From the WWE Rumour Mill: More backstage details on illness affecting top Raw stars
What's the story?
The details surrounding the illness that took both Bray Wyatt and Roman Reigns off of Monday Night Raw's pay-per-view TLC 2017 have been vague at best, but a new report from WrestlingInc appears to explain a little bit more about what's going on .
In case you didn't know...
On the Friday before TLC 2017, the WWE announced that several of its top stars would be unable to compete at the pay-per-view due to 'health issues', meaning that Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt would be replaced in their respective matches by Kurt Angle and AJ Styles.
Prior to this, reports had been circulating that the reason why Bray Wyatt and Bo Dallas were conspicuously off of television was due to a viral illness, with further speculation suggesting that it was either meningitis or mumps, and was likely to have affected more Superstars and could affect the TLC pay-per-view.
Both of those things proved to be true.
The heart of the matter
WrestlingInc reports that WWE did initially believe that the illness affecting their Superstars was viral meningitis, but quickly discovered that it was mumps. Since then they've been testing everyone in the locker room for signs of the highly contagious illness.
The report also suggests that there's a chance that neither Roman Reigns or Bray Wyatt actually have contracted the illness, but are, in fact, waiting for the test results so they can be given the all clear to compete again.
SmackDown LIVE was also mentioned, but as of now, there are no reports of any Superstars from the blue brand being tested for the illness, so it looks like the WWE did a great job of containing it before it became too much of an epidemic.
What's next?
Roman Reigns' expected timetable for return doesn't look good for 'The Big Dog' with there being doubts that he'll be back before WWE's next big pay-per-view, Survivor Series. One hopes he does make it back though.
In the meantime, his Shield teammates Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose seem to be carrying the brand as the 'top' stars and are being booked as such.
Author's take
Admittedly it's unfortunate that TLC 2017 was affected by this illness, but it really does look like the WWE have handled everything perfectly from arranging replacements at the pay-per-view, handling the illness backstage and most importantly, protecting their talent by removing any potential risk.
I think they need to be commended for their actions during this whole saga.
Send us news tips at fightclub@sportskeeda.com