The coronavirus pandemic has greatly affected WWE’s programming over the last few weeks. Live events have been canceled, Raw and SmackDown have been moved to the Performance Center and WrestleMania 36 was forced to take place inside the training center and saw multiple matches get changed at the last minute as precautionary measures against the virus. Now, as William Regal announced during The Bump on Wednesday morning, it’s affecting WWE’s championships. The reigning NXT Cruiserweight Champion is NXT UK’s Jordan Devlin, who is currently in his home country of Ireland. Because of travel restrictions stemming from the pandemic, Regal explained that he won’t be able to return to the United States and defend the title for the foreseeable future.
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As a result, a new tournament will soon begin to crown the interim NXT Cruiserweight Champion. The participants and bracket will be announced in the coming days.
“Due to current events, obviously, Jordan Devlin is in Ireland and he cannot defend his NXT Cruiserweight Championship,” Regal said. “So I’ve decided that, in the meantime, we will hold a tournament for the NXT Cruiserweight interim Champion.”
As first announced by @RealKingRegal on @WWETheBump, a tournament will be held to determine an interim #WWENXT #CruiserweightChampion as @Jordan_Devlin1 is in the U.K. and unable to defend his title due to current circumstances.https://t.co/p5SbF3BAFj
— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) April 8, 2020
Regal also brought up the reigning NXT Tag Team Champions, Matt Riddle and Pete Dunne. With Dunne also stuck overseas in the United Kingdom, Regal said there’s “a decision to be made.”
Devlin pinned Angel Garza in a four-way match at the Worlds Collide event in January to capture the title. Meanwhile the BroserWeights earned a title shot by winning the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, then beat Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly for the tag titles at NXT TakeOver: Portland.
“The Irish Ace” didn’t seem thrilled about Regal’s decision.
First things first, absolutely shocking and disrespectful decision by @WWE management.
Secondly, you can crown a fraud champion and give him a little replica of my title, but everyone around the world knows who the REAL NXT Cruiserweight Champion still is. https://t.co/rIA7AJZwod
— Jordan Devlin (@Jordan_Devlin1) April 8, 2020
Meanwhile, Riddle and Dunne are just happy that their trophy’s “wellness policy violation” is over.
The Stallion Cup’s suspension is finally over but due to the current situation I still can’t see him or Stallion Pete 😢 🐴 pic.twitter.com/pBzfkBBSyv
— matthew riddle (@SuperKingofBros) April 7, 2020
