WWE Rumors - Vince McMahon's ambitious plans for WrestleMania 36 had to be rejected
The coronavirus pandemic has brought the entire world to a standstill right now, including most sports leagues. WWE are still somehow running, as well as AEW, and have pretaped WrestleMania this year as an added precaution thanks to restrictions imposed by authorities. A lot of fans and according to reports, even some employees, are not too happy with WrestleMania going forward at a time like this, with the feeling being that the whole situation is too risky for everyone involved.
A number of WWE Superstars have already pulled out of WrestleMania, the biggest name amongst them being former WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns. Reigns was supposed to face Universal Champion Bill Goldberg for his title at the Show of Shows, but the Big Dog decided to pull out and not take any risks, seeing that he is immunocompromised after his battle with leukemia. Other Superstars who also pulled out of WrestleMania because of the pandemic include Rey Mysterio (who was originally supposed to face Andrade) and Dana Brooke (who was in the SmackDown women's title six-pack).
According to reports, the only person who thinks going forward with WrestleMania at a tricky time like this is none other than Vince McMahon himself. A new report from Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated reports that Vince McMahon actually considered hosting WrestleMania in its originally slated venue - the Raymond James Stadium in Orlando, Florida - without any fans in attendance. The report from SI added that McMahon eventually had to give on on his ambitious plan for hosting WrestleMania 36 in a stadium despite an ongoing global health crisis.
The reason Vince had to abandon his stadium idea has mostly to do with local authorities not allowing it thanks to restrictions in place. SI also reported another factor that added to the plans being chucked, namely being that an empty stadium is not at all an appealing venue. WWE finally decided to settle on pretaping WrestleMania from the Performance Center, which is probably the most logical way to have hosted the show.
Sportskeeda's Tom Colohue first reported the fact that Vince McMahon was considering hosting WrestleMania in an empty arena. You can check out the video where Tom discusses this down below:
This will be the first-ever empty-arena WrestleMania. What will it be like watching a pretaped version of the Show of Shows? We don't know that yet, but at least WWE have managed to keep spoilers in check.