The Universal Champion Roman Reigns testing positive for COVID-19 changed the things across the Day 1 match card. With orginal main event Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar not taking place, many changes were made to the show resulting in the ripple effect fans saw at Day 1 PPV according to the Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select.
Sean Ross Sapp reported that segments and video packages were added to the show to fill the time slot for the lack of a Universal Championship match. Match times were also adjusted across the event, with several matches going much longer than they were initially planned.
Sean Ross Sapp also noted that several people he spoke told that Big E to retain his WWE Title before inclusion of Brock Lesnar to the match.
While the main event was adjusted to go for 30 minutes, including entrances, the match only ended up lasting less than that for some unknown reason. Sapp states that when the times were adjusted initially, Lesnar was already scheduled to compete in that fatal five-way match.
This report also got some backstage response to Big E’s end as WWE Champion. Sapp spoke to most people about it and they believed that Big E’s title reign was booked inconsistently throughout, making last night’s title change all the more heartbreaking for Big E fans.
