Report: Rey Mysterio, Dana Brooke in quarantine, out of WrestleMania 36
WWE fans were surprised to see Dana Brooke removed from the SmackDown Women’s Championship match at WrestleMania 36, but we now have an explanation why.
WrestleMania 36 will take place on the weekend of Apr. 4 and 5, the first year it will be a two-night affair. The show will be taped beforehand at the Performance Center, but it will go on despite worries around the novel coronavirus.
However, two WWE superstars have reportedly been placed in self-quarantine and taken off the WrestleMania card as a precautionary measure. The last thing the company needs is an outbreak in its own locker room, affecting wrestlers and those backstage.
Dave Meltzer reported on Wrestling Observer Radio, via WrestlingNews.Co’s Paul Davis, that both Rey Mysterio and Dana Brooke are in self-quarantine and removed from the WrestleMania 36 card.
As Sportskeeda reporter Gary Cassidy notes, they are not the only WWE superstars in self-quarantine, but they are the first to be removed from the WrestleMania 36 card due to self-isolation measures during the outbreak.
Mysterio was expected to be in a match for Andrade’s United States Championship at the Show of Shows. Now that he’s off the card, Andrade and Zelina Vega’s other business associate, Angel Garza, will be in a Raw Tag Team Title match against the on-fire Street Profits.
Meanwhile, Brookie is, per Meltzer, “sick” (it appears the illness is unknown) and thus off the card, as WWE wisely don’t want to take any chances.
Brooke was originally scheduled to be in a Six-Pack Challenge for the SmackDown Women’s Championship with Bayley defending against Sasha Banks, Lacey Evans, Naomi, and Tamina. The match will now be competed among five wrestlers with Brooke out of the picture.
Hopefully, Brooke only has the cold or a minor illness and not COVID-19. And hopefully, she gets a big opportunity in the near future when she’s better, because a title match at WrestleMania 36 would have been a massive, well-earned moment for her.
As for Mysterio, details are scarce, but we can only hope he’s doing OK.
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WWE is doing its best to entertain the fans and not break up its storylines or indefinitely hold off shows, but it could come at the expense of the safety of the performers with how transmissible the virus is. It’s a good thing they are taking every precaution they can, though, and, again, we can only hope Brooke and Mysterio are OK and make full recoveries if they are ill.
For more information about COVID-19, visit the CDC’s website or the website for your state’s Department of Health.