WrestleMania moved to the Performance Center
 

“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.”

https://www.wwe.com/shows/wrestleman...a-36-statement

I called it!

Will be the most unique show in WWE history

The event was never happening as scheduled.

That said, gutted for Rhea Ripley and Shayna Baszler who lost their proper WM debuts. And for someone like Drew McIntyre if this was supposed to be his moment of winning the big one in front of a WM crowd.

Wow! This is going to be mental. :lol:

I wonder if WWE will put employees and developmental wrestlers in the audience, so long as they have tested negative.

I think they said they had about 250 people for the NXT episode their last Wednesday.

If the whole audience is on Vince's payroll, they can really put over Roman.

it might not be too bad, now they can make it shorter, I bet it will be under 4 hours. I just saw no fans Monday on wrestle talk an that show was allright.

One thing no one has pointed out yet!

Minus a crowd we will be able to hear Goldberg heavily mouth breathe after being in the ring for 10 seconds and exhausted.

I wish they would get Mankind for a match, he used to make all those crazy grunts and screams lol

I can't believe they are doing this...

I just wanna know about my refund

This might be worth the 10 bucks for a month of wwe network.

They should put up cgi green screens and generate a fake audience and fake crowd noise

They should also cancel MITB (it's in Baltimore:( ) and call the Next ppv In Your House

lol. who would pay for the ppv?

WWE could technically tape WrestleMania over a few days now - would keep all the talent socially distanced.

Drew/Brock, Reigns/Goldberg, Taker/Styles, Wyatt/Cena, Rhea/Charlotte, Shayna/Becky, Edge/Orton and maybe Owens/Seth and Kabuki Warriors/Alexa and Nikki.

Given that the top three all feature guys not really known for working long matches anymore, that card could easily come in at under three hours.

Nothing else has been built to or even really hinted at. And there’s no point in adding anything more now. Especially not all the multi-person matches they throw in to get everyone a chance to wrestle in front of the biggest crowd of the year.

I'd add Sasha/Bayley to that women's tag

Could also see Dbry vs Sami, Otis vs Ziggler w/ Mandy as ref added too

Should have just ditched doing Mania in April and hope for the best later.

Also would have given WWE a few extra weeks to actually put in the real effort to build and flesh out Mania's card since the way things were going, this year's Mania build was very underwhelming.

They will do a "Wrestlemania-level card" at another time as soon as they can.

(In Saudi Arabia)

Tape it and air it for Raw and SD for the rest of April and give them time off

Raw after Mania crowd will be weird

Watching WWE style wrestling matches for several hours in front of no crowd sounds absolutely nightmarish

I think they should have just postponed the show.

This is going to be cringe worthy, at best.

I don't know, maybe film the show in a parking lot. At least some environment noise will help. Filming in a studio with no fans will just be brutal after a while.

They can't just film all those matches in a no fan Performance Center. They just can't.

:lol:

Maybe if they spend some time making the place look like the set of Pirates of the Caribbean. Make it look like the ring is on a pirate ship

I would have postponed it. This is gonna be weird.

And I continue to laugh at the bitchified world we have become.

This is a classic example of Vince being stubborn beyond measure. He cannot fathom WrestleMania not happening at the time it’s supposed to.

Now for the rest of history there’s gonna be that one time WrestleMania was held in a fucking gym.

Imagine those Wrestlemania highlights hype videos in ten years time. You'll see Michaels swinging down the arena on a zipline. Austin winning his first title. Drew McIntyre doing a sunset flip in an empty gym. As far as I'm concerned this Wrestlemania is and will be considered a write-off.

I think this is gonna legit kill VKM.

Reading now they may run Mania at MSG on June 7th. If so I am going to WRESTLEMANIA BABAY.

I have no sympathy whatsoever for Vince or other WWE executives and leadership. I feel tremendous sympathy though for those talents who lost marquee matches on the biggest show of the year. For all the indy talents and promotions running events that weekend who are going to lose a ton of money now, I fear a lot of those promotions will fold.

And most of all, for the fans. Much as we laugh about Mania being shit, Mania and Mania weekend is a bucket list item for so many fans globally. Just like everyone else who lost out on their vacation to Disney World or other places, or the people who lost out on weddings or other events they've book looking forward to for months, possibly years. Mania weekend isn't cheap, some people going have to target years in advance when they want to go and save up for ages. Yeah they'll get their tickets and airfare and hotel expenses back, but that's not the point. To lose an experience you've been looking forward to for so long is a gut punch.

The ONLY appeal of WrestleMania for me anymore is the atmosphere. This is gonna expose that like a motherfucker.

It’s very fitting that Drew McIntyre in the main event will be the lowest attended WrestleMania ever though.

I’m not sure if the correct move here would be to kinda phone it in and save any “moments” for a live crowd or to try to compensate for the lack of an audience by making the show as epic as possible.

Takeover will probably air on USA in it's normal Wednesday timeslot

If there's any truth to the June MSG Mania rumors, they may as well officially pause storylines and run classic events on TV for the next two months.

Their hope would be to get back to regular TV in mid-May for a couple week push to Mania.

Of course, all it takes is May rolling around and the virus still running rampant. CDC extends the public ban recommendation and it's back to square one.

They should just do like a burning man style rasslemania. Find a big empty spot out in the desert and set up a damn ring and go nuts. fire breathing metal monsters everywhere and stuff. WOOOOOO

Legit something really creative, definitely outside with some sort cool gimmick or landscape theme is the only thing that will make this salvageable.

I can't see it happening at MSG

WM live from the Hardy Compound.

ECWs Bingo halls drew larger crowds.

The MSG rumor sounds fishy to me...wouldn't that sort of be like insurance fraud, IDK

Sounds like 'wishful thinking' instead IDK anything is possible in double double eeee

Unless they get shut down it will for sure be at the performance center. No way the postpone it with the potential shut down of all the TV tapings being a real possibility. They'll want to get this one off before that plays out.

They should run the show from that old abandoned "island" theme park Disney had in Orlando that was shut down and left to ruin years ago. Its all overgrown and post apocalyptic looking now. End of the world themed WM ftw.

They just need to sell the event to Fox or something. I am willing to bet someone will pay a lot of money for Mania in an empty arena if all other sports are still off tv.

I am legit turning into Smackdown on Friday because everything else is cancelled. I need something to fill this void.

I am hoping they cancel the HoF this year though.

Looking to move it to SummerSlam weekend allegedly.

Well the us is going into shutdown like europe in a few weeks,get ready

They have cancelled the HOF.

British Bulldog's daughter tweeted earlier she has been told it's likely being added to SummerSlam weekend.

WM 11 was in a mall, soooo

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...restlemania-xi

This one's gonna be really quiet

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">PWInsider suggested on their latest audio that they should fill the WWE Performance Center for WrestleMania with Make-A-Wish kids.... ��█♂️</p>&mdash; Steve Carrier ™️ (@steve_carrier) <a href="https://twitter.com/steve_carrier/status/1240092454193373189?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Who said that... probably Dave Scherer

I often forget that Bleacher Report used to be the absolute shittiest sports website out there and this article is a good reminder. This is an actual paragraph from this article:

“Why didn't HBK steal the show at WrestleMania XI it was probably because in the prime of his career they decided to let Bam Bam get the spotlight I have nothing against to Bam Bam (God rest his soul) but HBK should have went to WCW after the slap in the face by Vince by not putting him in the Main Event at WrestleMania and even if that meant put HBK vs. Taylor that would have been more entertaining for the fans.”

Also a good reminder that there are many people like this out there and sometimes we need a good pandemic to cull the herd.

Feeling positive now. Thanks.

sounds like it was Dave Scherer

Show now split into two nights. Saturday and Sunday.

Since Vince is on here stealing my ideas i want front row VIP tickets to MITB* thank you.

*or the next PPV in Baltimore

Guess that solves the question of what was going to happen to the rest of the card. NJPW splitting up this year's Wrestle Kingdom resulted in both nights each being only like an hour less than usual for a WK event.

Also probably means WWE did have plans for a very lengthy show this year like previously rumored.

Repeat of Mania 2 but likely worse due to no fans and Vince's stubbornness.

Keep Bray and Cena away from abandoned houses

Send them into the abandoned Hooters!

According to Post Wrestling, WWE is changing up their taping schedule for RAW and SmackDown and might also include WrestleMania.

Current plan is to tape back-to-back episodes of RAW and Smackdown next week. There are also potential plans for Mania to be pre-taped as well and not be held live.

Also both Battle Royals matches have been dropped from the card according to Post Wrestling.

Taping Mania makes sense and is the right choice.

Spoilers should be a non-issue with the bare-bones crew too.

I would encourage AEW to do the same with Dynamite.

I think once they finish the tapings they should shut down for 2 months. Finally provide that off-season they never had. Come June they start it back up and start building to Summerslam.

Good call @xrodmusic316

I agree

I second that.

According to the Observer Newsletter, this year's Mania on PPV is going to be pricey and likely what WWE wanted to charge everyone had they managed to move PPVs off the Network.

Also the abrupt decision to split the show into two nights ended up causing a bit of a mess for PPV providers.

lol who in the fuck is going to spend that much on a pre-taped empty arena show?

TheCyNick

Wait, have they moved WrestleMania off the Network already?

No

WWE ppvs have been available on cable/satellite for a while. DirecTV charged $60 for them.

The amount of people who 1) Watch WWE 2) Have DirecTV and 3) Dont have internet access can't be enough to make it worthwhile but they do

Mania being filmed this Wednesday and Thursday at the Performance Center according to PWI.

If mania isn't on the network than I just wasted time signing up for free for the next 3 months thanks to that bastard Kenton Lane.

A lot of talents reportedly unhappy and would prefer WM to just be postponed to summer or straight up cancelled rather than do it this way.

Can't blame them since Mania's payday is usually the largest of the year and a big chunk of them just lost it with the removal of the Battle Royal matches.

Plus the added loss of house show and AXXESS paydays leading into Mania itself.

They should probably be concerned about losing Summerslam too

I'm hearing that some health officials think that, while things can gradually re-open in the coming months and people can go back to work, guidelines on large public gatherings are still going to need to be loosened and tightened on and off for possibly 1-2 years until there is a vaccine available. Possibly staying within attendance thresholds to minimize the risk of spread.

WWE might have to get used to running smaller venues, even for the important shows.

Wonder how other leagues would cope. MLB playing an entire season in spring training venues or teams only filling the lower level of seating. NFL game attendance would look like XFL.

Vince needs his tech gurus working on how to put up green screens at the PC to fake crowds

:lol:

Fucking postpone Wrestlemania.

It's not like there's any storylines that are good.

I'm looking forward to Disco Inferno, Ted Turner, and Conan riding in on a buffalo for Blood and Guts

WWE could feasibly be in the Performance Center until September 2021 if a 12-18 month ban on mass gatherings goes into effect.

I don’t think anyone has mentioned it not being on the network, just not “streaming live” as it won’t be live due to being prerecorded.

Really can't imagine anyone keeping up with the product for that long if that were to happen. I can barely watch it for two minutes.

I'm curious that if it's getting filmed later in the week, will spoilers somehow make their way online?

No one would be stupid enough to spoil it since it's a limited crew and they could probably figure it out

Yeah in the building you'd only have:

-Wrestlers working that night
-Refs
-Announcers (except Graves since he and Carmella are self-isolating)
-A few medical staff
-Vince
-Triple H
-A road agent or two
-Whatever camera/production crew are needed for onsite

And that's about it. No unbooked wrestlers milling around. The writers can work remotely if they're needed. Hell since it's taped most of the production work can be done in post-production from Stamford.

There are probably only a double digit number of people in the PC.

If the spoilers are just Wrestler A defeated Wrestler B, then the spoilers wouldn't really need to come from the building itself, just whoever saw the script or worked on the show like anyone from Creative, production, or management.

Detailed stuff would be a lot easier to weed out where the leaker(s) came from.

Even AEW had their dark match tapings leaked but it was mostly just who wrestled and won.

I think it's not gonna just be "don't leak stuff or Vince will get mad". I think it's likely they will need to sign a non disclosure agreement, being it's Mania.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dana Brooke Pulled From SmackDown Women's Championship Match At WrestleMania 36 <a href="https://t.co/qFIDPjvgvU">https://t.co/qFIDPjvgvU</a></p>&mdash; Fightful Wrestling (@FightfulWrestle) <a href="https://twitter.com/FightfulWrestle/status/1242232676855103491?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 23, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Dana is sick, as is Rey Mysterio which is why he's not involved in the card either.

This is a complete shitshow.

Aleister Black vs. Bobby Lashley?

WWE better have WrestleMania taped by Thursday at 11pm...


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BREAKING</a>: More info on Orange County stay at home order. Here: <a href="https://t.co/Y93JPZGAvG">https://t.co/Y93JPZGAvG</a> <a href="https://t.co/PrmmxjCqTZ">pic.twitter.com/PrmmxjCqTZ</a></p>&mdash; Orlando Sentinel (@orlandosentinel) <a href="https://twitter.com/orlandosentinel/status/1242560937447567360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 24, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Main event ends in a no contest after cop interference.

AEW probably should strongly consider taping at least 2 weeks worth of Dynamite tomorrow since the same is likely going to happen very soon in Jacksonville.