Wrasslin': the Cure for the Chinese Virus?

I just watched something strange going on in the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) as it pertains to the infamous Chinese virus. Now, this virus is the sole reason (officially anyway) that the country was shut down economically, draconian limits to individual freedoms were summarily suspended, and we even have government mandates requiring all people to take a still-experimental vaccine, regardless of medical or religious issues with it. Sports in general were closed down, and stadiums restricted to players only. According to that, this thing is an ELE (Extinction Level Event) waiting to pounce.

Amid this turmoil, even my beloved wrasslin' (as opposed to wrestling, which is indeed an actual sport) struggled. Shows were taped without any live audience whatsoever... then staff and lesser-known wrasslers were used as stand-ins (all masked) for an audience (I have to say, it was kinda painful to watch these guys and gals playing to a crowd that wasn't there), then arenas were built with TV screens to allow people to be in the audience remotely, and finally... finally... the WWE returned to live shows on location.

I need to stop here to point something out before sommeone makes a complete and total north end of a south-going mule out of themselves. I know wrasslin' is "fake." More properly, it is "choreographed"; the wrasslers know what moves will be coming and are trained to make it look like they are hitting much harder than they are; in many cases, there is no physical contact. I know all this, OK? I've seen it live and in person.

But, the wrasslers are also extremely proficient athletes. They train constantly to be able to pull off these astounding maneuvers in a way that makes them look sort of real. So, while I understand the fights are really more acting than fighting, that does not diminish the wtrasslers' abilities.

Anyway, back to the virus...

Leati Joseph Anoa'i goes by the screen name Roman Reigns. He's a big dude, muscled, powerful, but still not quite as huge as a few of the real heavyweights. As a member of the Anoa'i family, wrasslin' is in his blood... Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is his cousin; his father is Sika of the original Wild Samoans. At present he is Smackdown Champion, and has been for over a year. His manager is a short, fat guy called Paul Heyman (aka "Brock Lesnar's pet walrus"... wrasslin' fans will get that). Heyman used to manage Brock Lesnar, a hulk of a man billed as the "Beast Incarnate" and the "Alpha Male of our Species." Lesnar is an ex MMA champion, so he doesn't just do "kayfabe" matches... he can get in there and hurt people if he wants to.

So the storyline is that Heyman is losing Reigns' trust because Lesnar showed back up in WWE after a long hiatus. The tension between Reigns and Heyman built to such a crescendo that Reigns fired Heyman publicly, then knocked him out with a "Superman Punch" (Reigns leaps into the air and delivers a right cross to the jaw as he comes down, which normally will (kayfabe) put an opponent out for severla minutes). Lesnar then came to Heyman's defense, and the feud was on. At the January 1st PPV, "Day 1," the two would meet for the Smackdown Championship belt.

At the same PPV, the RAW Championship would be defended in a Fatal Four Way match between the reigning champion, Big E, Kevin Owens, Seth "Freakin'" Rollins, and "The Almighty" Bobby Lashley, with a complete storyline behind that one as well.

Then, at 5:07 PM on January 1, 2022, just an hour before the start of the PPV, Reigns posted the following on Twitter:

I yearn to perform tonight at #WWEDay1 to defend my Universal Championship. However, unfortunately, earlier today I tested positive for COVID-19. Due to the proper protocols I am unable to compete as originally scheduled. I look forward to returning to action as soon as possible.

ESPN Link

Now, Reigns has a history with health issues. In 2007 he was diagnosed with myeloid leukemia, which eventually went into remission. In 2018, it reappeared, prompting Reigns to make a public announcement at a live event that he was vecating the title and taking a leave of absense as the leukemia had resurfaced. In late 2019 it was reported that Reigns' cancer had gone into remission and that he would likely return in early 2020 at a PPV event (probably WrestleMania). However, that did not happen. With the Chinese virus scare and Reigns' compromised immunity from chemotherapy, he chose to remain at home until he could have more assurance that he would not be risking his life by competing... a position I could understand and sympathize with.

He did return in late 2020, captured the title again, and has been active ever since.

So when I saw the announcement, I figured he would be absent for at least close to two weeks... after all, the standard "quarantine" is 14 days, right? WWE is taking this seriously; Reigns was in one of the Main Event matches, which had to be cancelled. Lesnar was also added to the Fatal Four Way match for the RAW Championship, making it a Fatal Five Way match, which he then won. In one fell swoop, the entire storyline behind the RAW match was shot to hell and back, and the storyline around the Smackdown match was put on indefinite hold. That's a lot of money, a PR nightmare, and some seriously major overtime trying to redo two major storylines in less than a day!

On the January 3rd showng of RAW, Lesnar appeared (with his pet walrus Heyman, of course), and taunted Reigns saying he would "see him soon." OK, I figured "soon" to be Friday week show of Smackdown... no way will Reigns be cleared in time to make that Friday's show.

Well, I was pretty busy with a project I was making progress on Friday, so I missed Smackdown. But I had it set to record, so I watched it Sunday evening. The opening shot was of Roman Reigns speaking from inside the ring! How? He claimed to have "passed protocol"... but this was on January 7! Six days after his announcement! And he was still in good shape! As I mentioned earlier, wrasslers who take time off then take more time off to get back into shape... they have a daily training regiment, and a missed day means another day at least to make up for it.

So the confrontation is on... Lesnar comes out with Heyman and confronts Reigns. At one point, they are literally a foot from each other, talking directly into each others' faces. There seems to be no concern over the fact that, 6 days earlier, Reigns was positive for this infamous ELE virus. Then, as Lesnar turns his attention to Heyman for a moment, Reigns delivers the Superman Punch... from a standing start! Normally, that move is performed from a running start... it's much easier to make the leap that way. But Reigns pulls it off from a standing start in what looks to be an effortless move. The man is still in as good a shape as ever!

This, despite the fact that he was infected only 6 days prior with the disease which kept him out of WWE for so long due to his immunity being compromised. He had a few days of training just to be able to do that stunt so easily, so the "deadly" virus must have been out of his system within 2-3 days at most.

What happened to a 14-day self-isolation period?

What is going on here? The WWE seems to have treated the Chinese virus like a 48-hour flu!

TheRedneck

a reply to: TheRedneck

That was a long, but entertaining preface to ask a straight forward question. I recall fondly the days of the undertaker and the Giant (not Andre).

To your question of why 14 days for isolation - it is my understanding that this is general guidance to help cover as many scenarios as possible. I will touch on a few…

1) in the event someone came into contact with an infected person, this period of time would cover the typical window for Covid to become symptomatic and highly transmissible.

2) 14 days would be a fair amount of time for someone to get sick, recover and not spread the virus. Some may recover faster, some may take longer, while some don’t.

3) there is a belief that isolating clustered outbreaks for this period of time will slow down a cascading wave of infection.

The recovery time and how long someone will remain a vector of infection is very individual, thus the guidance has to be general. I don’t think anything unique is occurring in the WWE other than their performances. I wish “wrasslin” held a cure…

a reply to: MDDoxs

You'll forgive me for the intro... wrasslin' is one of my passions. It's primal, emotional, and fairly entertaining. Mark Calloway (the Undertaker) was one of my favorites as well.

However, even though i understand your explanation, it makes no sense in this context. On one hand, WWE took a hit to their brand by reneging on a very intensely-developed storyline and completely destroying another, yet the issue was also apparently so minor as to require nothing more than a common 48-hour flu would require. Recall from my long-winded explanation that Reigns was a foot, literally, 12 inches, from Lesnar's unmasked face, talking, just 6 days after the initial positive result. And he had time in those 6 days to resume his training regiment.

Also recall that Reigns has immunity issues from his chemotherapy, issues that were finally resolved enough to warrant his return to performance only slightly more than a year ago.

There is more here than just WWE trying to get a superstar back ASAP.

TheRedneck

a reply to: TheRedneck

I do believe that the rules just changed to only needing 5 days off work in quarantine and no need to pass a covid test upon coming back. I remember seeing this change being announced in the last couple weeks

that doesn't cover most of what you said, just thought it was relevant because he came back 6 days later.

does sound like he gave covid the smackdown. There are many people, including large numbers of congress, who are being treated for covid early with a multi drug and multi vitamin approach who are recovering very fast if treated early enough. (Sports professionals are being treated early as well in the same way)

and there are also people not treating it at all who are getting through it fast as well.


It does sound like he recovered quickly none the less, and in good shape with what you're saying is a compromised immune system. I'd say if he did actually catch covid (not all tests are completely reliable) that you're right, he was back rather quickly and in great sounding shape. I

and perhaps he had Omicron which is appearing to be milder.

Not much of a response, wish I had more to offer, but I mainly just wanted to mention the new rules for 5 day quarantine and returning to work without a positive test being the new standard.

I also enjoyed the thread, good back story explaining the relevance

a reply to: TheRedneck

I address this by acknowledging that a Covid infection and the path to recover, or not, can be highly unique. Reigns obviously has a complicated medicinal history, and I can see how he may have issues with immunity, that being said he has battle cancer several times, forcing it back into remission and making a come back. He seems to have some super human ability to recover. Unfortunately not everyone has the same ability and will experience Covid differently.

I think this makes sense.

a reply to: MDDoxs

I address this by acknowledging that a Covid infection and the path to recover, or not, can be highly unique.

I tend to agree with that statement. Indeed, the primary cited reasoning behind the ill-conceived mask mandates was that a great many people could be infected and not even know it. I have heard estimates of up to 50% or more of cases are likely asymptomatic.

However that then brings up a much deeper question. Since we agree that the virus itself has widely differing effects on individuals, why would any government take the kind of "one-size-fits-all" approach to it? Would it not be prudent to acknowledge that the best form of treatment/protection could only be ascertained by the individual in conjunction with whatever physician they presently use and who knows their specific medical proclivities better than anyone else?

That in itself would seem to indicate that any mandates based on this virus are improper, be they mask mandates, testing mandates, or vaccination mandates. By definition, a mandate overrides individualized approaches.

TheRedneck

a reply to: Acknt

I have heard something about reducing the isolation time, but to be honest it has been so fast-moving a subject i have trouble keeping up with what is and is not allowed. I will point out that, if a 5-day isolation is now acceptable, it follows that the original 14-day mandatory isolations were excessive.

I'll also agree that Reigns likely received the best care money could buy. He is a tremendous asset to WWE - popular, a member of a long-established family line in that industry (the Usos, presently Smackdown tag-team champions, are his cousins, and he is closely related to superstars such as Yokuzuna, Rosey, Rickishi, Umaga, Manu, and Samu), and long-standing champion.

I guess the reason I started this thread was to show just how confusing to the average person this virus and our official responses to it are. On one hand, it wasn't long ago that a positive test earned a person 14 days of trying to stretch supplies because they were forced into isolation and unable to get more. Some states went so far as specifying what could be purchased from a store, apparently based on an arbitrary assessment of what was "essential." Businesses were driven to bankruptcy, and some entire industries were closed down... we just now got a buffet back in the nearest town to me, after the panic over the virus shut it down. I haven't even managed to try it out yet; I only saw a junk mail ad for it last week.

And yet, here we see that for this person at least, it's more like the common 48-hour flu.

TheRedneck

To be fair, WWE had just changed their policy about a week prior. As long as someone is not displaying symptoms they don't require a negative test to perform. Combine that with the CDC's new policy that a person only needs to quarantine for 5 days before returning to work and there's not really anything unusual going on.

I don't follow the weekly shows but I know Seth also tested positive a week before Day 1. Has he returned to TV at this point?

Plus, let's be fair, these guys seem to heal freakishly fast. How many times have we been told Cena's going to be out for a year only to have him return in a couple of months?

a reply to: TheRedneck

Maybe Reigns getting Covid was the real storyline, and the original plan had always been for Lesnar to become the RAW Champion. Next they'll have a champion vs champion match and Lesnar will have both titles. That's probably what Brock demanded in order to come back.



eta: One thing is certain: Even though everybody knows it's scripted, the WWE still wants to make it all seem real.

IF Roman didn't actually get Covid, and it was just another storyline, then they clearly succeeded by tricking you into thinking it was real. Obviously, I'm just guessing. I haven't watched any of it for years, but I do believe that what I said is a real possibility.

a reply to: TheRedneck

CDC rules are convoluted. My workplace has more stringent rules that are draconian.

But the CDC rules want you out for five days but you can return if you end symptoms with no fever without the use of fever reducer before the five days. They would prefer you to test, but it's technically not necessary since tests are not terribly available.

a reply to: TheRedneck

They were probably just faking it.

And, yes, I know that you know it's fake.

Nothing compares to fake wrasslin...except maybe fake pandemics...

a reply to: Xcalibur254

To be fair, WWE had just changed their policy about a week prior. As long as someone is not displaying symptoms they don't require a negative test to perform. Combine that with the CDC's new policy that a person only needs to quarantine for 5 days before returning to work and there's not really anything unusual going on.

I consider it unusual that the CDC went from 14 days total isolation, test or no test, symptoms or no symptoms, to 5 days if there are no symptoms with no test required, without explanation. At the same time, people are fighting their way through the court to retain control over their own bodies from a government which is demanding universal use of a vaccine which is only approved for emergency use.

The timing with Reigns just drove that point home for me.

I don't follow the weekly shows but I know Seth also tested positive a week before Day 1. Has he returned to TV at this point?

Seth never missed a beat! He's been a major part of the storyline over the RAW title... he and Owens were originally in a Triple Threat match with Big E for the title, then Lashley bulldozed his way in to make it a Fatal Four Way match. As a result, Seth and Owens have teamed up unofficially to ensure Lashley doesn't get the title, and they also went after Lesnar at Day 1 (unsuccessfully of course). Hell, I never even knew he tested positive... to be fair, the edition of Smackdown on December 31 was a recap show with no new matches... I assume the wrasslers wanted that time with their families.

If Seth tested positive, that should also affect Becky Lynch (his wife and the Women's champion on RAW)... she hasn't missed a beat either.

Curiouser and curiouser...

TheRedneck

a reply to: BrokenCircles

Maybe Reigns getting Covid was the real storyline, and the original plan had always been for Lesnar to become the RAW Champion. Next they'll have a champion vs champion match and Lesnar will have both titles. That's probably what Brock demanded in order to come back.

I will admit that was possible (and the champ vs. champ match was pushed by Lesnar Friday, but Reigns resisted... he does have a match for Royal Rumble later this month, but I didn't hear who his opponent was going to be). Building up the tension, don'cha know.

It probably is Lesnar.

But if that is true, they just lost all credibility with social media and injuries. So far, reports of illness and/or injury on social media have not been used to advance a storyline. WWE does try to make it look real, but injuries are a part and parcel of the industry, not something any real fan would take lightly.

The use of the Chinese virus to get out of a match could have also caused official concerns over WWE's recent wellness program... and that is something they dare not play around with. It was implemented (to great fanfare) a while back as a response to the Chris Benoit incident, as a way to absolve liability complaints (for those who do not remember, Chris Benoit apparently went off his rocker and killed his own family... it has been blamed on concussions from wrasslin' and from the overuse/abuse of steroids).

I just don't see that happening.

TheRedneck

a reply to: MykeNukem

Maybe it takes fake wrasslin' to show how fake a pandemic is.

TheRedneck

originally posted by: TheRedneck
a reply to: MykeNukem

Maybe it takes fake wrasslin' to show how fake a pandemic is.

TheRedneck

We both know that isn't true.

The WHO, CDC, FDA, etc are more fake than wrasslin....at least the moves are plausible with wrasslin...

Haystacks Calhoun
Johnny Powers
Dick the bulldog Brower
Kurt Von Hess
Pamparo Firpo the wild man of Borneo
Names from 50 years ago when I used to watch wrasslin'.
After spending 3 years in actual wrestling I began to resent wrasslin'.
I wouldn't let my kids watch it which made it the forbidden fruit.
Never refuse something to your children if you want them to stay away from it.
Next thing I knew their mother was a fan and taking them to matches.
They will never know what running 3 flights of stairs 50 times after practice feels like.

One of the best films from that hated Hollywood industry, pre Covid.

www.youtube.com...

a reply to: TheRedneck
I am not the least bit interested in 'wrasslin' but the way you told the story had me hanging on every word! Bravo!!

The only thing I have to add is anecdotal; my kids got covid ( test confirmed). Granddaughter only had a stuffy nose for three days; Dad lost his sense of smell for three days (no other symptoms), and daughter was very, very ill. Strange virus, indeed!

a reply to: TheRedneck

From the beginning is all been a lie, the initial covid virus is gone by now, still some lingering cases here and there, the variants are not even close to the original in strength, and most people have gotten natural immunity as they get infected and many without symptoms, CDC knows this, doctors know this, my daughter and ER nurse just told me the same thing.

The ER where she works at is busy, but she said no children have been hospitalized with covid in the last week maybe two adults due to health concerns.

Lots of people coming in demanding been tested and demanding treatment by name if they test positive but not in danger for anything major.

She told me today that the weekend was crazy and lots of Flu positives and the Flu this season is nasty.

Covid is turning into a regular strong cold and nothing else compared to the seasonal FLU.

The lies that came from the CDC, because of pharma greed, needs to keep perpetuated and the deceptions alive.

a reply to: TheRedneck

The current plan for Roman is to face Seth at the Rumble. Surprisingly it will only be the 2nd time they've faced each other 1v1 at a PPV.

I consider it unusual that the CDC went from 14 days total isolation, test or no test, symptoms or no symptoms, to 5 days if there are no symptoms with no test required, without explanation.

The reason is the airlines complained. I thought everyone knew that.