WWE News: Long list of WWE absentees from this week's TV tapings 

What's the story?

SummerSlam is right around the corner, and whilst the injuries are definitely piling up for WWE right now, there were also a number of notable absentees from TV this week.

In case you didn't know...

There are a number of stars who the WWE Universe expect to be missing since they are struggling with injuries, including Sami Zayn, Jason Jordan, Shinsuke Nakamura, Randy Orton, Charlotte Flair and Dean Ambrose or Ronda Rousey who was recently suspended from the company for 30 days.

There were also stars like Carmella and AJ Styles who were known to be absent from SmackDown this past week because they were busy doing promotional work in Australia ahead of WWE's Super ShowDown later this year.

The heart of the matter

Whilst there are a number of stars who are absent from WWE right now with good reason, there is also a long list of stars who went missing from Raw, SmackDown and 205 Live this week including Bobby Roode, Chad Gable, Curt Hawkins, Elias, Mustafa Ali, Asuka, and TJP.

There were a number of stars in attendance at the shows who were used in dark matches instead, including Samoa Joe, who teamed with The Miz after SmackDown went off the air. According to a report by RealSport101, it appears that there have also been a number of returnees this week, including Alicia Fox who was seen in a backstage segment on Raw, Andrade 'Cien' Almas, Tye Dillinger and Akira Tozawa.

What's next?

WWE have a huge roster right now, which means that they are usually able to rotate their stars from week to week so this could just be by design, right now there are only a handful of stars who have been missing from TV for more than a month and in the build-up to SummerSlam many of WWE's top stars are expected to be featured regularly on TV.

Did you notice anyone else who was missing from TV this week? Share your thoughts in the comments section below...