WWE Rumor Roundup - Popular name confirms exit, Superstar fined for unprofessional conduct, Becky Lynch's future - 14 February 2020

#3. Big Undertaker match nixed

As revealed by Tom Colohue in his YouTube video, The Undertaker was slated to compete at the Super ShowDown PPV in Saudi Arabia, however, the match, unfortunately, fell through.

While the opponent wasn't revealed, there is a chance that it could have been Sting, who has been rumored to make an in-ring return in recent weeks.

When it comes to The Undertaker, he was down for a match in Saudi Arabia as I reported here, that match apparently fell through. I’m not sure who his opponent was supposed to be. It could be that it was Sting, as has been theorized, however, I’m not sure.

The match was unavailable. So it is what it is. It does mean, however, that he continues his fitness regime and potentially makes a 'Mania match. We’ll have to see if he does. He could still be a part of the build for a Super ShowDown match after all.

The good news, according to a report from WrestleZone, is that The Deadman is reportedly set to face AJ Styles in a dream match at WrestleMania 36.

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#2. Backstage concern on SmackDown

Despite the highly-publicized move to FOX, SmackDown isn't the brand it used to be and the deteriorating quality of the product has also influenced the ratings, which have not reached the expected heights.

Tom Colohue revealed on Dropkick DiSKussions that there are people at FOX who are legitimately concerned about the ratings. FOX initially projected an average rating of 2.8 to 3 Million, however, SmackDown has failed to achieve that target.

The returns of John Cena, Goldberg and Hulk Hogan have quite possibly been done to appease the folks at FOX.

Tom explained:

A large part of why Eric Bischoff left was according to contacts in FOX, rather than contacts in WWE, let me make that clear, he simply wasn't keeping promises that he had made. To my knowledge, the expectations when it came to ratings was like 2.8 to 3 Million. That's what they were thinking.

That's what they were looking at. That's what their projections were. It has not reached that level. It has, in fact, been extremely close at 2.4 or 2.5 and not only that, the opinion of the show isn't particularly strong when it comes to the viewership. A lot of people view NXT more highly, a lot of people view RAW more highly once Paul Heyman came in.

So they are not getting what they paid for. It's not the flagship, some of that comes down to the fact that Edge returned for RAW. So you have the big moment like that, and it's stuff like where are you expecting the next legend to appear.

The next Undertaker appearance, the next Triple H appearance.I do think there is a bit of appeasement going on with Goldberg, with Cena and of course, with the Universal Championship moving over, which at the time, felt like the more important championship because of links to Brock Lesnar. But they were given Lesnar, Lesnar was taken away. There are a number of people at Fox who have concerns about the ratings at the moment.