It will be very interesting to see how WWE handles the creative for the WWE Battleground main event now that Roman Reigns has been suspended for 30 days due to his first violation of the WWE Wellness Policy.
As noted, Reigns will not be able to appear on any WWE TV events from now until Battleground. His suspension ends on Thursday, July 21st and Battleground takes place that Sunday on July 24th. WWE has live events on Friday, July 22nd in Newark, Delaware and Saturday, July 23rd in Wildwood, New Jersey, plus one that night in Salisbury, Maryland.
As noted via Wrestling Observer Radio, top WWE officials knew of the failure before Money In the Bank and before the Battleground announcement, indicating that the match will go on as planned. Bryan Alvarez noted on Wrestling Observer Live that there have been indications that some officials knew of the failure before the weekend.
Not only will Reigns miss all upcoming WWE live events, he will miss the July 19th WWE Draft as SmackDown goes live on Tuesday nights on the USA Network. Reports have indicated that Reigns and John Cena were set to be the top stars for each brand but it will be interesting to see how they handle Reigns’ pick while he is suspended.
No word yet on who will replace Reigns at WWE live events but we’ll keep you updated. He was booked to face Seth Rollins on July 16th at the WWE live event from Madison Square Garden. The suspension has already been picked up by several mainstream media outlets including ESPN and FOX Sports.
Reigns has flown home and is not at tonight’s WWE SmackDown tapings in Tucson.