WWE Rumor Roundup: Legendary tag team reuniting after 5 years at Royal Rumble, Plans changed for Liv Morgan - 3rd January 2020

We are back again with another edition of Sportskeeda's WWE Rumor Roundup. We are here every day and by now, we're certain that you know what we do.

The day that went by had a host of big rumors that made waves across the interwebs and, as always, we've gathered the best of the lot.

The winners of the Royal Rumble matches were reportedly revealed. Contract updates on three WWE Superstars were brought to light and it's thankfully favourable for the WWE.

A former WWE Champion could be heading to RAW while another SmackDown Superstar could be moving to NXT in the upcoming Shakeup.

We can't have a roundup without talking about the biggest storyline on RAW and today's lineup also has some interesting information about Liv Morgan's return.

That being said, let's take a look at the latest Rumor Roundup:

---

#6. Booker T training for in-ring WWE return, talks reuniting the Harlem Heat

Booker T and Stevie Ray are serious about reforming the Harlem Heat for a match against The Revival.

Scott Dawson laid out a challenge to the Hall of Famers for a match at the Royal Rumble but it may not just be a social media stunt.

During the recent episode of WWE Backstage, Booker admitted that he has discussed getting back the Harlem Heat with brother Stevie Ray for a showdown against the top guys from SmackDown.

The 5-time World Champion also revealed in his podcast that he has been training for an in-ring return, however, Booker added that he would stop if he doesn't get a call from the WWE in the next week.

“I’ve been getting a lot of workouts in. I’ve been trying to get my body right, I’ve been trying to get my mojo right, and I’ve been in the gym training, working out really hard. Sometimes I’ve been doing two [workouts] a day and I’m trying to keep myself in shape because the Royal Rumble is gonna be right here in Houston, Texas.”

“If I would’ve gotten it [call from WWE], I would’ve told you. I have not gotten my invitation yet. The thing is, if they don’t tell me in the next week, I ain’t doing it. They on the clock. I’m putting this out there right now. If they don’t let me know within the next seven days, don’t call because I’ll stop training after then. I’m gonna stop putting in real hard work. Don’t call me at the last minute when I’m not ready.” H/t Credit: Danny Hart of Sportskeeda

The Harlem Heat last wrestled for Booker T's Reality of Wrestling promotion back in 2015.

#5. Kairi Sane update

Kairi Sane, who has been out of action due to a concussion suffered during the main event of TLC, is widely expected to return to action at the Royal Rumble.

The ever-so-reliable Tom Colohue revealed in his new YouTube video that Sane will undergo an assessment before the show and the company expects her to clear the test and be a part of the Women's Royal Rumble match.

The plan is still to give her (Kairi Sane) an assessment before the Royal Rumble, to check if Kairi Sane can be involved in that match. The opinion backstage is quite high. They find it very likely that she will appear at the Royal Rumble, probably get a nice pop. If she doesn’t, not the worst thing in the world, because Asuka is already in the match, so they don’t need the Tag Champions.

---

#4. Paul Heyman behind Liv Morgan's return

The latest episode of RAW ended with the return of Liv Morgan, who showed up and revealed herself to be the love interest of Lana.

WrestlingNews.co reports that the plan was never to insert Liv Morgan into the storyline and she was just brought back by Paul Heyman to give her a push in a top angle on TV.

The report also states that Vince McMahon is quite happy as the wedding segment, which went into overtime, did solid numbers. The WWE Boss has a penchant for doing crazy stories such as this, but he has had to maintain a balance to please the USA Network officials as well as the sponsors.

This time around, Vince McMahon got what he wanted and that's kept him in a good mood.

#3. The Revival and Rusev contract updates

The current contracts of The Revival and Rusev are coming to an end soon and as revealed by Sportskeeda's Tom Colohue in his new YouTube video, the WWE management is confident of the aforementioned Superstars signing new deals and extending their stay in the company.

Rusev is yet to sign a new deal but the belief is that he should put pen to paper in the coming days. His contractual status is one of the reasons why WWE has pushed him heavily on RAW and signing him to a new deal is a top priority.

Everything I’m hearing so far about new contracts. Now there is a couple of people I want to focus on. I have written a report in Sportskeeda saying that the signing of Rusev is a top priority now. The company and the management are increasingly confident that Rusev will sign a new contract. It’s one of the reasons they are pushing so hard with the current storyline and once we know something, we will be able to report it. But it’s really up to Rusev at this point what he wants to do, obviously, the contract, to my knowledge, has not been signed, so it’s up to him.

Regarding The Revival, Tom stated that the company is not afraid of AEW trying to attract the former SmackDown Tag Team Champions away and are again certain that Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder will renew their contracts.

In addition to that, we have the Revival, once again, increasingly confident of signing. There were discussions before the tag titles were taken away to whether or not that was a good move. Given that they are particularly confident with the company right now, in fact, the impression that I am getting is that the management is very confident that the Revival will sign a new contract. They are not particularly afraid of AEW attracting them away.

#2. The Miz moving to RAW, another SmackDown Superstar going to NXT

WWE Insider Tom Colohue was the first to reveal the news about WWE planning another Superstar Shakeup for the April after WrestleMania.

In his latest video, Tom stated that he has heard whispers of The Miz possibly being moved back to RAW.

There are some early whispers of moves coming for the planned Shake-up in April. Now, there are a few people that have been constantly moved back and forth and Miz is one I’m hearing mentioned a lot, but he’s always mentioned. He’s someone who they are considering someone of a role talent and it’s someone they can use on USA because Miz and Mrs is on USA and there is a preference for that.

Additionally, with NXT also set to be involved in the Shakeup, there is a possibility of Sami Zayn going back to the Black and Gold brand.

With regards to NXT, Sami Zayn is still the favourite name I’m hearing, but there is a lot of discussion about that, so I can say for certain. Sami Zayn is the one I’m hearing the most as I’ve mentioned in the Sportskeeda podcast as well as potentially someone like Nakamura.

There is a level of people they are interested in bringing back to NXT, people who have been there before, people who have a lot to add, the Samoa Joes, that sort of level. Those are the people they want working and I would quite enjoy seeing Samoa Joe vs. Adam Cole.

#1. Royal Rumble winners

Sportskeeda's Tom Colohue posted a new video on his YouTube channel in which he revealed that the picks from the management to win the Royal Rumble are now also the betting favourites to win the men's and women's matches respectively.

As of this writing, Roman Reigns and Shayna Baszler are the odds-on favourites to get WrestleMania title matches.

The revelation has a lot to do with WWE shareholders getting some information about the angles in advance, which affect the betting odds. Colohue explained:

The current betting favourites, previously these were just favourites from management, to win the Royal Rumble, I mentioned it was Shayna Baszler and Roman Reigns, they are now the betting favourites on a lot of betting sites, and a lot of betting companies are taking less and less odds of the chance for Roman and Shayna winning.

It’s worth remembering, I believe the time was 2016 when Randy Orton won, the betting averages narrowed day by day to get closer and closer to Randy Orton, at that time you had Goldberg, Lesnar and The Undertaker in the Royal Rumble, so they were favourites the day before but Randy Orton was the betting favourite on the day. So it’s very telling when the betting favourites start to move.