Two days ago, El Grande Americano was the name attached to Roman Reigns. Now he is not.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports El Grande Americano will not be challenging Reigns for the World Heavyweight Championship on the September 14 Raw in Mexico City.
That corrects something the same outlet floated on Tuesday. Bryan Alvarez said on Wrestling Observer Live that Americano was the rumored opponent, while stressing it was unconfirmed and not locked in.
The rumored opponent, unconfirmed, not locked in, the rumored opponent is El Grande Americano. That could certainly change.
Alvarez also argued against the booking at the time, saying he did not think Reigns should beat Americano and suggesting Penta as an alternative.
The match itself is set. Rey Mysterio, in his role as AAA general manager, announced on Wednesday that Reigns will defend against the winner of a tournament featuring luchadores from Raw, SmackDown and AAA. It begins on Monday’s Raw in Norfolk and finishes in Mexico City, where Raw runs live from Arena Ciudad de México for the first time in over 15 years.
The bracket has not been released. WWE’s announcement video featured Penta and El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. among others, and Penta is the most obvious beneficiary of Americano being out. He held the Intercontinental Championship for 152 days before losing it to Chad Gable at SummerSlam.
Americano has other business in September regardless. He is booked against Dominik Mysterio for the AAA Mega Championship at TripleMania, which runs across two nights on September 11 and 13.
Reigns retained against Seth Rollins on Night 2 of SummerSlam.
