There are several rumors floating around that WrestleMania will be pre-recorded from the different locations and the show will not be airing live come April 4 and 5.
In fact, WWE has so far limited to say “streaming on the WWE Network,” omitting the word live. While most graphics promoting the show still say live, any text accompanying new WrestleMania-related articles don’t mention it at all.
With matches taking place behind a closed set, it will be easier to contain leaks of results and having the option to pre-record will allow WWE to edit shots as necessary, presenting the best possible product to fans.
And with WrestleMania tending to go way over time, WWE has now been presented with another problem that will make filming the show before the ideal scenario.
Orange County and Osceola County leaders have decided to implement a curfew for those living and operating within their counties. The curfew, which kicked off yesterday, requires everyone to be at home from 11PM to 5AM. While WWE could certainly get a waiver for this curfew, it would be in the interest of everyone to abide by the new order since the PC will still have a large amount of people inside to help with production.
Raymond James Stadium, the original site of WrestleMania 36, has gone from hosting over 70,000 fans for the biggest show of the year to being transformed into a large-scale, drive-through coronavirus testing site.
Hillsborough County Administrator Mike Merrill announced two days ago that the NFL stadium will join the Florida State Fairgrounds as testing sites in Hillsborough County as the state continues to deal with the pandemic like everyone else.
WWE pulled WrestleMania from the stadium earlier this week and moved it to the WWE Performance Center. City officials were ready to pull the plug on the show if WWE didn’t do so themselves. To minimize the risk of having too many people on location, WWE is also spreading WrestleMania over two nights and multiple locations, although no location has been announced yet apart from the Performance Center.
Friday Night Smackdown on FOX did 2,562,000 viewers this week, slightly down by just 24,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. The show did 2,637,000 viewers in the first hour and 2,488,000 viewers in the second hour. It topped the 18-49 demo but as always trailed all other major networks in terms of viewers. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
The WWE Studios movie for Netflix The Main Event will be available on the streaming media giant on April 10.
The synopsis for The Main Event reads, “When 11-year-old Leo Thompson (Seth Carr) discovers a magical wrestling mask that grants him super strength, he uses it to enter a WWE competition. With the support of his grandmother (Tichina Arnold), Leo will do whatever it takes to achieve his dream of becoming a WWE Superstar. Can one kid win it all, in the face of epic challengers in the ring?”
The movie is directed by Jay Karas off an original screenplay by Larry Postel. The Main Event co-stars Adam Pally, Ken Marino, and features WWE superstars Kofi Kingston, Mike “The Miz” Mizanin, Sheamus, and Babatunde Aiyegbusi.
The Main Event will be available in all Netflix markets.
The Smackdown Women’s title will be on the line at WrestleMania as current champion Bayley will have to wrestle five other WWE Superstars in a bid to retain the title.
Bayley will be taking on her friend Sasha Banks, Naomi, Lacey Evans, Tamina, and Dana Brooke in a six-pack challenge elimination match. The match was announced by former Smackdown General Manager and Divas champion Paige when she showed up on Smackdown via a Skype video call. Notable misses from the match are obviously Carmella, Nikki Cross, and Alexa Bliss.
With this match added, WrestleMania so far has nine matches, six of which are title matches. Since this will be a two-day event, more matches are expected to be added.
E! has pushed up the season five premiere of Total Bellas by a week and will now be kicking off on Thursday, April 2 rather than April 9. The show will air at 9PM ET weekly.
The new season will see the twins act on reconnecting with their father, Nikki’s boyfriend removal from Dancing with the Stars, Artem proposing to Nikki in Paris and finding out she’s pregnant, Brie and Bryan finding a compromise in their relationship, the news that she’s also pregnant, and more.
Television networks are scrambling to fill up their slots as production on practically every television series and lots of studio shows have come to a screeching halt due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Despite originally saying that they will go ahead with their plan, All Elite Wrestling has canceled the Blood & Guts match which was set for next week’s Dynamite featuring The Inner Circle vs The Elite.
In a statement issued on social media, AEW President Tony Khan said that their goal every week is to produce great shows for their fans and felt especially more motivated to serve their audience this past Wednesday given the circumstances.
“We plan to continue answering that calling with live weekly shows every Wednesday night on TNT, but the time and circumstances aren’t right for the card we had planned next week for Blood and Guts,” Khan wrote, instead promising the first face-to-face encounter between Chris Jericho and Matt Hardy and a “tremendous night of wrestling action.”
Khan said that everyone at AEW is proud and humbled by the response they got from their fans and partners around the world following this week’s Dynamite.
“In the meantime, until AEW Dynamite this Wednesday night, please follow us via social media and please be safe and smart so we can get back to seeing you all on the road as soon as possible. Thank you for making this all possible for everyone here at AEW, it’s a dream come true to be able to do these shows for all of you,” Khan concluded.
WWE’s newest signee and former NFL player Rob Gronkowski will be live on Smackdown on FOX tonight from the empty WWE Performance Center.
Gronk, a huge wrestling fan and a big friend of Mojo Rawley, signed a WWE contract and his first appearance as a WWE employee comes tonight. Gronk will be the host of the two-night WrestleMania 36 next month.
Also set for tonight is Roman Reigns and Bill Goldberg signing their contract for the Universal title. No matches or other segments have been announced yet.
ESPN today announced that it will be airing encore presentations of three previous WrestleManias over the next three Sundays on ESPN and streaming via the ESPN App.
The special content initiative begins this Sunday, March 22 at 7PM ET with the airing of WrestleMania XXX from the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. On Sunday, March 29 at 7PM ET, ESPN will air WrestleMania 32 with a record-breaking crowd from the AT&T Stadium in Dallas Texas, and on Sunday, April 5 at 3PM ET, WrestleMania 35 from the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey will serve as the lead to night two of WrestleMania 36.
“This unique opportunity is a byproduct of the terrific working relationship we’ve enjoyed with WWE over the years and the unprecedented circumstances we all find ourselves in,” said Burke Magnus, executive vice president, programming, ESPN. “WrestleMania is one of the most popular global events in sports and entertainment and the spectacular content it provides will be a treat for fans.”
“It is a privilege for us to deliver historic WrestleMania content to our world-class partners at ESPN and provide more premium programming to our fans; putting smiles on their faces particularly during this trying time,” said Stephanie McMahon, Chief Brand Officer, WWE. “We look forward to celebrating WrestleMania history with ESPN as we head into our two-night pop culture extravaganza on April 4 and 5.”
If you are a professional wrestler that often takes bookings up and down the country, driving long hours between shows, that leaves you with very little time to find that special someone in your life. Locker rooms, especially male ones, can be full of jacked and testosterone-fuelled guys that jump from woman to woman depending on their fancy that evening.
Ask anyone who has laced up a pair of boots and they will tell you that maintaining a love life and a career as a professional wrestler is incredibly difficult. That is why so many ends up meeting their partners in the business – after all, just look at the number of real-life couples there are in the WWE. On the independent circuit, however, things are a little bit different and instead of being put up in five-star hotels each night, performers may do with sleeping in cramped cars or sleeping on floors. Not exactly the best environment to meet the love of your life.
Prioritize
If you are serious about finding love, you will have to consider what your priorities are. While there are some instances where long-distance relationships work, more often than not they don’t, sadly. Consider cutting back on the list of dates you are booked in to allow more time for you and your man or woman. While this may affect how much money you are earning initially, the days off won’t only serve to allow love to blossom, but will also help your body to recover from niggling injuries that wrestlers so often perform through.
Keep the Ego Away
Many wrestlers end up living the gimmick, whereby the character they portray in the ring and who they really are outside of it starts to become one and the same. Ric Flair is a famous example of this – while he has enjoyed a long and distinguished career having donned a playboy lifestyle, outside of it he has gone through no less than four divorces. Ego simply will not get you very far in the long run.
Be Flexible and Make Compromises
This relates back to the first point about prioritization, but you have to be flexible and willing to make compromises to make love work. If you don’t and you leave your romantic interest feeling as though they are second best to your career, the chances are that they will look for someone that will put them first. Of course, for them to be able to date a wrestler, there has to be a level of understanding on their part, too, but the relationship will only work if both of you can meet in the middle. Wrestling is a short career, so don’t allow it to ruin something that could be with you for the rest of your life.
Have an Active Social Media Presence
In 2020, every professional wrestler should have an active social media presence if not just to sell their matches and angles. However, it is also a fantastic means of engaging with fans that, you never know, might just turn into something more. Be careful here, though, because many fans will only be attracted to your character instead of you, so don’t rush into anything. Take the time to get to know the person and, more importantly, for them to get to know you.
Use Dating Sites
On the subject of getting to know someone on a more personable level, as well as social media you should try signing up for dating sites. The results of the research, conducted by the dating siteiwantu.com, show that a lot of professional sportsmen find their partners online.
Trust Your Relationship
Finally, both you and your partner will need to have a lot of trust in each other to make things work. It can be easy to become paranoid when you spend so much time apart, particularly when one (or even both) is performing and spending so much time in such an intense environment with a fit and athletic performers. Make sure to keep in regular contact, just so as the other person knows you are thinking about them.
Season one of the The Big Show Show on Netflix will drop on April 6.
The half-hour, multi-cam comedy series will have 10 episodes for the first seasons and WWE Superstar The Big Show is the leading man in the series. The synopsis for the show reads, “When the teenage daughter of The Big Show, a retired world-famous WWE Superstar comes to live with him, his wife and two other daughters, he quickly becomes outnumbered and outsmarted. Despite being 7 feet tall and weighing 400 pounds, he is no longer the center of attention.”
The series also features Allison Munn, Reylynn Caster, Juliet Donenfeld, and Lily Brooks O’Briant. Josh Bycel and Jason Berger serve as executive producers and showrunners. Susan Levison and Richard Lowell also serve as executive producers for WWE Studios. Production on the 10-episode series will kicked off last August in Los Angeles, California.
The April/May WWE tour in South Africa has been rescheduled to take place in September due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The four-day tour with shows in Cape Town, Durban, and two in Johannesburg has now been changed and instead it will be a three-day tour with shows taking place on September 10, September 11, and September 13 respectively. One show from Johannesburg has been dropped.
The safety of the WWE Universe is always our top priority. The South African government has now declared a national state of disaster, and banned travelers from high risk countries from entering country as well as public gatherings of more than 100 people for the foreseeable future,” a WWE statement said.
Tickets for the Johannesburg show originally scheduled for May 2 will be valid for the new date on September 12. Tickets for the Johannesburg show originally scheduled for May 1 can be exchanged for the rescheduled show on September 12. All changes must go through the Computicket call center. Any fans who cannot make it to the shows can have the tickets refunded by contacting Computicket.
The entire season one of the highly-acclaimed Dark Side Of The Ring is now available to stream for free on ViceTV.com.
The first season tackled six controversial professional wrestling stories: The Match Made In Heaven (Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth), The Montreal Screwjob, The Killing of Bruiser Brody, The Last of the Von Erichs, The Mysterious Death of Gorgeous Gino, and The Fabulous Moolah.
Season one was narrated all by Dutch Mantel with the exception of the Bruiser Brody episode which was narrated by Mick Foley.
Season two starts next week with episodes on Chris Benoit, Owen Hart, New Jack, David Schultz, Jimmy Snuka, The Road Warriors, Dino Bravo, Herb Abrams, and The Brawl For All. Season two is narrated by Chris Jericho.
John Pollock of PostWrestling.com is reporting that WWE will be pre-recording their Monday Night Raw and Smackdown television shows heading into WrestleMania.
The idea is to minimize the risk of the spread of the coronavirus and if they can knock out a few shows in a day or two, that would decrease the amount of people going in and out of the WWE Performance Center, leaving it as clean as possible for WrestleMania. Just one individual testing positive would throw everything into a big chaos with the risk of shutting down operations at that location.
PWInsider.com adds that while tonight’s Smackdown will be live, next week’s Smackdown is being taped tomorrow and Raw on Monday will have additional footage taped for the following week. Additional tapings will be forthcoming as well.
Just like with every other business, the COVID-19 spread has pretty much altered the way businesses operate and professional wrestling companies aren’t different.
NXT, with a studio show filled with just old footage, interviews, and highlights, did just 542,000 viewers. That is down 155,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast and the least-watched episode of NXT on USA Network since it started. The show had a 0.16 rating in the 18-49 demographic and placed #81 in the top 50 cable chart.
The difference between the two shows was of 390,000 viewers, up from the 69,000 viewers difference they had last week. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Dynamite scored a big win in the ratings yesterday going up against a video package-only NXT but failed to cross the one million mark despite the unveiling of The Exalted One and the debut of Matt Hardy.
Dynamite did 932,000 viewers which was up 166,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. The show did a 0.35 in the 18-49 demographic, good for #20 in the top 50 cable chart. This was their best number since the January 15 episode. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Matt Hardy’s arrival in All Elite Wrestling has got the fans buzzing after his debut last night, aligning himself with The Elite against The Inner Circle.
After Cody welcomed Matt in a message on Twitter, Hardy thanked Cody, saying he was very honored and proud to join All Elite Wrestling, “a company that takes great pride in listening & respecting their loyal audience.” He also told Cody that he’s excited to “change the world” with him.
Meanwhile, fans are already spending their hard earned money on Matt’s new AEW merchandise and in a few hours, his two new t-shirts quickly made the top selling list, beating out everything else at ShopAEW.com.
Hardy’s involvement with All Elite Wrestling had been expected for months after the former multi-time tag team title holder said that he would not be signing a new WWE deal.
Daniel Bryan will be taking six weeks of paternity leave when his wife Brie gives birth. Brie is expected to give birth to their second child sometime in August.
On the latest episode of the Bella Twins podcast, Bryan said that there are not a lot of companies in the United States who would do that and put over WWE for allowing him to be with his newborn for a month and a half. Bryan also said that once his current WWE contract expires, he will be done as a full-time professional wrestler.
His deal will run out “shortly” after he is back from the six-week paternity leave. The former WWE champion and leader of the Yes! movement added that while he still expects to wrestle, he will be more a father than a wrestler once baby number two comes around. Bryan did not indicate if he would be re-signing with WWE or looking for a different opportunity elsewhere
The WWE non-televised live event at Madison Square Garden originally set for this Sunday, March 22, has been postponed to Saturday, June 27.
All tickets which were purchased for the March 22 event will be honored for the new date. Ticketmaster.com had a ton of tickets left for this non-televised show and for an MSG show, this event was not selling particularly good even though there was supposed to be a DX reunion.
There were several unfounded rumors that WWE would be holding WrestleMania on June 7 at Madison Square Garden in front of a live crowd instead of the WWE Performance Center but that ended up being just a rumor. The issue is that even these rescheduled dates are pretty much temporary right now as no one knows exactly when this pandemic will slow down, allowing sports events and other shows to resume as normal.
Having shows at the WWE Performance Center even though it’s a closed set still requires a ton of people to be on location. There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes people that participate in putting up a show like Raw, Smackdown, NXT, or even a big PPV like WrestleMania and social distancing can only go so much anyway even though you’re not at full crew.
So how is WWE protecting its staff from the coronavirus pandemic? One individual who would test positive would pretty much be catastrophic for the promotion and put all planned shows in jeopardy. In a statement issued to Sports Illustrated, WWE said that they are holding medical screenings before any employee enters the WWE Performance Center to make sure the PC remains clean and free of any virus.
“In consultation with WWE Medical Director Dr. Maroon, WWE Associate Medical Director Dr. Dugas and ringside physician Dr. Westerfield, as a best practice and precautionary measure all WWE performers and staff are required to participate in medical screenings prior to entering WWE’s training center, which is now operating as a closed set,” WWE told SI.
The story also adds that the company has established a series of protocols based on guidelines set by the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to minimize risks and protect its performers and staff.
