The wrestling world is still reeling at the news that Roman Reigns will not be performing at this year’s WrestleMania 36 show in Orlando against Bill Goldberg for the WWE Universal Championship. With the match set to take place some point this week (WWE is taping the show in advance due to the coronavirus pandemic), Reigns pulled out of the match at the list minute due to health concerns. A survivor of leukemia, Reigns’ immune system is more at risk of contracting the condition, so it’s hard to fault him in making what looks to be a very wise decision.
We’re now learning even more about why he made the decision that he did. According to the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer, Reigns was in Orlando at the Performance Center when he let WWE officials know he was uncomfortable going through with the match. He was not encouraged by the news that The Miz is sick and has been unable to perform this week due to that. The Usos and New Day were scheduled to face each other tonight on SmackDown with the winning team receiving a WrestleMania title shot against Miz and John Morrison. However, that looks to be off due to Miz’s condition.
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As reported earlier this week, Dana Brooke and Rey Mysterio have also been pulled from WrestleMania due to going into quarantine. However, it looks like they aren’t the only changes to the WrestleMania card.
Despite WWE taping the majority of WrestleMania this week, the show itself has remain in flux with reportedly several matches changed from what we have seen advertised. There was the aforementioned issue with The Miz, and Meltzer also reports that a few others stars have refused to work the show by either saying they were sick or noting they weren’t comfortable with it. Others have been disallowed from working due to running fevers above 100.7 degrees.
Meltzer went on to note a possible replacement for Reigns in the match against Goldberg: Braun Strowman. It’s expected that an angle will be pushed during tonight’s edition of SmackDown to explain Reigns’ absence from the match and the change in opponents.
It will be interesting to see what kinds of changes ultimately happened with the card when it airs on the WWE Network next weekend.
