WWE Day 1 News & Notes – Ticket Sales, Pre-Show Match Added, Roman Reigns Update

WWE Day 1 Ticket Sales Update

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE has sold around 9,985 tickets as of this past Thursday for their upcoming Day 1 event this Saturday in Atlanta, Georgia.

Meltzer reported that tickets sales for this event had not been selling well until the past three weeks. Meltzer also reported that this late big surge was unusual for modern WWE event sales but was also due to the amount of discounting WWE had been doing in the market for this upcoming event.

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Kickoff Match Announced for Day 1 Event

WWE recently announced a new match for the card of their Day 1 event this Saturday in Atlanta.

This was revealed to be a tag team match of Cesaro & Ricochet vs. Sheamus & Ridge Holland and will take place during the Day 1 Kickoff Show.

Updated card for WWE Day 1:

• Universal Championship – Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns (c)
• WWE Championship Fatal Four-way match – Seth Rollins vs. Kevin Owens vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Big E (c)
• Raw Women’s Championship – Liv Morgan vs. Becky Lynch (c)
• SmackDown Tag Team Championship – The New Day (Kofi Kingston & King Woods) vs. The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso) (c)
• RAW Tag Team Championship – The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) vs. RK-Bro (Randy Orton & Riddle) (c)
• Edge vs. The Miz
• Drew McIntyre vs. Madcap Moss
• Pre-show – Cesaro & Ricochet vs. Sheamus & Ridge Holland

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Reason for Roman Reigns Absence from WWE’s Holiday Tour This Past Weekend

As noted before, WWE recently was hit with a new COVID-19 outbreak within the company resulting in a number of talent and staff testing positive. This newest outbreak also resulted in several notable talent being pulled from this past weekend’s house show events and this past Monday’s episode of RAW.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources within WWE stated that the main reason why Roman Reigns was pulled from this past weekend’s house show event in Tampa, Florida was due to WWE officials not wanting to jeopardize their big plans for him and Brock Lesnar at their Day 1 event. Meltzer reported that WWE officials also did not want to take any unnecessary risks with Reigns, Lesnar, and Paul Heyman due to all three also being heavily involved in the company’s major plans for next year’s WrestleMania 38 in Dallas, Texas.

Meltzer reported that these same sources also stated that the company was very fortunate to not be needing to tape a new live episode of SmackDown this week since it lessened the need for Reigns, Heyman, and Lesnar to travel on the road for television during the company’s latest outbreak.