Fightful's Big Fat News Extravaganza And RUMOR DEBUNKATHON: Wild Wargames Rumors, Triple H, More topics inside

Welcome to Fightful's Friday tradition -- the news and rumor roundup and DEBUNKATHON. Today on the paid portion, we have news on the following:

• The wild Wargames rumors

• Cash Flo/Tulsa King

• Santos Escobar's original post- WWE plans

• Kota Ibushi

• WWE ID

• TNA deals

• WWE PC coaches

• Triple H's attendance

• WWE creative

• Brock Lesnar, Becky Lynch, Shield, Triple H successor, WWE run sheet leak rumors

• Simon Miller, Shotzi, Guy Evans speak with Fightful

We are planning to add a lot of new content. If you have a rumor you want Fightful to look into, let us know!!

• Tulsa King season 4 starts filming soon. We have notes from our interview with OVW star Cash Flo below.

• Before he re-signed with WWE, there were rumors that Santos Escobar could pop up at New York Comic Con this weekend, and have since confirmed he was planned for it. We'd not heard of any real serious talks between Santos Escobar and AEW as of him re-signing with WWE. We're told his deal was for "great money."

• A number of people we spoke to in WWE were surprised (pleasantly) that Santos Escobar is back in WWE. There were many that figured the "exploding offer" would extend to him as it did for others.

• In regards to Big E's comments about his "career being kind of behind him," on Stephani McMhaon's "What's your story?" show, multiple people close to him over the course of the last couple of years had referred to him as "retired" or a "former wrestler" when speaking to us.

• Sources we spoke to at AEW Collision's tapings said that Kota Ibushi's injury looked rough and he likely wouldn't be around for a while.

• In addition to the WWE ID contracts that have come to an end, we're told there were some that were extended. WWE continues to recruit talent for the program.

• Fightful Select reported this week that Cedric Alexander and The IInspiration's TNA deals are up soon. We expect that they will remain with the company.

• Natalya has not been backstage at recent episodes of WWE Raw. We haven't heard specifically why.

• Sources we spoke to in TNA did not expect to see the Dudley Boyz/Team 3D competing heavily or at all after Bound for Glory.

Elsewhere

• PWInsider reported that Jazz and Ace Steel are serving as guest coaches at the WWE PC

• TJP will also be serving as a guest coach, which has been in the works for a while.

• BodySlam.net had reported some major plans were in store for Smackdown from a creative change standpoint. The creative team hadn't specifically heard of any major changes, but the October 10 Smackdown was heavy on memorable moments. A source close to creative noted that Road Dogg and John Swikata are still Smackdown co-head writers.

• Wrestling Observer reported that Triple H misses the occasional show, which we're told has pretty well been the norm. It wasn't for quite a while under Vince McMahon, but even he started to miss Smackdown shows once the Fox deal started. When the pandemic happened, he was back around more.

RUMOR ROUNDUP and DEBUNKATHON

• There were facebook posts claiming that we said Brian Gewirtz and CM Punk were the planned successors to Triple H. That isn't true. People perpetuated an opinion on a Q&A show as a news report.

• There was a WrestleMania 28 format booklet/sheet that went viral from "Book Pro Wrestlers" facebook. It's legit, and they're still formatted like that to this day.

• A Facebook post has gained traction implying Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose is a possibility for WrestleMania 43. It's not. Jon Moxley is under contract well after that point.

• There was a post indicating that Sean Ross Sapp said on The Hump that Becky Lynch had "backed out" of going to Crown Jewel. This isn't true. She simply wasn't booked for the show.

• A Facebook page claimed Brock Lesnar was expected to appear at Crown Jewel. No reputable sources have reported this.

• Wrestling Observer reported CM Punk, Roman Reigns, Jacob Fatu, Jey Uso and a fifth partner vs. The Vision, Brock Lesnar & Austin Theory were the plans as of a week ago, with Jimmy Uso and LA Knight as the fifth man options. When Fightful inquired about this, as it seemed out of left field, we were told it is actually one of the options moving forward.

Cash Flo

Sean Ross Sapp spoke to OVW wrestler Cash Flo, who has been in the hit tv show Tulsa King, where he has been promoted to a series regular.

Cash Flo said that the Netflix documentary series Wrestlers about OVW opened up doors for him in the acting world, which got him the opportunity for Tulsa King. He got a call from Sylvester Stallone that he called surreal, considering he grew up on Rambo and Rocky movies. This took place after the casting from Tulsa King asked him to read for the part.

He said that Tulsa King has Emmy award winning Freddie Poole coordinating fight scenes, which he said takes it to another level. He said that it's certainly much easier on the body than wrestling in the ring. He said that there are a lot of parallels between wrestling and acting, and that he and Stallone had spoken about his wrestling career.

He was stoked to be added to the show as a series regular. He'd put in a lot of work on Netflix's Wrestlers show so to see the dominoes fall that led to this was great for him. He's excited for some additional opportunities and has

Guy Evans of Nitro Book

Sean Ross Sapp also spoke to Guy Evans, who authored books on WCW, David Penzer, Eric Bischoff, and now his announced trilogy biography on Hulk Hogan, which has a kickstarter. The Nitro, Beyond Nitro and Hulk Hogan books are all supported by over 100 interviews each.

Guy Evans spoke about the misconceptions regarding WCW's demise, and how their ownership company got very creative to show less than flattering returns for the company when convenient. There's too much to get into detail on specifically in this rundown, but he elaborates why in the interview, and even more so in the book.

He said that covering Hulk Hogan is a tough subject, and when he got into the conversations to produce the book, he realized it was going to have to be a trilogy. He said he wants to present as much truth as possible, as he has in his prior books. You can see the kickstarter for it at this link.

This interview is up early for tier 2 subscribers. You can get 20 percent off any book at GuyEvansBooks.com using the code FIGHTFUL.

Simon Miller

Fightful's Joel Pearl spoke with Simon Miller, while he was on a tour of Canada. He says that Canadians are very nice to him, but he isn't sure if the conversion rate to the Canadian dollar is nice to him. He noted that he isn't rich, even though the internet thinks he is.

He said that Sean Ross Sapp roped him into co-hosting the October 15 episode of the Hump, but he's excited to do such. See the full discussion at this link.

Shotzi was interviewed for some reason on In The Weeds

• Invites Sean to wrestle her, says she owns Fightful if he doesn’t accept.

• Wants to do a fans bring the weapons match with Priscilla Kelly. Wants fans to bring barbed wire and brisket.

• Sean showed up in a neck brace and tried to gain sympathy. He got none from Shotzi.

• Thinks Priscilla Kelly is jealous and that’s why she is following her around the independent scene. “I love the girl. We vibe. We also bring the worst out of each other. That’s why we have good chemistry.”

• Has pitched doing a coffin match every October, even in WWE. Thinks it was going to happen in her second year. Was told she would get a championship match at Halloween Havoc her second year in NXT, but got called up.

• Would have dressed as Kane in the NXT Halloween Battle Royal, but never got the chance to participate. Has wanted to do a Shotzi version of Kane’s mesh gear.

• Had her pay cut at the Circle 6 event for jumping off the hot dog stand because all the bills went to the fire department. Says it was worth it.

• Wants to have a Disney girls day with Chelsea Green because Matt Cardona took her husband on a Disney date.

• Says Austin Theory was the funnest person to shoot in the nuts with the tank. Only had one take because it was live. Took a couple of tries to hit Corbin in the nuts in a backstage segment.

• Doesn’t like WWE Speed matches because they are stressful. “You fit a 20 minute match into three minutes. It’s extremely stressful.”

• Says backstage promo with Killer Kross and Scarlett at GCW was unplanned. Selfishly likes having them on the indies with her, but wishes they were making millions in WWE.

• Plays Partner, Promo, Punch in the Face with Chucky, Pinhead, and Michael Myers (WATCH TO SEE HER ANSWERS)

Betting

• MyBookie currently has Gunther as the betting favorite to face Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania.

• If you want to bet on Wrestling or any other sport, check out our new partner where we get ALL of our odds! https://mybookie.website/joinwithFIGHTFUL and use the promo code FIGHTFUL. Deposit $100, get $50. Go in with $200, and they’ll make it $100!

• Mike Santana, The IInspiration, Kelani Jordan, Hardy Boyz, Tessa Blanchard, Order 4 are all favored to win at TNA Bound For Glory. Leon Slater and Je'Von Evans are even odds. Slater and Evans is too close to call and we wouldn't put money on it. Hardy Boyz are a lock pick. We expect IInspiration, Mike Santana to win. TNA post-show host Joel Pearl believes Gia Miller will end up winning.

• John Cena, Rhea Ripley & IYO Sky, Cody Rhodes, Stephanie Vaquer and Roman Reigns are favored to win. We think there is some underdog value on Bronson Reed, but IYO & Rhea are a lock.