WWE WrestleMania 36 To Move Forward For Now Amid Coronavirus Concerns

Tampa city officials have decided to proceed with WrestleMania 36 as scheduled, at least for now, despite the continued spread of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 that has led to the suspensions of the NBA, NHL and MLS.

Per City Attorney Paul Johnson was sure to note that any executive order issued was valid for seven days and prone to being revisited.

Tampa city officials met Thursday afternoon to decide the fate of major events coming to the area, with WrestleMania 36 being of particular interest. Vince McMahon was reportedly among those meeting with city officials.

“Right now WrestleMania is out about three weeks,” said Hillsborough Commissioner Les Miller during Thrusday’s press conference.

“We came to the conclusion that at this point, we don’t want to pull that plug. However we wanted to give it at least a week to see what was going to happen, if WWE was going to do anything at all. If they don’t, at that point, I will suggest that we do come together for an emergency meeting to discuss what we do at that particular point in time.”

Wrestling fans bombarding the city of Tampa Twitter account with WrestleMania 36-related questions forced a response from the account Wednesday afternoon, which declared that the event was still scheduled to go on as planned.

Of course with so many nationwide cancellations, delays and high-profile contractions of the novel coronavirus COVID-19, nothing is for certain in these unprecedented times. Even if all WWE events were to move forward as planned, WWE HQ had to completely alter its day-to-day operations in preparation for COVID-19 as major companies around the world prepare for the worst.

In fact, as new developments continued to pour in as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, skepticism grew about WrestleMania 36 airing on April 5. Most recently, Alex McCarthy of TalkSPORT surmised the event could be delayed until the summer.

WWE Superstars and the wrestling world alike have reacted to the coronavirus as the constant travel and in-ring physicality lends itself to countless risks.

The wrestling world’s dependence on live entertainment has made it a sitting duck for cancellations due to the coronavirus. Wrestling promotions across multiple continents have cancelled shows as New Japan Pro Wrestling, All Japan Pro Wrestling, Stardom, OTT and even WWE, among other promotions, have been forced to—at the very least—come up with contingency plans. In fact, it’s looking less and less likely that Friday night’s broadcast of SmackDown will be airing from Detroit as WWE officials reportedly seek an alternative location.

Given the amount of revenue WrestleMania brings to WWE, not to mention its economic impact on communities that bid top dollar to host the event, a WrestleMania cancellation never seemed to be in the cards.

This is the same promotion that kicked and screamed its way to Saudi Arabia at the height of international tensions against the (bipartisan) advice of United States senators. Its reasoning for doing so was “full year 2018 guidance is predicated on the staging of the Riyadh event as scheduled.”

Translation: They did not want to give up all that money they planned on making.

With another lucrative event in danger for entirely different reasons, WWE is now at the mercy of both mother nature and contingency planning among city officials.