Who’s dating who? What was really supposed to happen? Who is hated backstage? As long as professional wrestling has been around there have always been questions like these. Fans, writers, and even the athletes are known to gossip about what actually goes on inside the world of wrestling. Some of these rumors are easily debunked and others are proven to be right. Then there are the myths that lie in more of a grey area. There are ones filled with half-truths and partial-lies. Ones that you really need to crack open before even trying to figure out if it is true or not.

We are going to examine some dirt sheet stories. For this article, we’re trying to look at some of the lesser known rumors that may not have gotten a ton of attention. We’re also going to talk a look into current tales that are still buzzing around the industry. From legendary icons who aren’t what they seem to relationships in peril to the future of some of the business’ biggest superstars. These entries are usually only spoken in hushed tones within the halls of wrestling arenas. Or, you know, all over wrestling message boards.

Here are 15 Wrestling Rumors That Still Persist.

15 Finn Isn’t Over

via wwe.com

Despite what his t-shirt subliminally tries to tell viewers, there are rumors that Vince McMahon doesn’t think Finn Balor is over. Either that or Vince McMahon refuses to allow Balor to successfully get over. It’s why he was in a seemingly endless feud with Bray Wyatt that mercifully ended when Bray got the mumps. It’s why Finn never got a rematch for the Universal Championship after he had to relinquish it due to injury. It’s why he’s currently vying for the Intercontinental Championship.

It’s plain to see that Finn is loved by the audience. They mimic his movements as he makes his way down to the ring. It seems like Vince feels burned by the Demon after he backed Balor instead of Roman Reigns when setting up the crowning of the first ever Universal Champion.

14 Byron Saxton Stalked Nia Jax

via wwe.com

If you’re interested in a person, it’s never good to hear a sentence like, “You’re in a relationship with me, but I don’t know about it.” Well, that is exactly how Nia Jax described her relationship with Byron Saxton. We’ve previously covered all of the nauseating nicknames the SmackDown commentator had for the Irresistible Force.

Embarrassingly for Saxton, all of these things were covered for the entire world to see on an episode of the WWE Network original, Ride Along. Jax was riding with Corey Graves and Tom Phillips when Nia revealed to his SmackDown coworkers that Saxton seems to have an extremely uncomfortable crush on the former model. Thankfully, if needed, Jax could most likely crush Byron with very little trouble.

13 Cena And Nikki Calling It Off

via rollingstone.com

Total Bellas is set to return to E! for a third season this spring, and that can only mean one thing: DRAMA! The showcase for the Bella twins has spent a lot of time the past few years trying to get John Cena to put a ring on longtime girlfriend Nikki Bella. However, things may not be as perfect as they seem for the couple. After getting engaged at last year’s WrestleMania, the two don’t seem to be seeing eye to eye.

As Nikki says in the trailer for the upcoming season, “So, we really want to call this off?” Of course, this could just be your typical reality show smoke and mirrors, but we won’t know until they walk down the aisle.

12 Dean Ambrose Got Renee Kicked From Total Divas

via cagesideseats.com

One of the bright spots during the sixth season of Total Divas was the addition of Renee Young. She was one of the most down to earth women the show had seen since it first started airing in 2013. That’s why a lot of fans were devastated when it was revealed that she would no longer be on the show’s main cast starting with season seven.

In reality, her husband, Dean Ambrose may be partial to blame for her removal from the reality show. According to Young, Dean didn’t have the best decorum when it came to being on the show. He was prone to outbursts, didn’t want the camera crew to be in his face, and was generally unenthused to be a part of the whole ordeal. It seems like it might not have been worth the producers’ time and energy to keep focusing on the couple.

11 Lesnar Returning To MMA

via: trome.pe

As we reported back in February, UFC owner Dana White believes there is a “very, very, very good” chance that Brock Lesnar will return to the octagon. With Lesnar’s contract set to expire later this year, it is definitely possible. Brock is never one to stay in the same place for too long before moving on to the *ahem* “Next Big Thing.”

This has been heavily played up on recent episodes of Raw, where the Beast has refused to appear on screen alongside his WrestleMania opponent Roman Reigns. It’s hard to tell if this is Lesnar legitimately trying to get some leverage over WWE before his departure, or if it’s creative’s way of making Roman Reigns a more sympathetic character.

10 JBL Bullied Mauro

via wrestlingnews.com

When he joined the SmackDown broadcast team at the end of 2015, Mauro Ranallo was a breath of fresh air. He seemed to enjoy the product, knew what he was talking about, and didn’t appear to just be parroting what producers in the back were telling him. After less than two years with the company, Ranallo took a leave of absence. Word got out that he was off of television because he was battling depression.

This led to gossip that he was bullied by fellow SmackDown commentator JBL. The Wrestling God, who has a reputation for bullying younger, criticized Mauro on an episode of the WWE Network’s Bring it to the Table. After releasing a statement claiming JBL had nothing to do with his departure, Mauro would eventually return to NXT in 2017. However, speculation in regard to bullying still persists to this day.

9 Raven The Exhibitionist

via bleacherreport.net

This would have to be one of the strangest rumors on this list. The story here goes that Raven, of all people, loved to walk around naked. Despite opting for a t-shirt and jean shorts (way before John Cena was rocking “jorts”) in the ring, the ECW original enjoyed flaunting his birthday suit, especially when there were other people nearby.

On one occasion, one of the onlookers was Debra McMichael. The former Diva’s Champion was rehearsing a promo backstage when she got an eyeful of Raven. Naturally, this enraged Debra’s husband at the time: “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. It’s safe to say that the Texas Rattlesnake came within about an inch of opening up a can of whoop-a$$ on the hardcore legend.

8 Baron Corbin In The Dog House

via four3four.com

Following 2017’s Money in the Bank pay-per-view, it looked like Baron Corbin was poised to be a future World Champion. Then, the unthinkable happened. When Corbin cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase on Jinder Mahal on the August 15th SmackDown, he lost. This made Corbin only the third man in history to not win the belt by cashing in.

Corbin failing in what should have been a slam dunk for the Lone Wolf apparently happened after he got into a heated argument with a WWE doctor. The doctor had downplayed the correlation between concussions and CTE. This angered the former football player, who is currently involved in a concussion lawsuit against the NFL. The argument was said to be uncomfortable for everyone else in the room and completely derailed the meeting.

7 Kalisto The Hairstylist

Via WWE.com

Sometimes a drastic gimmick overhaul can be beneficial to a wrestler. Bray Wyatt was a much better character than Husky Harris, Kane lasted much longer than the fake Diesel, and the Ringmaster had nothing on the legendary “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. However, there have been some persona changes that have hurt the wrestler. Chavo Guerrero becoming Kerwin White, Terry Taylor clucking his way to the ring as the Red Rooster, and Headbanger Mosh as the overly sexual Leave it to Beaver rip-off Beaver Cleavage are all examples of changes that did nothing to revitalize the grapplers.

One rumored gimmick change that was sure to negatively affect the wrestler was Kalisto going from mysterious and athletic luchador to…a hairstylist? That’s right, a few years back WWE was apparently thinking of taking the man who was pegged to be Rey Mysterious replacement and repackaging him as a flamboyant stylist.

6 Ryback Vs Ultimate Warrior

via youtube.com

He may have gotten a lot of comparisons to Goldberg during his time in the WWE (and rightfully so) but another man Ryback shared a lot of similarities with is the Ultimate Warrior. They both cut explosively passionate promos that were hard to follow, had some of the most impressive physiques the business has ever seen, and both rocked some crazy airbrushed singlets when the time was right.

During an episode of his podcast, Conversations with the Big Guy, the former Skip Sheffield claimed that he was supposed to have a one on one match against the Warrior at WrestleMania XXX. Warrior’s wife Dana denied this claim, saying there was no chance the match was ever planned. Considering the fact that Warrior died a few days after ‘Mania, it doesn’t seem likely that he would have passed a physical and gotten back in the ring.

5 Moolah Wasn't So Fabulous

via wwe.com

When the Fabulous Moolah Memorial Battle Royal was recently announced, there was a lot of backlash from fans, so much so that they changed the name. Despite being the longest reigning champion of any type within WWE, clocking in at over 10,000 days according to their records, Moolah has quite a rotten reputation. She was said to be racist, dangerous in the ring, and known for backstabbing. In fact, Moolah is known for the biggest screwjob outside of Montreal when she cheated Wendi Richter out of the Women’s Championship inside the ring.

Then, there are the reports about how she treated her trainees. In addition to forcing them to wrestle for little to no money, she would often allow them to be used by wrestling promoters.

4 Bruiser Brody To Destroy WrestleMania

Bruiser Brody was one of the toughest SOBs to ever lace up a pair of fuzzy boots. Standing at 6-foot-8 and weighing over 280 pounds, the bearded madman looked more like a Viking than an actual professional wrestler. During the 1980s, he was one of the most popular wrestlers outside of the WWF.

When the first WrestleMania rolled around, there were more eyes on WWF than ever before. Allegedly, a few promoters who were soured by the way Vince McMahon was running the business had a plan to ruin the show. They were set to pay Brody a large sum of money to do a shoot run-in during the main event and attack Hulk Hogan and his partner Mr. T. The attack never happened, and the show went off without a hitch. We’ll never know if there’s any truth to this rumor as Brody was tragically murdered in 1988.

3 WWE Tried To Break Paige And Del Rio Up

Via eWrestlingNews.com

There were a lot of people who were uncomfortable with the coupling of both Paige and Alberto. It seems like the backstage folks in the WWE felt the same and may have devised a plan to break the two up. In addition to the 15-year age difference, the coupled seemed to have a very volatile relationship.

With the WWE draft approaching in the summer of 2016, WWE ended up putting the couple on different rosters. Paige went to Raw and Del Rio was drafted to Smackdown. It didn’t seem like Paige and Del Rio Out of all of the couples within the WWE, only married pairs were put on the same roster. Paige and Del Rio eventually chose to quit before eventually splitting up. The same couldn’t be said for Carmella and Big Cass, another real-life couple who ended up on different shows and are no longer together.

2 Beef Between Sasha And Alexa

Apparently, there is quite a bit of beef between two of the biggest female competitors on Raw. It’s either some next level storytelling, or Sasha Banks and Alexa Bliss really do not like each other. This seems to go back to the Boss not believing that the Goddess has paid her dues. Banks, who started out on the Independent Circuit resents the fact that Bliss was signed directly to NXT. Even back in NXT, it looked like Sasha worked especially snug when she was in the ring with Alexa, and even broke her nose.

Bliss has gone on the record trying to be the bigger person by saying, “Sasha can think or say whatever she wants, as long as it fuels her fire for us to have a good match, I'm fine with it."

1 Hogan And Savage Made Up

via reddit.com

Hulk Hogan is the nicest, most personable, and down to earth person there is. Just ask Hulk Hogan! That’s what it is a bit hard to believe that he had reconciled with “Macho Man” Randy Savage right before his death. The two had a pretty public falling out where Savage blamed the Hulkster for his divorce with Miss Elizabeth. He even cut a scathing (and terrible) rap song where he told Hogan to “Be a Man.” That being said, the story of the Mega Powers making up was corroborated by Randy’s brother Lanny Poffo.

The biggest naysayer about this story is the Ultimate Warrior, before making up with Hogan himself. The Warrior went on the record calling the Immortal One a liar and a fraud. Explicitly stating that he knew for a fact Savage and Hogan had never talked before Macho Man’s tragic death.