WWE has had plenty of bad news recently, and plans for its biggest show of the year, WrestleMania 40, are suffering because of it.
Before last week, all signs were pointing to a massive WrestleMania featuring the likes of Cody Rhodes vs Roman Reigns, CM Punk vs Seth Rollins, and Brock Lesnar vs Gunther.
However, at least two of those matches are no longer happening – and it sounds like that fact is going to affect plenty of other planned matches as well.
The first issue arose on January 25, when a lawsuit was filed accusing Vince McMahon of sexual trafficking, abuse and more – you can read the full lawsuit below.
Throughout the lawsuit, there were also several unnamed parties, including one who was referred to as “WWE Superstar” who was involved in the alleged situation.
WWE Superstar was described as someone who was a former UFC Heavyweight Champion and was negotiating with WWE at the time that alleged events occurred.
While it’s very important to express that Brock Lesnar was at no point named in the lawsuit, the Wall Street Journal reported that the person being referred to as WWE Superstar was Lesnar.
Lesnar was planned to appear in the Royal Rumble match on January 27, be eliminated by Dominik Mysterio to set up a match for Elimination Chamber in February, and then go on to face Gunther at WrestleMania in early April.
However, upon the lawsuit being filed, WWE pulled Lesnar out of the Rumble, and his role was instead filled by Bron Breakker.
It’s currently unknown if Breakker will end up facing Mysterio at Elimination Chamber and Gunther at WrestleMania as Lesnar was planned to.
So, that situation has put paid to plans for Gunther vs Lesnar, but there’s another match that’s now been called off as well.
That match is CM Punk vs Seth Rollins. Despite Rollins suffering a knee injury a couple of weeks ago, he’d promised he’d wrestle at WrestleMania and the match was looking likely.
However, disaster struck during the Royal Rumble match and CM Punk suffered a torn triceps, which has put him out of action for a few months, meaning he’s going to miss out on WrestleMania.
That’s two major matches that WWE has been forced into changing, and it sounds like the adjustments have caused a ripple effect throughout the rest of the card as well.
On Wrestling Observer Radio today, Dave Meltzer said:
“A lot of things have changed in the last… between the Punk injury, Lesnar being out – I was told, even before the Punk injury, just with Lesnar being out, it was not just that Lesnar’s match is (changed), but it’s like a domino effect that’s changed the whole card based on Lesnar being out.
“Whatever the original stuff was, a lot of it has changed because of Lesnar, and now again, another change because of Punk.”
We’ll keep you posted with any further updates on changes to the WrestleMania card.
As of now, plans that are still intact are believed to be Cody Rhodes vs Roman Reigns (although there’s always a chance The Rock could affect this), Rhea Ripley vs Becky Lynch, and Bayley vs IYO SKY.
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