Posted in: Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: COVID, Roman Reigns, Smackdown, wrestling, wwe

COVID Acknowledges Tribal Chief; Roman Reigns Cleared for Smackdown

Published Thu, 06 Jan 2022 12:38:10 -0600

Roman Reigns will be at Smackdown on Friday, WWE announced today. Reigns has been out of action after testing positive for COVID-19 before the WWE Day 1 PPV last Saturday, causing a massive shakeup in plans that saw Brock Lesnar added to the WWE Championship Fatal Four-Way and led to Lesnar pinning Big E to win the belt. Despite the win, Lesnar said on Monday Night Raw that he would head to Smackdown to confront Reigns, and sure enough, Reigns is now medically cleared.

A press release from WWE.com reads:

Roman Reigns has been medically cleared and is set to return at tomorrow's Friday Night SmackDown.

The Universal Champion was unable to compete at WWE Day 1 after testing positive for COVID. His slated opponent Brock Lesnar was added to the WWE Championship Fatal 5-Way Match and went on to capture the title. On this week's Raw, Lesnar warned Reigns that he was heading to the blue brand this week.

What will be in store when this explosive confrontation goes down tomorrow night?

Don't miss the massive encounter this Friday at 8/7 C on FOX.

The timeline appears fast for Reigns to announce a positive test on Saturday and be medically cleared on Thursday, even if the CDC guidelines do say that people without symptoms only need to isolate for five days. Is WWE using COVID as part of a worked storyline? It wouldn't be without precedent, considering the company has recently used its own heartless layoffs as part of storylines multiple times, and Paul Heyman even attributed Reigns' positive test to Heyman no longer being his manager in a promo on Raw this week. But there's a more reasonable explanation as well.

The New Year's Eve episode of WWE Smackdown was a "best of" show and the Christmas Eve episode was pretaped. Reigns was reported to have missed several WWE live events that same weekend, with dirt sheets reporting Reigns and other top stars were being kept off the events for their protection. However, it's possible Reigns tested positive for COVID prior to that, and WWE avoided announcing it until the last minute in hopes Reigns would be cleared in time for Day 1, which didn't happen. That would also fit better with the timeline that WWE knew as early as Monday that Reigns would be cleared for Smackdown, since Lesnar teased a confrontation with the Tribal Chief on Raw.

All of that is speculation, of course, and ultimately irrelevant. Whatever the case, we're just glad to hear Reigns is okay.

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