WWE Hall of Famer Edge has been “rushed” to Madison Square Garden for a special live event with four huge names absent backstage from Madison Square Garden.
According to PWInsider.com, the advertised Steel Cage Match main events will not take place as scheduled with two talents being brought to New York for one of the shows. There are also changes to the main event for another show in Tampa featuring WWE SmackDown Superstars.
PW Insider reports that four talents, including WWE Champion Big E and Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch, are absent.
“WWE Holiday Tour dates tonight in NYC and Tampa will not be taking place as scheduled due to talents not being present to work the events. The advertised main events in NYC were Kevin Owens vs. Big E vs. Seth Rollins and Bianca Belair vs. Becky Lynch in steel cage matches.
“Big E, Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch and Bianca Belair are not currently backstage at MSG.”
Of course, there’s no word yet as to the nature of the absences and whether those four talents will be present for the upcoming episode of WWE Raw. PWInsider.com reports that Edge and Natalya are being brought to the show with the card seemingly needing to be overhauled.
“We are told WWE is currently working out alternative plans for MSG. One of those plans appears to include WWE Hall of Famer Edge, who we are told was being rushed to NYC to appear on tonight’s Madison Square Garden event. The plan is for him to be wrestling on the show tonight. Natalya was also being brought to the NYC event.”
Meanwhile, the report added that it’s not only the Raw event at Madison Square Garden that’s affected, with “changes” to be made to a six-man tag team match in Tampa featuring SmackDown Superstars.
“We are told there will also be changes to the Tampa main event, which was was slated to be headlined by Drew McIntyre and The New Day vs. Roman Reigns and The Usos. WWE Smackdown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair vs. Sasha Banks in a Street Fight has also been advertised for the Smackdown side of the tour.”
The NXT Championship is also set to be defended on the show as Tommaso Ciampa takes on Pete Dunne – but the report notes that was always the plan, and not a case of those talents being brought in due to other absences.