Superstar Roman Reigns was replaced as the challenger in one of the big title matches, with reports saying he pulled out of the event, telling management that he didn’t want to take the health risk as his battle with leukemia last year left his immune system compromised.Īnd The Miz, a former castmember on MTV’s The Real World: Back to New York, who is known in WWE as a mouthy villain, reportedly showed up with cold symptoms, leaving a three-way tag team title match for which he was scheduled to be changed into a three-way match between his partner and one member of each of the opposing teams. Some big-name WWE performers ended up missing from WrestleMania 36 amid the virus crisis. “No one person, regardless of who they are, is allowed to enter if they have a temperature of over 100.4, or if they have been out of the country or been in touch with someone who has been out of the country,” Stephanie McMahon told Sports Illustrated. WWE says it has under the coronavirus restrictions been producing content, including WrestleMania 36, on a closed set with only essential personnel in attendance following federal, state and local guidelines, while taking additional precautions to ensure the health and wellness of performers and staff. Filming is, for example, understood to take place in waves to limit the amount of people in attendance. Producing shows amid the coronavirus pandemic? Nonetheless, it is our commitment to you to somehow, someway provide you with a diversion during these hard times, deliver a sense of hope, determination and perseverance and, most of all, to entertain you and your family.” Tonight, we emanate from a closed set - with no audience - as well as other locations. “There won’t be 80,000 screaming fans in a stadium due to the current circumstances. Tonight and tomorrow’s WrestleMania will be the most different of all,” WWE chief brand officer Stephanie McMahon, the daughter of Vince McMahon, told fans in a recorded message that opened night one of WrestleMania 36. “Each WrestleMania has its own personality and has been different than the rest. While critics decried the decision to continue taping shows amid the virus crisis, WWE relied on planning ahead and its, and chairman-CEO Vince McMahon’s, legendary focus on ensuring that the show must go on. In what observers called a classic WWE promotional twist on the situation, the release was titled, “WrestleMania Too Big for Just One Night,” a tagline that the firm also kept highlighting in the run-up to the event over the following weeks.? It later emerged that the event would for the first time ever be pretaped - on March 25-26.? Ron DeSantis suggested cities cancel large-scale events and gatherings.Īnd March 18, it issued a press release announcing the big annual event, which has been called the WWE’s version of the Super Bowl, would go ahead without fans from the Performance Center.? “WrestleMania, for the first time ever, will be held as a two-night event streaming on Saturday, April 4, and Sunday, April 5,” the sports entertainment giant said in unveiling three-time Super Bowl champion Rob Gronkowski as the event’s host. WWE from there continued to run its weekly shows, including USA’s Raw, in the same fashion.? The company was also understood to be in regular touch with Tampa city officials and exploring contingency plans for WrestleMania even before Florida Gov. While fans and reviewers noted the lack of energy without any fans in attendance, the ratings were solid. WrestleMania 36 was originally scheduled to take place at Raymond James Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the XFL’s Tampa Bay Vipers, which seats 65,618, but with the addition of temporary seating can be expanded to accommodate 75,000 fans.īut amid the spreading coronavirus pandemic, WWE had to put on a fan-less, empty arena event for its weekly Smackdown show on Fox on March 13, set at its state-of-the-art WWE Performance Center trainings facility in Orlando. The Hollywood Reporter takes you through why WWE didn’t call off its biggest annual event, how it was produced without fans, the feedback from fans and reviewers to its empty-arena setting, what cinematic changes the event brought compared to past WrestleManias and its likely fallout for WWE’s business and future.įirst-ever pretaped and two-night WrestleMania?
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