Wrestlemania 36- Tampa Bay Bay

[MEGABUCKS]

Trump said they will review UK flights. I think UK will also be banned to USA soon

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Highspots Mike. who runs WrestleCon has done a video on their channel saying that he's on the hook for the hotel bills, venues etc if this gets cancelled, and it'd essentially bankrupt both WrestleCon and Highspots (as well as him losing assets like his house.)

He reckons WrestleMania isnt happening, and nobody thinks it is.

Edited March 13, 2020 by IANdrewDiceClay

[LWOLeN]

43 minutes ago, IANdrewDiceClay said:

Highspots Mike. who runs WrestleCon has done a video on their channel saying that he's on the hook for the hotel bills, venues etc if this gets cancelled, and it'd essentially bankrupt both WrestleCon and Highspots (as well as him losing assets like his house.)

He reckons WrestleMania isnt happening, and nobody thinks it is.

That’s awful. Your ‘worst case scenario’ should always be to ‘break even’ and simply waste your time and effort, not your money. And always timely hedge your bets when shit goes south. 

He should have put somekind of a MAC-clause in the contract that protects you when there is a  drastic change in the economy.

Leveraging your house unsecured is basically Russian roulette. 

Let’s hope for everyones sake Vince finds a way to give Mania the green light.

[Tamura]

54 minutes ago, LWOLeN said:

That’s awful. Your ‘worst case scenario’ should always be to ‘break even’ and simply waste your time and effort, not your money. And always timely hedge your bets when shit goes south. 

He should have put somekind of a MAC-clause in the contract that protects you when there is a  drastic change in the economy.

Leveraging your house unsecured is basically Russian roulette. 

Let’s hope for everyones sake Vince finds a way to give Mania the green light.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Hd9Bg6rHoE

After watching the video he has got some kind of clause like that in the contract, and his problem right now is that he can't personally cancel Wrestlecon as he'd be on the hook for a shitload of money. So he's having to wait for other people to ban gatherings of x amount of people or something similar, then he can announce it's cancelled and be legally covered.

Losing his house is technically a separate issue he says. As can be reasonably expected he's already paid out a lot of money he received from ticket sales, and if he has to refund everyone that's when he might lose his house.

While I can fully understand people wanting immediate answers from WWE, Wrestlecon, and Tampa city officials and so on, everything is a giant clusterfuck right now and nobody wants to blink first as whoever does is liable to take a significant financial hit. I can appreciate people whose plans are in chaos right now not having too much patience though...

Edited March 13, 2020 by Tamura

[tiger_rick]

Travel ban to the US will be extended to include UK from Monday. (BBC)

[sebyeboah]

2 hours ago, tiger_rick said:

Travel ban to the US will be extended to include UK from Monday. (BBC)

Anyone know whether tickets are refundable for overseas purchasers for Takeover, Wrestlemania and Raw if these events (somehow) go ahead? Hopefully WWE/Tampa do the right thing but we all know what Vince is like!

[MVP RULZ]

Yeah wish WWE would announce something so everyone can at least know where we stand with refunds for UK and Europe residents who now cant attend even if it somehow does go ahead or whether its postponed and just rescheduling to a new date and we can move our tickets to that date or whether its outright cancelled.

[The Dart]

So, it's definite then.  Even if the show happens, we can't go?

I doubt it will happen and I imagine all the indy shows will cancel too, but hopefully if they do go ahead, they offer refunds anyway.

[Supremo]

So, with it looking extremely unlikely that this is happening in its current form, how do people think they go about it? Would they do all the Wrestlemania matches in an empty Performance Center? I don't know how they could really address a postponement in storylines otherwise. Everyone has all these storylines ready to peak in three weeks. Is Vince just going to suddenly wake up and pretend everything was a dream until things have calmed down? Can they even pause the entire company and not deliver TV shows to USA and Fox for a month or so?

Edited March 15, 2020 by Supremo

[WyattSheepMask]

42 minutes ago, Supremo said:

So, with it looking extremely unlikely that this is happening in its current form, how do people think they go about it? Would they do all the Wrestlemania matches in an empty Performance Center? I don't know how they could really address a postponement in storylines otherwise. Everyone has all these storylines ready to peak in three weeks. Is Vince just going to suddenly wake up and pretend everything was a dream until things have calmed down? Can they even pause the entire company and not deliver TV shows to USA and Fox for a month or so?

Was thinking this myself earlier on.  Depending on whether their tied to deliver it on PPV in certain countries or not, could they run it as a TV Special rather than a PPV and hold it on a Wednesday against AEW and then build to Wrestlemania 36 2.0 later in the year with fresh matches.

Ive not watched RAW or Smackdown properly in years, but I’m going to get them this week just out of morbid curiosity. An episode of TVis one thing, but when your looking to pay off feuds and storylines and rely on the reaction and emotional involvement of a live audience, if you present what would’ve been Wrestlemania to no-one, those matches will suffer.

Obviously we’ve had Empty Arena Matches in the past, but they’re to use the term again, a curiosity. A full show of that could be devastating going forward, or it’s going to make them have to think outside of the box and show how creative they actually can be

Edited March 15, 2020 by WyattSheepMask

[LWOLeN]

They have a ton of content. Just air previous PPV matches for free on TV the next few weeks.

Send the wrestlers home to their families.

The stock price is already murdered.

Edited March 15, 2020 by LWOLeN

[WyattSheepMask]

Just now, LWOLeN said:

They have a ton of content. Just air previous PPV matches for free on TV the next few weeks.

Send the wrestlers home to their families.

Well yeah, that would be the common sense thing to do, but we all know Wrestling is like no other industry

[Fatty Facesitter]

Do a London Marathon and push it back by six months.

All going well, this allows plenty of time for new arrangements to be made across the board. I'm sure in an ideal world they'd hold it at the same venue in Tampa, but if that's not possible then I don't think they'll struggle finding an alternative, either in Florida or elsewhere. This gives them plenty of time to plan ahead, and plenty of time for fans to plan ahead and make new travel arrangements. Plus, not that WWE would ever see it as a priority, but it also gives independent promotions sufficient time to hopefully organise shows around that weekend to replace the shows they've had to cancel - they may have to sort a few crowdfunders or even join with other promotions and split the profits to make it happen, but it's doable. 

In terms of the title shots for Drew and Charlotte - keep those as guaranteed spots. They earned them for their Rumble wins and there's not really any reason to change that up, even if they have to wait for another six months. To build a bit of tension and drama, if you wanted you could have them defend their spots every once in a while in matches. On Smackers - although Roman challenged Goldberg, because he didn't win a match to earn it in the traditional sense, let them run a #1 contenders tournament on Smackers and have him win that (or surprise people, have a new winner and run Reigns vs Goldberg without the strap up for grabs). 

In terms of their opponents, I think you make them defend the title at different intervals and see how the landscape looks between now and the new date. You could probably keep the WWE title on Brock, maybe you'd need to take the Universal title off of big Bill so at least one of the two belts is defended more regularly between now and then. Lots of different ways they could go with it really. Once they're able to run in big arenas again then I'm guessing the PPV-sized events will soon follow. 

Running it in an empty Performance Centre would just be bad PR. They'll earn some good PR by continuing to run shows from there for now, putting smiles on people's faces and all that bollocks. But running Wrestlemania empty would get so much negativity from fans who were hoping for a new date, Tampa for not re-scheduling it, etc. They'd also be able to recoup at least a good chunk of the money if they move it. 

[WyattSheepMask]

@Fatty Facesitter 6 months time (assuming things settle down by then) will be into the NFL season. I doubt the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will want their pitch fucking up just so that Drew McIntyre can finally take a battering from Brock, so I’m guessing they’ll have to find a different venue.

[AVM]

56 minutes ago, WyattSheepMask said:

@Fatty Facesitter 6 months time (assuming things settle down by then) will be into the NFL season. I doubt the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will want their pitch fucking up just so that Drew McIntyre can finally take a battering from Brock, so I’m guessing they’ll have to find a different venue.

Depends on the date surely? A June/July date good give a 2/3 month window to get an NFL stadium back to standard.

The question really is whether a social distancing strategy can be completed by then - my gut instinct would be that it can’t. I also wouldn’t rule out Vince taking Mania away from Tampa out of petulance.

Annoyingly I had planned to go this year, now my plans are up in the air. Luckily I shouldn’t be too out of pocket if they postpone but it’s something I need to sort out sharpish.