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As the world reels under the effects of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, major changes continue to take place in WWE as well.
With WrestleMania 36 set to take place in roughly a week, WWE has suffered a major blow as The Big Dog Roman Reigns has decided to keep himself away from his WrestleMania match against Goldberg.
There has been a lot of speculation in regards to who could be replacing Roman Reigns at the Showcase of Immortals. We will also talk about big plans WWE has for an ongoing feud between two former WWE Champions and a major turn likely to take place.
#5 Roman Reigns removed from WrestleMania 36
As per a report from Pro Wrestling Sheet, the match between Goldberg and Roman Reigns for WrestleMania 36 has been called off. The reason for the change in plans is because Roman Reigns did not feel comfortable during the tapings at the Performance Center.
Roman Reigns has battled Leukemia twice in his life and wanted to stay clear of any more health complications owing to the coronavirus scare going on.
It is being stated that Roman Reigns himself asked WWE to pull him out of the match - a request that was respected by the company.
We’re told WWE honored his request and he will now be replaced by someone else in the match against Goldberg, though it’s unclear who at this time.
Goldberg had won the Universal Championship from Bray Wyatt and Super ShowDown. Many fans believed that the reason behind Goldberg winning the Universal Championship was to put Reigns over at WrestleMania. While Reigns was set to face Goldberg, Bray Wyatt will be facing John Cena.
However, with Reigns out of the match, it will be interesting to see who WWE will choose to replace The Big Dog for this mega WrestleMania match.
#4 Braun Strowman to replace Roman Reigns?
There has been a lot of talk with regards to who WWE may pick to fill in the void left by Roman Reigns at WrestleMania. While some fans believed Bray Wyatt could work double duty and get his rematch against Goldberg, that is likely not the case.
WrestleVotes tweeted a video of Roman Reigns with Braun Strowman soon after the news of Reigns missing WrestleMania went out, indicating that The Monster Among Men may be the one who faces Goldberg at WrestleMania 36.
Braun Strowman recently lost the Intercontinental Championship to Sami Zayn at Elimination Chamber but has no advertised match for WrestleMania 36 this year. Therefore, Strowman makes for the most likely choice to face the legend Goldberg instead of Roman Reigns.
Strowman is a powerhouse performer much like The Big Dog and would be getting a big opportunity to face the Hall of Famer at WrestleMania. It seems unlikely that Goldberg will drop the belt to Strowman, as WWE will certainly save Goldberg vs Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship for a future date.
#3 Major babyface turn to take place?
SmackDown Women's Champion Bayley will be putting her title on the line at this year's WrestleMania.
While the original plans were to have Bayley face Sasha Banks in a one-on-one match, they were scrapped in order to have a multi-women match instead.
As per Dave Meltzer of the Observer, either Sasha Banks or Bayley will turn babyface after WrestleMania and have a program with each other. Both Bayley and Banks work as a team as of now and portray themselves as best friends.
Here is what Meltzer stated:
The gimmick is, is that Bayley is all mad about a six-way but Sasha, who is supposed to be Bayley's best friend, first was mad until her name was announced in the match and now she's sort of smiling and so you kind of get that thing.
He further explained:
It's actually the kick-off of, you know the company actually wanted to do Bayley and Sasha at WrestleMania, and to their credit, given that there is no time to build it up like literally, this came up a week or two ago, and they just thought, well we just can't do a match after four weeks of no build, so they kind of got it pushed with like, okay, we'll do the six-way which would like be the start and we'll do the singles match when it's not so rushed. So that's kind of where that is.
#2 Major plans for John Cena vs Bray Wyatt
Even though Bray Wyatt lost his Universal Championship to Goldberg in surprising fashion just some time back, The Fiend picked John Cena as his next target instead of Goldberg.
John Cena and Bray Wyatt have been feuding on SmackDown since Cena's return, with Bray Wyatt essentially blaming Cena for the downward spiral of his career after his loss to Cena at WrestleMania 30.
As per Gorilla Position, WWE has some major plans for this match at WrestleMania:
Apparently John Cena VS The Fiend at #WrestleMania will get a full blown movie treatment with a unique look & feel; rumors suggest a match shot (on a closed set) in a warehouse, like House of Horrors. As long as there’s no projections of cockroaches, I’m happy
The Fiend Bray Wyatt and the former 16-time World Champion John Cena have done a great job of making this one of the hottest matches heading into this year's WrestleMania.
There is a high chance that The Fiend will be picking up the win this time around but nothing is ever certain in the world of WWE.
#1 Bray Wyatt has John Cena's backing
There is no doubt in anyone's mind that Bray Wyatt is a creative genius. The fans have very high hopes for his match against John Cena at WrestleMania, as it is expected to be a unique match with a lot of twists to it.
As per SportsKeeda's Tom Colohue, the match will include multiple different elements and we may see Bray Wyatt, as well as The Fiend, being part of the match. He also stated that the match is essentially Bray's 'baby' but he has solid backing from John Cena as well.
I'm excited to see where John Cena fits into this because obviously he has always had Bray Wyatt's back and he's interested in having Bray Wyatt do more things like this, in much of the same way Randy Orton was for a long time. So this is very much Bray's baby, but John Cena has taken it to management on Bray's behalf as much as Bray has.
It will be interesting to see how things will pan out on this edition of Friday Night SmackDown.
