Reigns, Lynch, Rollins, Big E, Belair off WWE house shows

Major changes have taken place to both of today’s WWE Holiday Tour house shows in New York City and Tampa, Florida. 

WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns will not take part in the advertised main event in Tampa as he, Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso vs. Drew McIntyre, Sir Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods had been the advertised main event. McIntyre and Sheamus are now challenging The Usos for the SmackDown Tag Team titles on that show. 

At Madison Square Garden in New York, Becky Lynch, Seth Rollins, WWE Champion Big E and Bianca Belair are off that show. Big E vs. Rollins vs. Kevin Owens, and Lynch vs. Belair in steel cage matches had been the advertised main events. Edge was brought in for MSG and will now be facing Owens in a cage match in a first-time matchup. Natalya was also reportedly brought in to New York for the show. 

There is no word from WWE as to the reason for the changes to the lineups, but earlier in the week, it was reported that a number of both WWE talents and staff had tested positive for COVID-19 following last weekend’s house shows. Sunday marked the beginning of a five-day stretch in which WWE is running two shows a day. On Saturday, WWE holds their Day 1 pay-per-view in Atlanta, GA.

Dave Meltzer noted on Twitter that “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.” 

While not directly admitting he has the virus, Rollins did tweeted the following on Sunday indicating he was home: