for Vickie to come in as GM. At the last minute, it was decided that it would be a more interesting angle to have William Regal fill in as the Interim General Manager of ECW. Allegedly, Vickie was supposed to return around the time of Breaking Point, but these complications delayed her return to the company. After realizing that Vickie could be a manager on SmackDown, the discussion turned into who would Vickie manage. It turns out that Drew McIntyre was the first pick, but McIntyre had already debuted and the backstage feeling is that McIntyre does not need a manager. The writers of SmackDown then came up with having Vickie manage a Superstar that was even younger than Edge to try and recreate a similar angle that Edge & Vickie had. The writers then turned their attention to WWE’s developmental territory, FCW, and reviewed the potential talent and decided that Eric Perez was the best choice, so Eric Perez debuted as Eric Escobar on the Decade of SmackDown special with Vickie Guerrero and the rest is history.
It’s being passed around that Vince McMahon is going back to his idea of using ECW as a glorified developmental territory. Vince had this plan for ECW last year, but kind of put it on hold for awhile, which is why ECW was left off the WWE Hell in a Cell card and will be left off of the Bragging Rights event. ECW will retain its current roster and will remain at the same time on Syfy, but ECW will not be taking part in pay-per-views. Instead, ECW will “live” exclusively on ECW on Syfy and on WWE Superstars. This means that ECW Title matches will take place on “free television” from here on in.
The Truth Is Just A Confirmed Rumor,
-The Informant-