WWE has confirmed that Andrade will not be competing at WrestleMania 36 as he is dealing with a rib injury.Andrade was scheduled to tag team with Angel Garza at WrestleMania this weekend in a Raw Tag Team Championship match vs The Street Profits.However, last week on Monday Night Raw, El Idolo picked up a rib injury while tag-teaming with Garza vs Ricochet and Cedric Alexander.Even though reports emerged last week that Andrade would, unfortunately, miss WrestleMania due to a rib injury, WWE waited until Raw this week in order to make the announcement and confirm his absence.On Raw this week, before Andrade was scheduled to tag team with Garza and Seth Rollins vs The Street Profits and Kevin Owens, Zelina Vega made the announcement that Andrade would miss Raw and WrestleMania.Vega said Andrade’s injury was ‘very minor’ but it was enough to force him to miss Raw and WrestleMania. She also added that Austin Theory would be taking his spot in the match on the red brand show.
After the match on Raw, WWE confirmed that Theory would be taking Andrade’s spot at the Showcase of Immortals this weekend as well, so he will be teaming up with Garza vs The Street Profits for the Raw Tag Team Championship.
For those that don’t know who Austin Theory is, he only made his debut for WWE on NXT last August, but he’s another solid wrestler with tons of independent circuit experience as he is a former EVOLVE Champion and WWN Champion.
The 22-year-old has had several matches on NXT over the past couple of weeks. He lost to Tommaso Ciampa on February 26, he defeated Isaiah ‘Swerve’ Scott back on March 4, and he lost to Tyler Breeze last week.
Not many superstars in WWE history can say they debuted on Raw and had their first match at WrestleMania on the same week, but Theory will be able to do so this weekend.