5 wrestling rumors we hope are true and 5 we hope aren't: Vince McMahon's personal "Superstar ranking" list revealed, WWE has no plans for important babyface star?
Welcome to this week's edition of WWE/wrestling rumors we hope are true and those we hope aren't. We're coming off the heels of SummerSlam 2020 and it was arguably the best WWE pay-per-view in the pandemic era.
Let's jump right into the aftermath and the rumors of the past week:
#5. Hope is true: Vince McMahon's "babyface rankings" on WWE SmackDown
This seems a bit timely given the return of Roman Reigns to WWE at SummerSlam 2020. However, before this, Fightful Select had reported that Vince McMahon has a "ranking" of three of SmackDown's top babyfaces.
According to Fightful, before SummerSlam, Braun Strowman was naturally ranked first given that he was the Universal Champion at the time. The second was Jeff Hardy, who recently defeated AJ Styles to win the Intercontinental Championship.
The third was a surprising name - Matt Riddle. The King of Bros joined the WWE SmackDown roster not too long ago and is still a relative newcomer to the scene.
Roman Reigns' arrival naturally makes him replace Braun Strowman at #1, and we hope this report is true because it's good to see Jeff Hardy and Matt Riddle looked upon so highly.
We're happier about Matt Riddle since many have dubbed him as the potential next face of SmackDown on FOX. WWE's King of Bros certainly has the potential for it. However, he appears to be the kind of star who WWE is going to give a slow-burn build to rather than push right away.
In all likeliness, it will work out much better that way anyway. While it would be nice to see an instant push for Matt Riddle, fans will always be more invested in a WWE Superstar when they see the journey they've been through to reach the top.