Wrestling Rumor Reactions: Eminem on WWE SmackDown, Four Horsemen of AEW?

The world of wrestling rumors is a fast paced minefield, with WWE, Impact, NJPW, AEW and many more promotions constantly ushering in talent signing and releases, planning matches or other spectacles and shifting their backstage building blocks.

This week sees Eminem, women in Saudi Arabia, Roman or Joe and Horsemen in AEW. Let’s see if we can make sense of what’s going on, shall we?

I’m Tom Colohue and these are your Wrestling Rumor Reactions.

Eminem signed to work with SmackDown Live

Eminem will be contributing to the soundtrack of WWE 2K20 as well as appearing on an episode of SmackDown Live later in 2019, that is according to a report from Fightful.com’s Sean Ross Sapp.

This would be a major coup for WWE, given the incredible strength of Eminem’s brand identity. He is literally a household name and an association with WWE could be very powerful for both. As regards an appearance this would be a long time away so it’s hard to make any predictions. Any appearance would be after the superstar shakeup of course.

My hope would be to see Eminem working with The Usos in some capacity as that’s a rap battle I would very much like to see.

However, this report has already been called into question. Pro Wrestling Sheet reached out to a spokesperson for Eminem, Dennis Dennehy, who stated the following:

“There was a very brief, exploratory conversation that involved a third party and 2K Sports, not Eminem’s team. It has not gone beyond preliminary discussions, and any reports to the contrary are false. Right now there are no plans to further pursue it.”

Naturally, this calls the whole thing into question and the initial report could potentially harm the chances of the initial deal coming to fruition. At the moment it seems as though it’s unlikely to come to pass.

Would you like to see Eminem on SmackDown Live come the fall?

Part time Roman or full time Joe?

In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Roman Reigns elaborated on some recent changes to his personality and character in the WWE.

“But also with the storylines and character, because we have introduced Joe, especially last week, I felt like there was a lot of Joe within the promo of segment one. Even with the interaction with Seth.”

“If you know me in real life, I’m kind of like my cousins. I’m a bit of a clown. I act up. We goof off a lot. We’re silly. We’re big kids. We’re always goofing around, trying to laugh. If I can add that in the next couple of years, those layers of being chilled out, little more comedy, a few different emotions, I think that would be pretty neat.”

This is very telling of the future direction of Roman Reigns. After all, the cat is out of the bag now, and it has no intention of going back in. Roman told us his name live on TV and WWE fans don’t forget that sort of thing. It also answers a lot of concerns from the past that fans have had. Roman’s promos have seemed much more relaxed and smooth, which was one of the things people had negative opinions on when it came to the Roman character.

Also mentioned during the interview was Roman’s current part time schedule.

“I think it’s like in the middle of easing and back to close to full time. But right now we’re just on a TV schedule.”

This could explain why the evil Drew McIntyre would viciously assault our hero, Roman Reigns, last Monday on Raw.

The Four Horsemen of AEW

AEW have been making waves for a while as they slowly prepared for the launch of their product. Headlines were initially made with the report that the brand name All Elite Wrestling was trademarked. Now they’re at it again.

Fightful are reporting that a number of trademarks have been applied for by a number of people currently involved with AEW in some capacity.

According to Fightful, Arn Anderson has applied to trademark his wrestling name. This should not be a surprise for anyone really, given that Arn Anderson was recently released by WWE but still plans to appear at Starrcast and most likely plans to make appearances after under the name that he is most recognisable by.

A day later, Conrad Thompson applied for a trademark on the name “Four Horsemen.”

This is a big deal. The Four Horsemen are of course a legendary WCW and NWA faction led by Ric Flair and heavily featuring Arn Anderson; a founding member of the group. Use of this name could open a lot of doors for AEW, as it would potentially allow them to use all of that history and create their own Four Horsemen faction. This would be a big boost in helping to put over those individuals.

Similarly, Cody Rhodes has applied for trademarks to both “The American Dream” and “The American Nightmare.” The first is a phrase infamously associated with his father, Dusty Rhodes. The second is Cody’s own variant on it.

These trademark applications, if successful, could potentially prevent WWE from using those same phrases. It’s a very interesting rumor to read and I’d be very interested to see how WWE attempts to prevent this from happening, if they should choose to do so.

Dolph Ziggler working without a contract

Wrestling Inside The Ropes released an interview with WWE wrestler Dolph Ziggler this past Wednesday. Details of Ziggler’s contract, which has been the subject of several contradictory reports in the last few years, were given by the former Spirit Squad member.

“It’s weird because for the last two years I’ve had somewhat of a handshake agreement, a kind of behind closed doors deal with WWE.”

“So, I have a bit of a handshake agreement right now and we’ll know some more details in the coming months.”

Dolph Ziggler’s prolonged absence from the ring – the Royal Rumble was his only appearance since losing a cage match against Drew McIntyre at the end of December – has led to speculation that he is planning to leave the company shortly. Ziggler offers huge potential to any company that he might join as a former world heavyweight champion and a man with years of experience and a plethora of high quality performances.

At the moment that speculation seems inaccurate but his mention of more details in the coming months could be very telling.

A Women’s Match in Saudi Arabia?

One report that definitely came as a surprise was Fightful Select’s report that there is an outside chance that we may see a women’s match in Saudi Arabia. This is not being pushed by WWE or the Saudi government, but by certain prominent names in the WWE locker room.

The first Saudi Arabia show, The Greatest Royal Rumble, featured zero women both on the card or in any visible role from the company. Recordings posted on Twitter from those in attendance showed that during breaks, the WWE were advertising other events that did feature women during the show.

The second show, Crown Jewel, went one further, featuring commentator Renee Young in a last minute surprise. It says a lot, unfortunately, when we are surprised to see a woman asked to do the job that she does every week.

Also at Crown Jewel, we failed to see John Cena and Daniel Bryan, both of whom were initially booked for the card but supposedly refused to attend. Roman Reigns, unavailable at the time, apparently also expressed his concerns after the initial show.

This seems very unlikely in 2019, but not altogether impossible as the deal continues.

The Revival release reports fueled them

News of The Revival requesting their release has been freely available or some time but it’s only recently that either member has actually commented on it directly. Dash Wilder, in an interview with UK tabloid The Mirror, had this to say on The Revival’s reaction to the news:

“There were some things that got out there that I don’t think people knew the full story about.

I don’t think it aggravated us, it kind of gave us… again, we like to be angry. We like to be mad at things and have something to fight for. So that gave us more fuel for the fire and we were like… ‘we’ll have fun with the internet over that, as they don’t know what’s what, so we’re not going to tell them otherwise’.”

It’s nice to see someone who doesn’t take life too seriously. Also, both Dash and Dawson have been featured heavily recently, with the Raw tag division getting much more air time, even if they seem unlikely to feature at WrestleMania.

What rumors in the wrestling world are catching your eye? Let me know on Twitter or in the comments below.