Roman Reigns took to Twitter on Saturday afternoon with an unfortunate message — “I yearn to perform tonight at #WWEDay1 to defend my Universal Championship. However, unfortunately, earlier today I tested positive for COVID-19. Due to the proper protocols I am unable to compete as originally scheduled. I look forward to returning to action as soon as possible.” The announcement resulted in Reigns getting pulled from the show and Brock Lesnar getting added to the WWE Championship match (which he won). This left The Usos alone in representing The Bloodline at the event as they retained their SmackDown Tag Team Championships against The New Day.
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The pair spoke with Sports Illustrated after the event and gave an update on “The Tribal Chief” — “It felt off not having the Tribal Chief around,” Jey Uso said. “This match was for him. We represented, and he’s going to be OK. He’s home resting, and maybe playing some Call of Duty. We’re going to see him back soon.”
“We opened the show, and we’re so used to seeing The Big Uce close the show,” Jimmy Uso added. “This pandemic is crazy, and all we want is for him to be safe and take care of himself.”
Reigns famously stepped away from WWE programming just before WrestleMania 36, citing personal reasons and protecting his family as the pandemic was getting into full swing. He finally returned at SummerSlam 2020 in August, debuted his “Tribal Chief” persona, won the Universal Championship a week later and has been leading the charge for WWE ever since.
“The live crowd has always enhanced my presentation. My reactions have always been, if not the very best, certainly up there with the very best. I’ve now showcased the layers as a performer to be able to do it without a live audience. I’ve had a strong hold on SmackDown and SmackDown being the very best portion of WWE. It’s shown me as the number one guy,” Reigns told CBS Sports last year.
“That’s my legacy coming out of the ThunderDome,” he continued. ” Hands down, without question, it can be debated for great content on social media and WWE.com to put these polls and try to make an argument. But there’s no argument. There’s been nobody to ever carry the WWE product like I have over the past year and I stand on that. You can throw anybody out. We can try and be nice and say, ‘Oh, Bayley! She just got hurt. She was the best.’ Come on, let’s not lie to ourselves. The Tribal Chief has carried the WWE for well over a year now and there’s no denying it.”
