With the recent announcement by Seth Rollins having Covid and other stars being pulled from Sunday’s live shows and appearing on Raw through video messages from their homes, the WWE has reportedly halted required testing for Covid for their talent in NXT.
This could mean a couple of things as the NXT and main roster talent reportedly received the message the twice a week testing isn’t required anymore, so it could mean the company’s going to enforce their reported vaccine mandate.
It could also mean that since reports indicate the new variant is little more than a cold or flu level at worst, they’re attempting to save money on the testing and having their talent pulled from shows.
Which still means it could play into a vaccine mandate, but at this point it’s anyone’s guess.
Not sitting well
The news broke thanks to Fightful Select (https://www.patreon.com/posts/60396236).
They also shared that the decision didn’t sit well with several people in the company given the company’s initial response to the virus.
At one point, masks appeared to be optional for those behind the plexiglass at the Performance Center. But it was reported that Kevin Owens lost a family member to Covid, so he pushed for masks to become mandatory.
Whether we agree with the WWE’s stance or not, this could be the way we’ll see things go in the sports world where the various leagues tend to have exceptionally high rates of vaccinations but are seeing the spike in the new variant.
It’ll be extremely costly to the companies, teams, and leagues if they continue losing talent for games and shows on top of the testing.
There’s a logic to the thinking as the new variant is reported to be so weak, but there’s going to be a lot of backlash from fans and others over this, making it a probably PR nightmare.
At the end of the day, people want to be safe and know others are safe. It’s going to be interesting to see where this leads the WWE.
They’ve made a lot of questionable decisions throughout 2021, and this one will have a lot of people wondering what’s going on and is there a vaccine component we’re not hearing about or is the WWE wiping their hands of this.
What do you think about the WWE’s decision? Is it reckless or is there another option in place instead of mandatory testing? Let us know in the comments below.
SUBSCRIBE NOW: Get The Overtimer’s Hottest Stories, Breaking News and Special Features in your email, CLICK HERE!
Remember to stay up to date with the latest news on TheOvertimer. Don’t forget to visit ScreenJuicer for great videos, news, and gameplay!
