Believe it or not, that rumor was around for a while.
But it doesn't appear to have any merit.
One of Abrams (and others) complaints about the PT was that Lucas seemed to make the galaxy too small.
I never got that complaint.
The one thing that did cause problems (and I agreed) was having Yoda know Chewbacca and vice versa.
That was too much.
I didn't have a problem with Chewbacca being there since he is about two-hundred years old during the OT.
There is little doubt he would've been around during the fall of the Republic.
However, he could've just been involved in the battle on his homeworld. He didn't need to know Yoda.
Yoda should've just known and dealt with the Wookiee leader Tarfful.