Backstage News On WWE Stars Absent From Latest TV Tapings

There’s some backstage news on a number of WWE stars who were absent from the latest set of TV tapings due to varying COVID-19 reasons.

This was all reported by Dave Meltzer on the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, who said both AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan weren’t at the SmackDown tapings on Friday. The show aired the same day and about half of it was centred around the Undertaker, including a full replay of the boneyard match from WrestleMania.

The rumour is that the reason Styles and Bryan weren’t there is because they were part of an in-ring interview with Renee Young recently, who since tested positive for COVID-19.

Styles was set to defend the Intercontinental Championship against Drew Gulak on this past Friday’s SmackDown, but with Styles not there the bout had to be cancelled. Gulak did commentary on 205 Live instead.

Two more names who were absent were Mojo Rawley and Shorty G. They were both in a backstage interview segment with Kayla Braxton previously, who also tested positive since then, and their match was produced by Jamie Noble, who too has tested positive.

Other names who were absent, although the reasons for these aren’t as clear, were Sheamus, Otis, Tucker, Sonya Deville, and Mandy Rose. Check out the updated tapings schedule for WWE next week at this link.

• COVID-19
• AJ Styles
• Daniel Bryan
• wwe

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