Roman Reigns off WWE WrestleMania 36

This post was updated at 8:15 AM Eastern Thursday.

In this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that the WrestleMania 36 card is undergoing changes due to concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, one of the major players in this year’s card is off the show.

Citing sources with knowledge of the situation, Pro Wrestling Sheet’s Ryan Satin first reported Thursday night that Roman Reigns will not wrestle WWE Universal Champion Bill Goldberg due to health concerns regarding his immune system being compromised from his bouts with leukemia.

On Friday’s Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer said he was told Reigns was in attendance in Orlando, but after the Usos weren’t happy that Miz was there sick, the title challenger made the decision to not go through with the match. He didn’t have other details after that.

In Reigns’ place will be Braun Strowman in an angle Meltzer said he expected to play out on Friday’s SmackDown show on Fox.

The 34-year-old took an indefinite hiatus in October 2018 after his form of leukemia returned after 11 years and returned to WWE in late-February of 2019.

From Meltzer: “The WrestleMania card has also changed. Names are being kept confidential because so few know, but it’s been confirmed that multiple people on the card either said they were sick, which meant instantly being pulled off all shows this week, there were others who did not feel sick but had fevers above 100.4, which was the WWE’s cut-off point of not allowing people to work, and others who, on their own, said they didn’t feel comfortable flying in. Both AEW and WWE had told people that if they don’t want to come, they don’t have to come and that the decisions made now won’t be held against them when it comes to future booking.”

WrestleMania was filmed Wednesday and Thursday at the Orlando, FL-based Performance Center for air on Saturday, April 4th and Sunday, April 5th due to the ongoing uncertainty due to the worldwide pandemic.