CM Punk reveals his honest thoughts on WWE not canceling WrestleMania 36
The first episode of the No-Sports report features WWE Backstage analyst and special contributor CM Punk. The former WWE Champion shared his thoughts on a string of topics, including WWE going ahead with WrestleMania 36 this year on April 4 and April 5.
Here's what CM Punk said about WrestleMania not being canceled, amidst the Coronavirus pandemic.
"With pro-wrestling, I find it completely impossible to watch with no crowd. The audience is 100%, and this is more evident than ever now, the driving force behind what wrestlers do in the ring. When I wrestled, that was my boss. You know, if there's a fork in the road. Audience wants you to go a certain way. You can manipulate them, but they can also manipulate the match. Without all of that, I don't know what we are doing."
Punk has been quite vocal about WWE's weekly product and PPVs ever since he took on the role of an analyst on WWE Backstage back in November 2019. He shared his opinion on WWE's ongoing storylines without a filter. Some of his comments have garnered tons of coverage on social media, especially his criticism of former Universal Champion Seth Rollins.
WWE has been presenting WrestleMania on an annual basis for the past 35 years, ever since it first came into being at Madison Square Garden in 1985.
This year though, the Coronavirus threat caused WWE to take some serious measures, including the possibility of The Show of Shows getting scrapped or postponed. WWE didn't go with either of these options, and decided to hold WrestleMania at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, as well as other off-site locations.
As of now, a long string of sporting events has been canceled or delayed due to the global pandemic, but WWE is keen on going ahead with WrestleMania 36. WWE EVP Triple H recently spoke with ESPN MMA about the same and explained why the promotion decided to go ahead with the annual extravaganza.
Triple H said that the kind of content WWE produces makes it easier for the company to keep doing shows during such a pandemic, something other major sports can't do. He then explained that fans have been with WWE for a long time and the company felt obligated to give back something to them, now that they need a source of entertainment during these trying times.