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COVID-19 TRANSFORMS PRO WRESTLING
THE GREATEST GLOBAL menace of 2020 crippled some industries and obliterated others, yet professional wrestling—historically reliant on close contact inside the ring and large crowds outside of it—adapted remarkably well despite positivity rates and overall cases of COVID-19 surging again toward the end of the year. Wrestling remained a spectator sport, even if the spectators were (mostly) forced to remain home.
Unlike the NBA, NHL, and MLB, WWE never suspended its season. The March 13 edition of Smackdown, held at the Performance Center, was the first major sports or entertainment event held with no audience. WrestleMania 36 was filmed there two weeks later. There was no live gate, but social-media interactions and online views along WWE’s various digital platforms set new records.
Yet there were flaws in WWE’s protocols that it quickly tried to resolve. AJ Styles, Rusev, Renee Young, Kayla Braxton, Adam Pearce, and Jamie Noble were among those who were diagnosed with COVID. Kevin Owens became the most vocal proponent of wearing masks, urging WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon to penalize those who broke protocol, and taking his message to social media. “At best, it helps save lives,” Owens posted on Twitter. “While at worst, making fun of people wearing a mask, and not wearing a mask yourself, and telling people not to wear a mask can help spread this disease and make things worse.”
To reduce costs, WWE released quite a few wrestlers including Rusev, Erick Rowan, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, EC3, Eric Young, Deonna Purrazzo, and Heath Slater.
AEW ended live broadcasts and taped episodes of Dynamite and Dark, first at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, and then, during a brief shutdown in Florida, at the Nightmare Factory in Norcross, Georgia—at one point taping nearly 30 matches before a midnight curfew. AEW had returned to Jacksonville in time for Double or Nothing, its first pay-per-view since the onset of the pandemic. AEW President Tony Khan admitted the company “lost millions.”
Without millions of dollars to lose or millions to invest in bubble environments, Ring of Honor, Impact Wrestling, the NWA, and countless indies suspended operations. ROH, for example, didn’t resume its weekly television tapings until August, when its Pure title tournament got underway. Likewise, New Japan resumed operations with the New Japan Cup in June and July.
At SummerSlam, WWE unveiled ThunderDome, a videoconferencing crowd experience composed of (or comprising) of nearly 1,000 LED boards, at the Amway Center in Orlando. WWE introduced a similar concept on a smaller scale for NXT within the Performance Center—dubbed the “Capitol Wrestling Center”—at TakeOver 31 on October 4. The light-show techniques on both sets are sure to influence WWE presentations for years to come. WWE was set to move ThunderDome to St. Petersburg’s Tropicana Field for the December 11 broadcast of Smackdown.
The November release of longtime ring announcer Tony Chimel seemed to confirm that WWE plans to revamp its business model to eliminate most house shows. During the pandemic, WWE executives realized the lack of live-event touring actually kept their athletes healthier. And, besides, WWE Shop simply picked up all of those merchandise sales … and then
