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It looks more and more like we aren’t going to have to wait for WrestleMania.
WWE took the next step in affirming its commitment to its biggest pay-per-view of the year when it announced Wednesday that the show will take place over two days – April 4-5 – for the first time ever. WrestleMania will emanate from WWE’s Performance Center in Orlando, Fla., along with multiple other locations on both days. All locations will be closed sets with only essential personnel. Former Patriots tight end and Fox NFL analyst Rob Gronkowski will host. WrestleMania 36 was originally scheduled for Raymond James Stadium, home of the Buccaneers, on April 5 in Tampa, Fla.
Adding Gronkowski to the billing and moving WrestleMania to multiple locations shows WWE is trying to take as many steps possible to adhere to the government’s current coronavirus guidelines while put on it biggest pay-per-view of the year. The Centers for Disease Control has said to avoid gatherings for 50 or more people and President Trump wants the public to stay away from groups of 10 or more.
There was an internet rumor that WWE was looking to stage WrestleMania 36 at Madison Square Garden if it was not done in April because of the coronavirus. WWE and MSG have had no talks at this time about moving WrestleMania there, according to an industry source.
“We went through an exhaustive contingency planning process balancing the precautionary measures necessary to protect our fans, performers and employees with the ability to deliver world-class entertainment, particularly during this trying time,” a WWE spokesman said when asked for comment. “We netted out with a historic two-night event as WrestleMania will now stream on Saturday April 4 and Sunday April 5 on WWE Network and be available on pay-per-view. Only essential personnel will be on closed sets at multiple locations, including WWE’s training facility in Orlando, during the production of WrestleMania.
The Garden declined comment.
WWE has continued to broadcast crowd-less “Monday Night Raw” and “Friday Night SmackDown” – which have seen their matches scaled back – as the nation deals with the coronavirus pandemic that has brought our professional sports to a complete halt. The current set up for WrestleMania could allow WWE to have close to a full slate of matches – around 12-14 – if it chooses to and alternate venues. As far as we know, no member of WWE’s roster and essential staff has tested positive for COVID-19.
While it would be safer to just shut it all down, WWE, along with All Elite Wrestling, are the two US wrestling companies with multi-million dollar live television deals with major networks. And with so many people stuck at home, their desire to continue to entertain has taken priority. It was fun to see Stone Cold Steve Austin dishing out stunners and drinking beer with Becky Lynch on Raw and Matt Hardy and Luke Harper debuting on “AEW Dynamite” on Wednesday night. Dynamite was held at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Fla. without fans because of the coronavirus.
WrestleMania going forward comes at a time when most other professional wrestling companies without WWE and AEW’s TV commitments have shut down for the time being. Ring of Honor has canceled all live events through March 31, the National Wrestling Alliance has suspended its events through April 21 and Impact Wrestling has postponed events through March 29.
Obviously circumstances can change hour by hour, so there is always a chance we don’t get WrestleMania 36 at all on April 4-5. The UFC had planned to go on with its fight cards until the federal guidelines for dealing with coronavirus changed on Monday and it was forced to cancel three shows.
For now, WrestleMania is on and with even further precautions taken. If it continues as currently scheduled, it will be unlike any show we’ve seen in professional wrestling. With other sports being taken away because of the virus and peoples’ lives seeing changes we never thought possible, WrestleMania is something to look forward no matter what form it comes in. We need those things more than ever right now.
