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WWE Rumors: Seth Rollins Return, Bayley Title Plans, Hulk Hogan Comeback, Naomi

By Kris Holt
Published on: 01:54 PST, Feb 22, 2017

The latest WWE rumors involve a trio of returns from former champions, along with speculation about the future of Bayley’s Raw Women’s Championship.

Seth Rollins has been forced to sit on the shelf since Samoa Joe debuted on Raw three weeks ago and attacked him. As Joe locked in the Coquina Clutch on Rollins, The Architect tweaked his knee, and many feared another long layoff. It’d be the second accidental knee injury to put Rollins out of action in just over a year after he spent time on the sidelines in late 2015 and the first half of 2016 while rehabbing an injury.

Soon after Rollins suffered the latest setback, WWE rumors suggested that the damage was not as bad as officials initially suspected and that he’d be back in time for WrestleMania 33. However, recent messaging on WWE TV hinted that Rollins would miss his second WrestleMania in a row due to injury, putting his long-expected match with Triple H in jeopardy once again.

The doubt WWE has placed in fans’ minds seems to have been a smokescreen, though, as Rollins is scheduled to appear on next week’s Raw for a sit-down interview in which Cageside Seats expects him to announce he will be back by WrestleMania 33.

Seth Rollins has been begging for a match with Triple H after The Game cost him an opportunity to win the WWE Universal Championship in August, and all roads (still) seem to be heading toward a WrestleMania 33 showdown between the two.

On the women’s side of the Raw roster, it seems plans have shifted with Bayley as of late. The original plan, according to Wrestling Observer’s WWE rumors, had Bayley slotted to win the Raw Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 33, following up with her first title defense at WWE Payback on April 30 in her hometown of San Jose. Of course, that plan has shifted as Bayley won the title on Raw last week. There’s every chance that Bayley could still carry the title into Payback, though, perhaps after losing the gold back to Charlotte at Fastlane and regaining it at WrestleMania.

WWE rumors suggest that WrestleMania match is still expected to be a Fatal 4-Way bout between Bayley, Charlotte, Sasha Banks, and Nia Jax. That’s long been the plan, and nothing seems to have changed on that front.

Meanwhile, over on SmackDown Live, Naomi was forced to relinquish her SmackDown Women’s Championship only a week after winning it due to injury. Alexa Bliss took back the championship after facing off against Becky Lynch for the vacant title, though WWE rumors indicate Naomi is expected to be back in time for WrestleMania 33. While the original plan of Naomi holding the title going into WrestleMania in her hometown has obviously changed, she could still walk out of Orlando as the champion.

Hulk Hogan is reportedly pegged for a WWE comeback, but it’s not expected he will return in the near future. WWE severed ties with Hogan over racist comments that emerged during his legal proceedings against Gawker in 2015.

Lastly, here’s one from the oddball files. AJ Styles thinks there’s some truth to the Earth being flat, following Kyrie Irving claiming he suspected the theory was true. On Talking Smack Tuesday, Daniel Bryan teased Styles about it, according to Wrestling Inc, with Styles denying he completely believes the Earth is flat but pointing to evidence in favor of the theory.

“I do not think the world is flat, I’m just saying there’s some stuff about it. […] I’m not a ‘flat-earther.’ I’m just saying there’s some stuff about it that makes sense. I don’t think you can handle it.”

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[Featured Image by WWE]

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