The internet and wrestling world was a-buzz yesterday when Sports Illustrated‘s Justin Barrasso claimed last night that Rey Mysterio was backstage last night at Smackdown Live and in negotiations with the WWE for not only a return to the company, but to be John Cena‘s opponent at WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans. Barrasso’s report backed up an earlier claim in the day from World of Geekdom that stated hearing the same news from their own WWE sources. We covered both these reports late last night.
But throughout the day today, other wrestling scribes with sources within the WWE refuted these claims, although not entirely. Wrestlevotes, a Twitter account that has broken multiple stories, including the Neville walkout situation chimed in earlier today that he doubted the claims from SI.
Personally, I believe the Mysterio / Cena rumors are being feed to Sports Illustrated as a way to make people truly believe Undertaker isn't coming. I would be stunned if Mysterio vs. Cena happened at Mania. Eventually the lights will go out on Cena. It is coming.
— WrestleVotes (@WrestleVotes) February 28, 2018
Text from a source: "… don't be surprised to see Rey at Mania. I'd be very surprised if he worked with Cena though"
— WrestleVotes (@WrestleVotes) February 28, 2018
Brad Shepard of Bodyslam.net, who has broken stories about the return of the XFL, had this to say from his sources.
https://twitter.com/TheBradShepard/status/968966342039801856
PWInsider‘s Mike Johnson also reported on the situation (and previous night’s reports) today as well. And while his sources confirmed that Rey Mysterio and WWE “are involved in ongoing discussions for his return to the company”, he stated that PWInsider “have been told by several sources that Mysterio was not actually in LA last night”, which contradicts Sports Illustrated’s original report. In regards to Mysterio being Cena’s opponent at WrestleMania 34, Johnson stated “we cannot confirm that match is correct”. He mentioned that Triple H was handling the negotiations with Rey Mysterio, which seems to be part of Triple H’s new duties going forward of late – normally Vince McMahon handles these bigger deals, but recently Triple H has negotiated Ronda Rousey’s WWE deal, and has negotiated the returns to the company for such “exiles” as Bruno Sammartino, Ultimate Warrior, Goldberg and the recent Hall of Fame inductee Jeff Jarrett.
So while it seems Rey Mysterio is closer than ever to a return to the WWE (although apparently the stumbling block is the amount of dates, as Rey is not interested in a full time schedule), whether he ultimately ends up returning to face John Cena at WrestleMania 34 is another matter. Now we’ll just have to wait to see if we hear the “Booyaka” or the Gong.
