What Led To The Latest COVID-19 Outbreak, Update On NXT TV Changes

The latest WWE NXT COVID-19 outbreak may have started when a group of Performance Center recruits and NXT wrestlers were doing ring crew work this past Thursday.

As noted earlier, it’s believed that this week’s NXT show will be changed due to “lots of positive tests” over the past week. It was reported earlier that several talents were contacted and told to quarantine, while others were pulled from the NXT show altogether. It was also reported that there was a meeting/event last Thursday where Performance Center trainees were required to attend, but several were not taking the proper COVID-19 precautions, which led to numerous talents being pulled and others quarantined.

In an update, PWInsider reports that the event in question had to do with a large group of talents doing ring crew this past Thursday, and that is being looked at as a potential outbreak source. It was noted that dozens of wrestlers were moving and resettling rings in Orlando, with many not wearing masks during that process.

It was noted by a source that there needs to be far more enforcement of masks than there has been in some time. The source also hoped that this latest COVID-19 outbreak will lead to WWE cracking down on enforcement of masks while people are at the Performance Center.

Wrestlers reportedly started getting sick on Friday, according to an update from Meltzer. He also added that the rings were being moved at a building next door to the Performance Center. Word is that people who have tested positive were there for the ring work, while other people who have tested positive were not there for the ring work.

There’s no word yet on which wrestlers have tested positive for COVID-19, but it was said that there are “substantial numbers” of positive tests for this outbreak. People who have tested positive, and others who had been around those people, are currently being quarantined, and will be in quarantine at least through this week.

It’s believed that no RAW or SmackDown talents have been impacted by this latest coronavirus outbreak.

In regards to changes for this Wednesday’s NXT episode, it does look like Leon Ruff vs. Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, and Timothy Thatcher and Tommaso Ciampa vs. Imperium’s Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner, have been removed from the show. A NXT preview update posted to the WWE website this afternoon has no mention of those two matches, which were previously announced.

As of this writing, these are the only happenings being advertised for Wednesday:

* NXT Cruiserweight Champion Jordan Devlin returns to the United States to confront NXT Cruiserweight Champion Santos Escobar

* Austin Theory vs. Dexter Lumis

* LA Knight makes his NXT in-ring debut

Stay tuned for more on the possible COVID-19 outbreak in NXT and this week’s show.