Roman Reigns out of WrestleMania
WWE did not announce it Friday night on Smackdown, but it appears that Roman Reigns will not be wrestling at WrestleMania.
Because Reigns is immunocompromised from his battle with leukemia, he did not feel comfortable performing or want to risk his health being compromised.
WWE officials fully supported his decision.
Goldberg鈥檚 opponent
With Reigns out of the Universal title match against Goldberg, Braun Strowman will take his place.
In two weeks, we will take a look at a unique list that Strowman next will join if (when?) he defeats Goldberg for the title.
Other stars out
The Miz upset people when he showed up sick to the WWE tapings this past week.
This may have helped lead to Reigns making the decision to pull out.
Word is that United States champion Andrade and women鈥檚 tag champ Asuka also were not a part of the WrestleMania matches taped.
Deep two-day Mania card
While WWE has not announced which matches will take place Saturday and which ones will take place Sunday, there are 14 matches scheduled.
Aside from Goldberg facing Strowman, the other top championship matches include Brock Lesnar defending the WWE title against Drew McIntyre and Becky Lynch defending her Raw title against Shayna Blazer.
Other title matches include Bayley defending her Smackdown title in a five-way match, Charlotte Flair challenging Rhea Ripley for her NXT title, Sami Zayn defending the Intercontinental title against Daniel Bryan and The Street Prophets defending the Raw tag titles against Angel Garza and Austin Theory.
Who is Theory, you ask? He is an NXT wrestler and was put in the spot when Rey Mysterio could not fill in.
Another title match was to be The Miz and John Morrison defending the Smackdown titles against The Uso鈥檚 and The New Day, but as previously stated, Miz did not appear on the tapings so it is unclear what will happen.
In other matches, Bray Wyatt faces John Cena in a Firefly Fun House match, The Undertaker takes on AJ Styles in a Boneyard match, Randy Orton faces Edge in a Last Man Standing match, Alesiter Black takes on Bobby Lashley, Otis takes on Dolph Ziggler and Elias is scheduled to take on King Corbin, although that match may not take place.
WWE/ESPN update
With WrestleMania 32 airing tonight on ESPN at 7 p.m., one has to wonder if there is more to the relationship between WWE and ESPN.
Vince McMahon has been negotiating with ESPN for it to carry the bigger WWE PPV events, but the two sides are far apart in terms of money.
McMahon apparently wants more money than UFC鈥檚 deal which was reported at being five years for a total of around $1.5 billion.
Last week鈥檚 airing of Mania XXX drew ESPN鈥檚 highest rating of the day on any of its platforms.
Flair 30 For 30 also tonight
Serving as a pro wrestling appetizer to Mania 32 tonight, ESPN will air the 30 For 30 on Ric Flair.
The 90-minutes show begins at 5:50 p.m.
Royal Rumble airing Tuesday
WWE鈥檚 deal with Fox is paying off in more than one way.
FS1, which is looking to fill the air with programming since there aren鈥檛 any sports on, will air this year鈥檚 Royal Rumble at 7 p.m.
Lee takes another shot at McMahon
Make it two weeks on AEW Dynamite for Brodie Lee and two times that he has taken a subliminal shot at Vince McMahon.
After referring to McMahon鈥檚 lack of vision for his character as Luke Harper in WWE, Lee did a vignette where he was out to dinner with the Dark Order.
In it, Lee kicked one member out for eating while he was and yelled at another for sneezing.
It is known that McMahon does not allow anyone to eat until he does and also detests sneezing.
On This Day鈥�
In 1979, the World Wide Wrestling (WWWF) drops a W and becomes the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It would remain the WWF until 2002 when it became World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2002.
In 1987, WWF holds WrestleMania III before an 鈥渁nnounced鈥� world record crowd of 93,173 fans.
In the main event, Hulk Hogan retained the WWF championship when he defeated Andre the Giant, who had been undefeated in the WWE over the course of 15 years.
Ricky 鈥淭he Dragon鈥� Steamboat defeated 鈥淢acho Man鈥� Randy Savage to win the Intercontinental title in what many consider to be one of the two best matches in WrestleMania history.
In 1998, 鈥淪tone Cold鈥� Steve Austin defeated Shawn Michaels to win the WWF world championship at WrestleMania XIV as Mike Tyson served as the special enforcer.
The Undertaker defeated Kane in their first matchup at what was my first Mania as I was the guest of WWE Hall of Famer Killer Kowalski.
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