WWE may be holding out on filling all the spots on Team Raw for Survivor Series in hope that Roman Reigns will return in time to be a part of it.
SmackDown Live did a lot of building towards its Survivor Series match this past week. Four of the five spots on Team Blue were filled by Shane McMahon, Randy Orton, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Bobby Roode while a match has been booked for next week's show between AJ Styles and Rusev to decide who will fill that fifth and final spot on their men's team.
Things are looking a little more sparse on the Raw side of things, however. In fact, before this week's show they had no spots filled, and by the end of it, the only man confirmed for the match was Kurt Angle. The following day Angle declared Braun Strowman will be joining his ranks at Survivor Series, but that still leaves three spots left to fill with two and half weeks to go.
RELATED: KURT ANGLE ANNOUNCES FIRST MAN TO JOIN HIM ON TEAM RAW
There is a very good reason for that though. As any WWE fan will know, most of what goes down on Raw revolves around Roman Reigns in some way. Their Survivor Series plans are no different. According to The Wrestling Observer, WWE is waiting on news of Roman's virus before they decide on the remaining three members of the red brand's Survivor Series team. Naturally, they want The Big Dog to be a part of it, but that may not be possible.
Roman Reigns has been off of WWE television for over two weeks now, being pulled from the main event of TLC in that time. The three-time WWE Champion was a victim of one of the viruses that swept through the Raw locker room and is yet to recover and return. It's looking likely that Reigns will miss WWE's UK tour, so he may not even be back in time for Raw this coming week when it emanates from Manchester, England.
One thing is for sure, though. Unless Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose lose their Tag Team Championships before Survivor Series, we have a long wait on our hands for that imminent in ring Shield reunion. They're penciled in for a match against The Usos, so if Reigns does return in time for Survivor Series he will have to find something else to do while his fellow Hounds of Justice take on his cousins.