COVID-19, known as the coronavirus, is impacting pretty much every sport event, movie release date, or theme park that you can think of. Despite taking their sweet time with the announcement, the WWE made a statement about WrestleMania 36 on Monday. Today, the WWE said through an intriguing statement that though the main event in Tampa Bay will not take place, they plan to stream a version on April 5.
WrestleMania Update:
— WWE (@WWE) March 16, 2020
https://t.co/DLbgSVYWZM
The full WWE statement: “In coordination with local partners and government officials, WrestleMania and all related events in Tampa Bay will not take place. However, WrestleMania will still stream live on Sunday, April 5 at 7 pm ET on WWE Network and be available on pay-per-view. Only essential personnel will be on the closed set at WWE’s training facility in Orlando, Florida to produce WrestleMania.”
It’s a logical and interesting choice for the massive corporation. And most importantly, it’s a decision that makes a lot of sense given the current state of the world.
Something we’re particularly excited about seeing in the live stream is how the talent handles this unprecedented move. We’ve been seeing late night TV hosts performing without an audience, and it’s wild. Plus, the WWE has already had audience-less wrestling matches. Without spectators cheering and carrying on, the usually rowdy match becomes a strange performance art style event. It’s not short of surreal and brilliant. See for yourself in this clip shared on Twitter:
What we really want to know is how much the WWE will lean into this strange series of events? Can we expect the strangest live theater show of all time? Will the lack of audience be written into the wider WrestleMania narrative? How many memes will be born from this coronavirus induced change of event and location? Whatever happens, we’re excited to see what comes of this unexpected situation and we’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for the pay-per-view livestream.
Featured Image: WWE