Posted in: Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: becky lynch, big e, covid-19, edge, kevin owens, madison square garden, New York City, omicron, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Steel Cage Match, Tampa, wrestling, wwe, WWE Day 1, WWE Raw, wwe smackdown

WWE Appears To Have Lost Several Stars Due To COVID-19 This Week

It was a rough weekend for WWE over the past 48 hours and things may be getting worse.  The day after Christmas is usually a big one for WWE, as they hold a live event at New York City's Madison Square Garden every year.  But last night's show was decidedly less star-studded than what was previously advertised and a number of matches were changed or canceled.  The same can be said for the show they held in Tampa, Florida yesterday and while WWE always says "card is subject to change", it would appear that the company's roster is being hit hard by the current explosion of Covid-19 infections that has the entire world on edge.

Mike Johnson of PWInsider reported last week that WWE was dealing with an outbreak of Covid infections on their roster, saying "PWInsider.com has learned from multiple sources that coming out of this past weekend's loop of live events and TV tapings, a number of talents and staff were feeling run down and some have since tested positive for COVID-19, while others who were feeling sick are still waiting for their test results to return."

One of these WWE talents is Raw superstar Seth Rollins, who took to Twitter last night to seemingly announce his diagnosis.

At the same time he tweeted, he was supposed to be headlining WWE's show at Madison Square Garden in a Triple Threat Cage Match for the WWE title against Champion Big E and Kevin Owens.  This never happened, as both Rollins and Big E were absent last night and Owens wrestled Edge in the cage in a one-on-one bout instead.

As many as 11 WWE stars were absent from the shows in New York and Tampa yesterday, including Rollins' wife, Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch, who was supposed to wrestle Bianca Belair (who was also absent) in their own Cage Match last night.

The other absent WWE stars included Bobby Lashley, Zelina Vega, Liv Morgan, Austin Theory, Carmella, Doudrop, and Universal Champion Roman Reigns.

This couldn't have come at a worse time for WWE, as they have a innaugural Pay Per View event in just five days with WWE Day 1, which is featuring matches involving most of the above named stars.  One of the show's two main event matches is a WWE title match where Big E is set to defend against Lashley, Rollins, and Owens, but out of that group only Owens is currently thought to be uninfected.

With Raw still set to air live tonight on the USA Network, we might be getting some updates as to how WWE will handle this situation.  Will they change the card top to bottom?  Will they just push everyone to perform ill?  I guess we'll find out soon enough.

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