Another week of WWE programming is in the history books. The past seven days gave the fans a lot to talk about but most of the major speculations on the rumour mill focused on the upcoming year. With 2016 almost wrapped up, WWE is looking to make 2017 a big year and certain rumours point towards this.
There were talks about what WWE has in store for next year’s WrestleMania and about Undertaker’s possible retirement. Apart from this, some buzz about Survivor Series also found its place on the rumour mill. As always, we are going to list down the major rumours and are going to dissect them one by one.
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#5 Undertaker retirement
WWE officially announced the return of Undertaker recently and it kicked off a string of rumours. The Phenom is expected to wrestle at WrestleMania and WWE is apparently planning to push this as his retirement match. As far as Undertaker’s opponent is concerned, Randy Orton is one name that is being discussed.
Orton turning heel and joining the Wyatt Family could be WWE’s idea of warming him up for Undertaker. And a lot of people also feel that Orton is a safe worker as far as Taker is concerned. But at the same time, the name of John Cena also has a strong presence when it comes to being Undertaker’s final WrestleMania opponent.
#4 Update on Dolph Ziggler’s opponent at Survivor Series
Dolph Ziggler issued an open challenge to the superstars of Raw this past week and the buzz surrounding his possible opponent found its way to the rumour mill as well.
Sami Zayn is the name that is being thrown around as the contender. However, there were also rumours about Sami being the last man on Raw’s Survivor Series team which could ruin the possibility of a Zayn vs. Ziggler showdown.
WWE is apparently looking to keep the opponent of Ziggler as a mystery till the Survivor Series night so that they could push the suspense factor. But this could change and they could even announce the opponent of Ziggler on Raw.
#3 Rumours about Finn Balor and Asuka
Finn Balor’s injury was a big blow for WWE as he had to relinquish the WWE Universal championship. The injury layoff is supposed to keep Balor out for a long time and initially, he was expected to return for the WrestleMania period.
The recent rumours that poked up this past week suggest that WWE had hopes of bringing back Balor in time for Royal Rumble. But this could not happen due to the severity of the injury.
Elsewhere, Asuka could be spending a long time down in NXT as WWE is now looking to build women wrestlers around her at the developmental circuit.
#2 Charlotte’s reign and streak
The reason for Charlotte winning the Raw Women’s title at Hell in a Cell from Sasha Banks had the fans curious.
One set of the rumours suggests that WWE had concerns about the health of Sasha, who seemed to be pretty worn out after her match at Hell in a Cell. Sasha needed help to reach backstage but it’s not clear whether the same is a work or Sasha was indeed suffering from some sort of injury.
Another set of rumours suggested that WWE did not want a program with Sasha and Nia Jax and wanted a storyline between Bayley and Charlotte instead for the title. As far as Charlotte is concerned, her pay-per-view streak is going to be a major storyline heading to WrestleMania with someone getting a huge push at the show against her.
#1 Big plans for 2017
As mentioned in the introduction, WWE is planning big things for WrestleMania.
One among that is the attempt to get a UFC star for WrestleMania 33. Ronda Rousey made her appearance on WrestleMania a couple of years back and WWE is looking to come up with something similar. Speaking about WrestleMania, WWE is also planning a possibility of letting their fans visit the Performance centre.
This would be done ahead of WrestleMania, which is taking place in Orlando. Above all these, WWE is hoping to get 3 Million paid subscribers for the Network and though it’s not a plan confined to 2017, WWE is expecting the same to happen within 2018.
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