On today’s news, several top WWE stars have been pulled from live events as WWE scrambles
following a Covid outbreak, how that outbreak will affect Day 1, an update on Kenny Omega
in AEW, and more.
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It was reported last week that WWE were struggling with a new Covid outbreak amongst their roster,
and while the Christmas Eve episode of SmackDown had been pre-taped and would be unaffected,
the live events and potentially Day 1 taking place in a few days on January 1st would be
the things most up in the air because of this.
Dave Meltzer initially reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter last week that “a number
of NXT wrestlers tested positive in the weekly Monday testing” and that “there have been
main roster talents who have also tested positive.”
It’s still unknown as to how many and who has tested positive, but for NXT, it may at
least be less noticeable as the show tends to cycle through talent week to week, whereas
something like Raw uses the same names week on week, so it might become apparent quite
quickly.
But the ramifications are already being felt from live events.
WWE held two live events yesterday: one in Tampa, Florida, and one in Madison Square
Garden in New York.
Both have reportedly been massively affected by the outbreak, as Roman Reigns was pulled
from the live event in Tampa.
He was originally advertised to team with The Usos to face Drew McIntyre and The New
Day.
Meanwhile, Seth Rollins, Big E, Becky Lynch and Bianca Belair were all absent from the
Madison Square Garden event, where it was going to be Seth vs Big E vs Kevin Owens in
a Steel Cage, and Becky vs Bianca, also in a Steel Cage.
As a makegood with the shuffling around, it was announced that NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa
would defend the belt against Pete Dunne at the MSG show, and also a wild Edge from outta
nowhere was reportedly “rushed” to MSG to fill in according to PWInsider.
He had a Steel Cage match against Kevin Owens instead.
I now feel like I want to see this feud on TV, and not, yknow, Edge vs Miz.
However, it’s worth noting that according to Dave Meltzer on Twitter, not everyone that
was pulled from these shows has tested positive: “Just a note that not everyone off tonight's
WWE shows tested positive.
There are people being kept off the shows who haven't tested positive to minimize risk
so the PPV headliners are at less risk of having to miss the event on Saturday.”
However, it seems we do know one name who has tested positive, as Seth Rollins tweeted
out to say: “Merry Covid Christmas to me!!!!” before talking about the footballs or something.
It’s then likely that his wife Becky Lynch was affected in some way, either testing positive
herself or isolating due to contact with Seth.
Dave Meltzer also originally reported in the Newsletter that there is concern within WWE
because they will be traveling more extensively right after Christmas, so, now, which we’re
seeing the effects of.
With the inaugural Day 1 event this Saturday, a show which WWE reportedly want to make a
really big deal which is why they’ve got Reigns vs Lesnar there and not at the Royal
Rumble later in the month, it’s not looking great for them.
However, since these positive cases came in earlier last week, there’s a chance that
some of the talent will still be able to work the PPV, as it will be over 10 days since
they tested positive.
So it’s all a bit of a mess really.
WrestleTalk would like to wish anyone who has tested positive a speedy recovery, and
hope they can get back to wrestling soon.
Someone else who’s going to look to get back to wrestling soon is Kenny Omega, who
has been off our screens since his loss to Hangman Adam Page at Full Gear.
Omega reportedly took this time off so he could have multiple surgeries, because good
god that man has been working through a lot.
After Kyle O’Reilly debuted in AEW last week, it’s now being teased that there’s
an Undisputed Era vs Elite feud cooking, with Adam Cole caught between The Young Bucks and
his new buds.
Or old buds I guess.
So what does this mean for Kenny?
Is he going to be returning soon to reunite with the Bucks and thwart the dastardly Undisputed
Era?
As per the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, there is currently still “no firm timetable”
for Omega’s return to AEW, however previous reports have noted that the plan was for him
to return in February 2022, but Tony Khan has reportedly told Omega that he can take
however much time he needs.
Omega was forced to relinquish the AAA Mega Championship ahead of the surgeries, and the
vacant belt was won by Hijo Del Vikingo at TripleMania Regia.
He’ll now be defending the belt against John Hennigan aka John Morrison aka Johnny
Mundo aka Johnny Impact aka Johnny Drip Drip aka that lad who did that thing that one time,
and Omega has said that he’ll be taking another shot at the title in Mexico once he’s
healthy.
And speaking of people we’re hoping get healthy soon, nailing those segues today,
is Triple H, who underwent a very serious ‘cardiac event’ earlier this year, and
hasn’t been performing his usual backstage duties at WWE headquarters, or in NXT since
before its rebrand to NXT 2.0.
Shawn Michaels recently spoke with Denise Salcedo, where he spoke on what it was like
having to take the lead on that changeover with all the paint without Trips being around.
“I think the biggest thing was that I didn't know I was gonna be the one having to do everything.
I was going to hopefully assist Hunter and put into place what he wanted us to put into
place.
It came a bit quick obviously.
For the last 35 years that I've been with the WWE when they make a decision, it's done,
it's quick.
They are so efficient, so quick and they just don't sit and wait around.
I think that was probably the biggest adjustment.
I think we had probably three weeks, and we didn't have a whole lot of information.
By the time we got the information it was coming down by the last week and we went ahead
and applied everything that we could…It would have been a lot easier had he been there
the entire time to assist that's for sure.”
And as for the head honcho himself, Shawn provided an update on his health too, as he
was recently pictured at the WWE headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut.
“Most of it is me bothering him to be perfectly honest.
He has worked so much over the last several years and I don't think he understood that
it becomes your normal…for him to go a hundred miles per hour to nothing was an adjustment.
But I think he is, especially around this time of year, he's now starting to realize
like 'hey this isn't too bad.'
I think he's bordering enjoying himself now, to be perfectly honest it's a well-deserved
break for him.”
After letting his NXT contract expire earlier this month, Johnny Gargano is currently a
free agent in the wrestling world.
Many have speculated about his next move, whether he would re-sign with WWE following
some paternity leave or not, and we have an update courtesy of Dave Meltzer on Wrestling
Observer Radio.
“Just things he’s said both publicly and privately, I mean I know he’s heavily considering
going to AEW, put it that way” Gargano would be joining his former NXT cohorts
Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, Kyle O’Reilly, Andrade El Idolo and Malakai Black to name a few if
he did head over to AEW, and I for one, would really like him to do that because I don’t
know if everyone knows this or not, but Gargano’s a really good wrestler.
And he could put on some more really good matches.
Oh my god.
We could finally get Gargano vs Danielson.
Gargano please sign with AEW.
Please and thank you.
After Ring of Honor’s Final Battle earlier this month, the company has essentially gone
on hiatus, releasing all their talent from their contracts and cancelling all touring
plans.
Ring of Honor’s COO Joe Koff recently appeared on the Ring of Honor Strong podcast to explain
a little of the decisions behind this hiatus and to clarify a few points:
“It was really business-oriented.
Let’s go back to 2019, we made a decision that in order for us to be as relevant or
to be as competitive in the fan’s mind, we needed to have a bigger program, a primetime
offering, high production, and high talent…you don’t make a decision in January and start
from March.
These things are thought out well in advance.
You have to plan, you have to figure out how it’s going to work and what’s the return
on those efforts and ideas.”
“So back in 2019, nobody could have foreseen what happened in 2020.
So we built our company around 52-week live programming, basically.
Well, we were ready to go in July 2020, everything was in order, we were plugging along and then
all of a sudden March came of 2020, and the world as we know it stopped.”
Ring of Honor was one of the companies that stopped running shows entirely during the
height of the pandemic, though they retained their talent under contract and still paid
them, arguably the promotion who has handled the situation the best.
“What should we do next?
What can we do next?
What would be the next logical step?
That’s where we are in the process right now.
So, we’re still basking a little bit in that sunlight, and we have some really nice
things up our sleeves for around the first of the year.
As we get into the first quarter [of 2022] we will maybe start seeing, not only the blueprints
but the actual design of what the next Ring of Honor will look like.”
Best of luck to Ring of Honor as they try to figure out their next steps.