As noted earlier this week, there has been another outbreak of positive COVID-19 tests within the WWE NXT roster.
NXT had to restructure a lot of its creative plans for last night’s show. For example, the tag team match featuring Danny Burch and Roderick Strong vs. Raul Mendoza and Fabian Aichner was supposed to set up a future match between The Undisputed Era [Bobby Fish and Roderick Stong] against the team of Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch. However, they couldn’t go through with the plans because of Fish not being on the show.
In addition to Fish, announcers Vic Joseph and Wade Barrett were absent from last night’s show, although they could have been off for other reasons.
Meltzer also stated that while the number of positive cases are not as high as the previous outbreak – when 38 members of the NXT staff reportedly contracted the virus – the number “is not small” either. While noting that the outbreak started after one of the NXT coaches tested positive, Meltzer went onto mention that a lot of people backstage “were perhaps laxed” and stopped taking precautions to shield themselves from the virus. He said the outbreak has also impacted the main roster and could alter creative plans this coming week on Raw and SmackDown.
Earlier this week, Florida-based reporter Jon Alba also noted that the outbreak may have led to a “decent effect” on the product’s creative plans. Alba also reported that some people within NXT had ignored Coronavirus protocols such as wearing a mask, especially in spots in the backstage area where people congregate.
Stay tuned for more updates.
