WWE Rumors on White Rabbit and HHH; Roode Has Surgery; Ludwig Denies Gunther Rumors

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.

Triple H Taking Note of White Rabbit Buzz

WWE's recent "White Rabbit" tease has left fans talking and speculating to a huge degree on social media, and WWE head of creative Triple H is reportedly paying attention.

According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t WrestlingInc's Phil Hall), merchandise related to the White Rabbit has been selling well in addition to the buzz the viral campaign has created, and Triple H has interest in doing something similar in the future.

The marketing campaign began this month when WWE started playing the Jefferson Airplane song "White Rabbit" during breaks in the action at live events and episodes of Raw and SmackDown.

Since then, QR codes have appeared on Raw and SmackDown, leading interested viewers to scan them and come across more potential clues regarding what or who the White Rabbit is.

While many theories have been bandied about, the most popular one is that Bray Wyatt is the White Rabbit and is poised to make his WWE return in the near future—perhaps as soon as Extreme Rules next weekend.

Despite being a three-time world champion and one of WWE's most popular Superstars, Wyatt was shockingly released last year amid a flurry of talent releases that were framed as budget cuts.

Since Vince McMahon retired and Triple H replaced him as head of creative in July, however, he has brought back several wrestlers who were released or not re-signed by the company.

Given Wyatt's status as the biggest star available to any wrestling company currently, it seems likely that Triple H would like to have him back.

Wrestling fans generally love being surprised and enjoy the opportunity to speculate and fantasy book scenarios, and the White Rabbit idea has satisfied all of those desires.

If the campaign turns out to be a success, there is no reason why WWE can't continue to do similar things in the future.

Robert Roode Undergoes Surgery

Robert Roode took to Instagram on Thursday to announce that he underwent surgery at Andrews Sports Medicine in Birmingham, Alabama.

Roode did not provide any specifics on the nature of the surgery or the timetable for his return, but he noted that he hoped it was successful and thanked those who took care of him in Alabama.

The 46-year-old Roode hadn't wrestled at a live event since June and hadn't had a televised match since April, leaving fans to wonder where he was. Those questions were seemingly answered Thursday.

Prior to apparently getting injured, Roode was primarily teaming with Dolph Ziggler, and he backed up Ziggler on a couple of occasions in March when Ziggler was NXT champion and feuding with Bron Breakker.

Roode is a former NXT champion in his own right, plus he has held the United States, Raw Tag Team and SmackDown Tag Team Championships during his WWE tenure.

Before signing with WWE in 2016, Roode was best known for his success in Impact Wrestling, where he was a two-time world champion and eight-time tag team champion.

Roode wasn't much of a factor in the weeks and months leading up to his surgery, but his greatest success in WWE came under Triple H's leadership in WWE.

That suggests Roode could be in store for a push when he returns since Triple H is now the head of WWE creative.

Kaiser Shoots Down Rumored Gunther Burial Under McMahon

Ludwig Kaiser suggested this week that a rumor regarding Vince McMahon wanting to bury Gunther on SmackDown was untrue.

Kaiser was asked about a rumor that was first reported by the Twitter account WrestleVotes, which claimed that McMahon intended to halt Gunther's push after souring on him in early July.

By the end of July, McMahon had retired and was replaced by Triple H, who has kept Gunther installed as intercontinental champion and solidified his presentation by calling up Giovanni Vinci and putting him alongside Gunther and Kaiser to reform Imperium.

Speaking to German wrestling website WAZ (h/t Subhojeet Mukherjee of Ringside News), Kaiser highly doubted the authenticity of the report, saying:

"I don't know anything about the rumors. It's also usually the case that we don't let it get to us like that. From our side, we have been totally satisfied since we started on Smackdown. We've had a great reception there, the feedback has been positive right from the start. We can't complain about our TV time either. When you look at what we've done in a few months, even with Gunther's Intercontinental Championship title, it speaks for itself. Of course, there are always rumors here and there, but a lot of it is just not true."

Gunther faced and defeated Sheamus in one of the best matches of the year at Clash at the Castle in Cardiff, Wales, earlier this month, and he has continued his rivalry with Sheamus since then.

In fact, all of Imperium has been feuding with the Brawling Brutes, and the two stables are set to meet in a Donnybrook match at Extreme Rules. Gunther is also set for another title defense against Sheamus.

After a dominant run in NXT UK and NXT, Gunther has been booked to near perfection on WWE's main roster, and there is seemingly no end in sight to his run of dominance.

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