A number of top WWE stars have seemingly been pulled from the company’s upcoming 5-event UK tour set for later this month.
The promotion recently confirmed the matches and featured superstars for the upcoming tour. The most glaring omission from this revised line up are both the WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins.
Both the current champions were advertised for the shows earlier and are still featured in the banner promoting the UK tour.
On the women’s side, the Mami Rhea Ripley is also no longer being promoted for the shows without an explanation, despite being mentioned in the original press release back in March.
The two names whose exclusion does make sense are Bianca Belair and Gunther. The EST has been out of action since WrestleMania 41 due to a broken finger, while the Ring General is expected to take time off after SummerSlam due to a nose injury he’s been dealing with.
WWE has added CM Punk to the tour, seemingly as the replacement for the lost star power. He is set to team with Sami Zayn and Penta to square off against Judgment Day for most of the tour. The one exception is a singles match against Dominik Mysterio during the August 23 Liverpool show.
The card is subject to change so some of the excluded names could still make an appearance. Though as of this writing, this doesn’t appear to be the plan.