WWE Rumor Roundup: Backstage push for CM Punk's ex-rival to return, Top SmackDown star almost cleared for in-ring return after 103 days (August 1st, 2025)

Welcome to the August 1st edition of the WWE Rumor Roundup! We gear up as SummerSlam 2025 weekend is officially set to begin, and we bring you some of the biggest rumors ahead of the show.

This includes a changed approach to the possible return of CM Punk's former rival, a multi-time champion and WrestleMania main-eventer who is set for medical clearance after over 100 days, one big disruption to the construction of the SummerSlam stage and arena, and also the future of a major RAW personality.

Let's jump right into it:

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#4. Update on whether WWE is planning to bring CM Punk's ex-rival Alberto Del Rio back

From an era gone by (Picture Courtesy: WWE.com)

Alberto Del Rio undeniably represents an era gone by in WWE. However, what many fans who haven't followed him post-2016 are unaware of is that he is still a huge star in his native country, Mexico.

When the acquisition of AAA Lucha Libre was announced before WrestleMania 41, Alberto El Patron, as he has been known for a while, was the AAA Mega Champion. For context, that is the World Championship equivalent in AAA, but post-acquisition, the highly-acclaimed El Hijo del Vikingo dethroned El Patron.

This led many to speculate that there wasn't interest in bringing El Patron/Del Rio back to WWE, but there were also reports that his contract was acquired by WWE. Now, a new report on the Wrestling Observer Radio has revealed that there is, in fact, a huge backstage push to bring CM Punk's former rival back:

"There's many different people with many different ideas on Alberto with everything from he's gone [from AAA], which I don't expect watching the way they put that thing, to he's going to the main roster, which I don't expect, but there are absolutely people pushing for that…There are people very, very impressed with Alberto as far as the way he handles himself as a star and he's super, super over. He's the biggest star in the company," Meltzer said. [H/T: Cultaholic]

For context, El Patron/Del Rio has been in a very interesting arc in AAA, where his heel character has started to become popular with fans, setting up an organic turn.

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#3. Positive news on the immediate future of SmackDown's Bianca Belair

Bianca Belair has been out of action for 103 days as of August 1st. While she has returned for segments, and most notably, as the special guest referee of the Naomi-Jade Cargill match at Evolution, she missed out on competing in the highly acclaimed all-women's premium live event, and it looks like she will be missing out on SummerSlam as well. However, it's not all bad news.

On the latest episode of WrestleVotes Radio on WrestleBinge, JoeyVotes and TC discussed the immediate future of the SmackDown star, Bianca Belair. They revealed that while The EST of WWE won't be competing at SummerSlam 2025, she is expected to be cleared for in-ring action the week after the two-night PLE.

It's going to be interesting to see where she slots in, as her former allies Naomi and Jade Cargill are now on two separate brands.

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#2. SummerSlam 2025 construction gets disrupted

WWE may be planning a massive and ambitious effort for the SummerSlam 2025 stage. To many, this is good news as grand stages are usually met with a lot of praise and acclaim. More often than not, the online discourse has been about the lack of diverse stages on premium live events, as they were a staple of pay-per-views in the 2000s.

However, there seemed to have been a bit of a hiccup when it came to the construction of the SummerSlam 2025 stage. According to a report on Fightful Select, there were weather alerts for July 31st, resulting in the people working on the construction being forced to halt and take shelter for a while.

The good news is that there is reportedly no issue when it comes to completing the stage on time. It's likely that a strategic move is made to start the construction early to account for any such possible incident. This is one of those areas where WWE thrives, and it's going to be interesting to see what the stage will be like come Saturday.

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#1. Update on Pat McAfee's future

A still from WrestleMania 39 (Picture Courtesy: WWE.com)

Pat McAfee has been away from RAW for a while now, and he cited burnout as the reason for his break from the commentary booth. Fans have been happy to welcome Corey Graves back to that role, so does that mean that McAfee won't be returning?

According to a report on Fightful Select, there are still plans to bring Pat McAfee back as he is reportedly well-liked within some circles of WWE. Since there are frequent changes to the commentary teams, one source reportedly indicated that they expect McAfee to be back, at least by spring.

There is no word on how this could affect Corey Graves, but one can only imagine that the idea of McAfee occasionally appearing has been floated. McAfee has a family to take care of, as well as running his company and handling his main gig: the multi-million dollar ESPN College Football podcast.

In essence, his presence on commentary is simply done for the love of the game, as he doesn't actually need to benefit monetarily due to his lucrative ESPN deal.

75 year old legend has challenged Cody Rhodes HERE

Edited by Rohit Nath