Barrasso Backtracks On Gunther Rumble Winner Story

In another follow up to a Sports Illustrated article posted yesterday by Justin Barrasso, it looks like the author has now backtracked on what he wrote yesterday about Gunther potentially winning Saturday's Royal Rumble.

Barrasso's update states that he 'reported spoilers for Sports Illustrated yesterday regarding the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania 40. I reported what was detailed to me by previously reliable sources. It appears this was a deliberate attempt at misinformation and misinformation that is being spread through WWE itself.'

The writer goes on to apologise for 'errors' in the report and then proceeds to state that speculation and analysis 'point to (Cody) Rhodes winning the Rumble' but noted that there is 'uncertainty (on a Rhodes win) with The Rock involved' and even suggested a scenario where Nick Khan will make a call on Dwayne Johnson being the battle royal winner if Johnson asks him.

Seriously.

As I stated in yesterday's post, you could have jumped to a couple of conclusions and guessed Seth Rollins .vs. Gunther and Cody Rhodes .vs. CM Punk were two matches set for WrestleMania because those parties countered each other in two separate promos on this week's Raw.

I concluded something different from the Rollins/Gunther interaction.

I felt Gunther was introduced to the Seth Rollins story for Mania in case Rollins isn't ready to go and they have Gunther reinjure Rollins somewhere along the road to WrestleMania as an out.

That is wild speculation on my part.

And while I'm being wildly speculative - here's some food for thought.

If Justin Barrasso's sources gave him bad information (and we won't know until Saturday), were they doing this to manipulate the Royal Rumble betting market to get a better price on one of the favourites?