Jake Paul Open to WWE; JR on Stone Cold vs. Hulk Hogan; Rumors on WrestleMania Card

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

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Jake Paul Has Potential Interest in Joining WWE

Boxer Jake Paul is open to the idea of joining his brother, Logan Paul, in WWE at some point.

Appearing on the MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani (h/t Jack Atkins of Cultaholic), Jake expressed interest in WWE but stopped short of committing because of concerns about a potential injury:

"We'll see. I'm down. I just don't want to get injured. My brother tore his MCL; it's crazy out there. So, I just don't want it to derail my boxing and all that, but I'm down. I love WWE. I love working with my brother. So that would definitely be something that could be on the horizon, for sure."

Like Logan, Jake was once best known as a YouTube and social media star, but he became a big deal in the sports world when he began his professional boxing career in 2020.

Since then, Jake has gone 6-0, beating the likes of former UFC fighters Ben Askren, Tyron Woodley and Anderson Silva, and this weekend he will take on the younger brother of heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury, Tommy Fury.

Logan made his in-ring debut for WWE at WrestleMania 38 last year, teaming with The Miz in a win over Rey and Dominik Mysterio. Logan was so impressive that WWE signed him to a contract.

He has wrestled a handful of matches since then, including an undisputed WWE Universal Championship match against Roman Reigns at Crown Jewel in November. Logan turned in an excellent performance, but he injured his knee during the bout.

Despite that, he was able to return less than three months later to compete in the men's Royal Rumble match.

Jake showed up during the Logan vs. Reigns match to help even the odds against The Bloodline, and it sounds like he may have gotten the wrestling bug, which could lead to him working for WWE in the future.

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JR Explains Why Austin vs. Hogan Never Happened

Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Hulk Hogan is one of the biggest pro wrestling one-on-one dream matches that never came to fruition, and WWE Hall of Fame announcer Jim Ross explained why this week on his podcast.

Speaking this week on Grilling JR (h/t WrestlingInc's Danny Wolstanholme), Ross noted that Austin didn't want to do the match:

"Austin didn't want to work with him. It was the wrong place at the wrong time. There was a time in both of their careers when that match should have been the dream match. The two biggest stars in the last two generations of wrestling fighting each other. But, again, and I'm not trying to make excuses for Hogan, but all truth be known, he should not even have been in a ring [in 2003] because he couldn't get it done anymore."

Austin and Hogan didn't overlap for long in WWE, but there was a window of opportunity to make the match happen if they wanted to.

After WWE purchased WCW in 2001, Hogan took some time off before returning to WWE in 2002 during the build toward WrestleMania 18. Hogan vs. Austin was a possibility for WrestleMania 18, but WWE went with Hogan vs. The Rock instead.

On that same show, Austin faced Scott Hall, which was a match that didn't necessarily line up with how big of a star Stone Cold was at the time.

One year later, Austin had what would be the final match of his career against The Rock at WrestleMania 19, until he returned 19 years later to face Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 38.

Hogan faced and defeated Vince McMahon at WrestleMania 19, and he would only have a handful of additional matches in WWE.

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Latest Rumors on WrestleMania 39 Card

With WrestleMania 39 just over a month away, WWE has reportedly been giving consideration to many potential matches and is deciding on match placement as well.

According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Subhojeet Mukherjee of Ringside News), the SmackDown Women's Championship match between Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley is the current favorite to headline Night 1 of WrestleMania, with Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes being the main event of Night 2.

Per Meltzer, some in WWE are pushing for Flair vs. Ripley to main event Night 1 due to sponsors and "political reasons," as there is some thought that the women deserve to have one of the main events after men headlined both nights last year.

While that seems like a possibility, the story that involves a potential tag team title match between The Usos and the team of Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens would perhaps be a better fit for the main event of Night 1.

Meltzer (h/t Aaron Varble of ThirstyForNews.com) also reported that WWE is indeed moving forward with Brock Lesnar vs. Omos for WrestleMania after Omos called Lesnar out on Monday's Raw.

Although he didn't report on the original plan, Meltzer noted that plans for Lesnar changed "in the last week or two." It initially seemed as though WWE was building toward a blow-off between Lesnar and Bobby Lashley on the Grandest Stage of Them All.

WWE is advertising Lesnar to answer Omos' challenge on next week's Raw, but it still seems possible that it could be a swerve to get back to Lesnar vs. Lashley since MVP is involved and has been trying to recruit Lashley back into the Hurt Business.

Finally, as expected, Meltzer (h/t Felix Upton of Ringside News) is reporting that Rey Mysterio vs. Dominik Mysterio is in the plans for WrestleMania.

Meltzer noted it has been the plan "for months," perhaps dating as far back as to when Dominik turned on his father and aligned with The Judgment Day.

Dominik will be on Friday's SmackDown and suggested he planned to have some involvement in his father's match, which could further lay the groundwork for a WrestleMania encounter.

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