Rumor Roundup (May 16, 2024): Saudi WrestleMania, Vince McMahon’s goal, AEW/WBD talks, more!

Speculating on the rumors surrounding pro wrestling is a favored pastime of many fans, perhaps second only to actually watching the matches. In this daily column, we take a look at the latest rumors being churned out by the pro wrestling rumor mill.

Important reminder: Rumors are just that — rumors. None of this has been confirmed as fact, it’s just circulating around the pro wrestling rumor mill. We track rumor accuracy in a weekly feature called Rumor Look Back you can find here. Remember, take it all with a grain of salt.

Rumors for the Day:

• Turki Alalshikh, Chairman of the Saudi General Entertainment Authority, was a guest on The MMA Hour yesterday. He confirmed that the Saudis are looking to bring Royal Rumble or WrestleMania to the country, and said they’re talking about doing so in 2026 or 2027.
• In addition to serving as legal strategy, Dave Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio that Vince McMahon’s recent moves are also designed to “rehabilitate his image enough to where he can do business as a businessman because that’s what he wants to do”. Word still is that McMahon’s next business venture won’t be wrestling related.
• Warner Bros Discovery & AEW’s exclusive window for negotiating a new domestic media rights extends through this summer. That per Fightful Select and confirmed by a Wrestling Observer source, although neither had a specific date for when AEW will start talking to other parties.
• Fightful reports that WBD has been interested in adding AEW PPVs to their Max streaming service “for quite some time”. Streaming remains a component of negotiations, as it’s said every deal WBD does these days is done with Max in mind.
• Also from Fightful: Damian Priest’s new WWE deal was completed back in February when his previous contract “was just mere days away from expiring.”
• Big E isn’t Je’Von Evans only fan behind-the-scenes at WWE. Fightful Select says Evans “continues to be held in high esteem by NXT officials”.
• Fightful also reminds us there were internal discussions regarding a call-up for Gallus before they returned to NXT this week, and adds that their sources still expect the group to move to Raw or SmackDown in the coming months.

If you have heard of any interesting rumors that you’d like to add, feel free to post them in the comments section below. Just remember they are rumors and not confirmed as fact, so please take them as such. And check our weekly Rumor Look Back here to keep track of how often rumors turn out to be correct.