We have an update regarding tonight’s WWE Clash of Champions card with two matches expected to either change or be removed.
The SmackDown women’s title match between Bayley and Nikki Cross will not be taking place. This follows Friday Night SmackDown, where Cross did not appear on the go-home episode with Bayley cutting a promo during the episode and continued to promote the match on Talking Smack.
It is expected that there will be a replacement for Nikki Cross on the show.
The other match affected is the WWE women’s tag title match where Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax were supposed to defend the titles against Ruby Riott & Liv Morgan. This match we were told is “off”.
It was explained to us that the matches will be addressed on the show tonight.
The Clash of Champions card begins at 6 pm Eastern with the kickoff show followed by the main card at 7.
Of course it’s not fair and it’s extremely stupid but it’s a wrestling war kliq, IT’S A WRESTLING WAR!!! (between a promotion trying to grow and a third brand that doesn’t really need to) THE STAKES ARE HIGH!!! MAKE FUN OF THEM FOR HAVING WRESTLERS WITH A VIRUS!!!
We can argue the merits of running wrestling shows at all right now, but the fact is that somebody testing positive and getting pulled from a show (if that’s what happened here) is an example of the system working, not failing.
I don’t know if I agree. All four of the people in the womens tag were on Monday’s show. Cross was on the previous weeks Smackdown.
It all comes down to WWE refusing to provide any clarification on what exactly is happening. It may not be COVID related at all but their refusal to be transparent leads everyone to speculate.
And the fact that WWE continued to promote both matches as late as Friday night is bush league
Considering most sports leagues at this point do two tests to confirm there aren’t false positives, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with not calling it off until they had to. We also have no idea when the positives for these particular people came in. We don’t even know if it’s not positives and just contact tracing that they’re being careful with. Being critical without any specific information when they could be doing everything right isn’t terribly helpful. Hoping the best for everyone involved.
How hard is it to say if you do not want to be “honest” (due to HIPPA or some other reason)
that WWE’s medical staff (or whatever WWE calls them) did not clear so and so and just leave it at that instead of fans guessing that they got injured, some travel issue (how someone is not “in town” during a PPV week I will never know) family issue or the “Covid monster” got them.
Also why are WWE and AEW (who run regularly) not in some sort of bubble (rent the hotel(s) near the arena, house and feed them and make sure there are things for people to do within the area without having to leave the “bubble”) like the (W)NBA and NHL are and that MLB will be?
So they should lie instead of doing what they’re supposed to do when confronted with HIPAA rights? How is that any better?
I think people need to learn how to be a bit forgiving in the midst of a pandemic. They made their mistakes. This is just following the course of every other organization at this point. Not everything is a need to attack the company about.
This is neither here or there, but every time WWE announces… pretty much anything… this board likes to joke and gripe that the match/segment/signing/etc. that they’re announcing isn’t a draw.
Now a match gets canceled, and it’s a huge disservice to the paying customers who are tuning in.
It’s part of a bigger issue with WWE where they seem to be trying to pretend a pandemic is even happening.
Tom Phillips disappeared for two weeks, Samoa Joe disappears, people on NXT who had a big party are living with people on the main roster and being used as Retribution, etc.
It’s all just bizarre. Just be like every other sports league and wrestling promotion and just be honest. I think everyone would be a lot more understanding if they provided some clarity
The sports leagues are only announcing positive COVID tests if the athlete announces it themselves. For instance, Nick Senzel for the Reds was out for a month and still there hasn’t been a reason given.
We just don’t know who doesn’t want it to come out. Defaulting this to being the company’s fault before we know literally anything is just a desire to criticize.
It is different. The NHL and NBA did it for the playoffs which was a specific period of time (ie. 2 months). You can’t expect these performers to live in a bubble for the foreseeable future with no definitive end date