Notable Superstars Missing from the Card
Note: This is not a full list of everyone on the roster who is not scheduled for the show. It excludes some people who wouldn’t have normally been expected to appear on the show for some fashion, such as some jobbers, injured talent, etc.
Generally speaking, this event is comprise of “champions and the biggest stars on the brand who aren’t injured”, leaving it up for debate why certain people weren’t included. There are only five spots per male/female team, so not everyone can be chosen, which makes it interesting.
There have been previous years where a battle royal has taken place on the kickoff and inserted lots of names, though. That may happen again this year, for all we know, and most of these names could be participating after all.
Missing from Monday Night Raw
Akira Tozawa was surprisingly absent from the battle royal, while it makes sense for Reggie to not appear.
Vignettes have been airing for Veer Mahaan, despite how he’s already been on the brand. They’re just acting like we should forget about that and re-debut him after Survivor Series.
I’m not at all surprised to see Edge not on here. I didn’t even think they should have bothered drafting him in the first place, to be honest, and should have just kept him a free agent.
Dominik and Rey Mysterio actively had their spots on Team Raw taken away from them. That’s a justifiable reason to be out of this event.
When it comes to the women’s division, Alexa Bliss has been MIA for a while and three others (Dana Brooke, Doudrop and Nikki A.S.H.) have all at least acknowledged how they should have been in consideration for the team. Tamina was just ignored entirely, I’m guessing because she’s Tamina and her brief stint of being pushed has ended.
Missing from Friday Night SmackDown
Mace is one of the few people on SmackDown not involved in the battle royal. The others would be Mustafa Ali, Ridge Holland and Kofi Kingston.
The women’s division booted Aliyah off the team. Naomi has a reason for not being on the team in that Sonya Deville has an agenda against her (for whatever reason that I’m sure they’ll never explain and then entirely drop out of nowhere). Xia Li is just MIA.
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