WrestleMania Tag Title Plans, Why Austin Theory Was Added

WrestleMania Tag Title Plans

Many of the planned matches for WrestleMania 36 have been in flux. Some matches may have been completely scrubbed (like the battle royals), while others have been altered. We know, for example, that Roman Reigns is out of the title match against Goldberg. The WrestleMania Tag Title plans have possibly changed as well.

According to the Wrestling Observer, we may see a triple threat ladder match featuring a single participant from each of the involved teams. On Friday’s SmackDown, we were informed that The Miz and John Morrison had to defend against two teams. In addition to The New Day, they will defend against The Usos. Here’s where things get a bit tricky.

According to a report, The Miz was or is sick (whether it’s a cold or worse remains to be reported). That speculation led to The Usos having a gripe with Miz, and allegedly may have influenced Reigns’ decision to bail out of his title opportunity. The official report is that Reigns excused himself out of an abundance of caution. With his past battles with Leukemia, his health could be more at risk than others in the WWE family.

So, with health concerns out there, and with Miz possibly down and out, we could be looking at a ladder match-for the belts-with just a single tag team member from each team. What we know is that the match-and all other matches-have been recorded last week. With WreslteMania airing this weekend, we won’t have to wait long.

Why Austin Theory Was Added

Remember how we said earlier that the WrestleMania card was changing a lot? We weren’t kidding. Last week, we learned that Andrade and Angel Garza somehow got a tag title shot against the Street Profits this weekend. We then learned later in the week that Andrade was not going to be appearing.

Fortunately for Andrade, his excuse has nothing to do with the ongoing pandemic. 

Instead, the United States Champion suffered an apparent rib injury recently, and was not cleared to compete in time for the WrestleMania tapings. With one man down, you might have expected WWE to pull the entire team (especially since they were a random choice to begin with). However, that was not the case.

Instead, WWE elevated an NXT Superstar to take the spot and keep the match on the card. The Superstar of choice raised more than a few eyebrows. Austin Theory was given a huge opportunity to work a WrestleMania match, something that not every main roster guy ever even gets to do.

Now, we are hearing the reasoning why it was Theory who got the call. Reports are that Theory was the choice because he has a very big fan in the RAW creative team. That fan? None other than RAW runner Paul Heyman. Now, one random shot doesn’t necessarily mean a lot, right? Well, it’s a WrestleMania match, and there were likely plenty of other Superstars, across all brands, whom would have been options. That Heyman and others went with the young Theory probably does mean something.