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It's the most wonderful time of the year, no matter who you are because this has been a week packed with great WWE news. The rumour mill has been churning all week and we've gathered up some of the top stories for your reading enjoyment.
So sit back and let's take a trip back into this week to make sure you're caught up on all the top rumours.
#1 Dolph Ziggler's intentions
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After someone wins a big championship, usually, the last thing they do is leave their title in the ring the next night and take off without much explanation. But that's exactly what Dolph Ziggler did.
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PW Insider reports that the plan is for The Show Off to be kept off of television for the next few weeks. Although it's unknown at this point what is going to happen to the United States Title, however, the plan is for Dolph Ziggler to continue working house shows.
#2 Ronda Rousey will be busy in January
It looks like Ronda Rousey is on her way to WWE sooner or later but Pro Wrestling Sheet kind of threw a wet towel on the fire for the hope that Rowdy Ronda would be making a Royal Rumble appearance this year.
Rousey is filming a new Mark Wahlberg movie called Mile 22 and although the early stages of filming took place in Atlanta, the plan is to head to Bogota, Columbia after the holidays for an extended stay to wrap up filming in South America.
This shooting schedule might make it impossible for Rousey to make the Philadelphia Royal Rumble show on January 28th if she's in Bogota filming a movie. It was also reported that while interest has been expressed to Rousey's camp from WWE, no details have been hammered down just yet so, unless a last-minute deal can be reached, it doesn't look like Rousey will be in the first-ever Women's Royal Rumble.
#3 Batista wants to return
It's been a long time since we saw Batista in the ring and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that Batista is very serious about a return run with WWE. But if he comes back, he wants to make it a long run spanning six months to a year in length.
It was also said that The Animal might be working a busier schedule similar to that of Chris Jericho's if he came back, allowing him to work house shows. But if Batista is offered any movie deals during his return run with WWE, they would need to be factored into the contract negotiations as well which might throw a monkey wrench into things.
#4 War Machine is coming
Few tag teams on the world's independent scene have the capability of wowing audiences and doing damage like War Machine. The former IWGP and ROH Tag Team Champions seem like they're headed WWE's way after bowing at an ROH show following Final Battle, where they defeated The Addiction.
Dave Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio that Hanson and Raymon Rowe are likely to be headed towards WWE after their New Japan obligations such as Wrestle Kingdom 12 are out of the way and then they're likely to be headed for NXT. It's still unknown if WWE will keep the War Machine name, but the two are expected to remain a tag team as they should be.
#5 Ethan Carter III securing his name
Impact Wrestling is a Canadian-based company now and they're looking to cut costs in a big way to make it work. This belt-tightening is likely to involve cutting some top contracts, especially those high-dollar investments such as Ethan Carter III. Therefore, it's likely that EC3 will be headed elsewhere soon and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has previously noted he could wind up in WWE.
EC3 was Derrick Bateman when he was last in WWE but that NXT run ended in 2013. It would appear that Carter is looking to secure his Impact Wrestling name so he has ownership of it as well, so he can take it with him. He applied for a trademark for "Ethan Carter III" on December 15th in hopes to do just that.
Therefore, it might be likely that if EC3 shows up in NXT or WWE, he will be able to take his name with him.
