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WWE without the Universe: SmackDown to take place without audience amid coronavirus scare
Cricket, football and other sports matches are being played without spectators. Now, professional wrestling giants WWE has also decided to hold its show without live audience.
The fear of the novel coronavirus has gripped the globe. The sporting world has been heavily affected by the spread of the virus as several tournaments like La Liga, Australia, Olympic Qualifiers, NBA and Serie A have been postponed indefinitely. The others which haven’t been postponed, have decided to continued their work behind closed doors. Cricket, football and other sports matches are being played without spectators. Now, professional wrestling giants, WWE has also decided to hold its show without a live audience.
‘Friday Night SmackDown Proceeds With No Live Audience Friday Night SmackDown on March 13 will air live as regularly scheduled and emanate from WWE’s training facility in Orlando, FL, with only essential personnel in attendance. The event was originally scheduled in Detroit, MI,’ WWE said on Twitter.
NBA suspended the remained of the 2019-2020 season after a player contracted the virus while WWE has also decided to cancel arena shows amid the scare in the United States. Friday’s episode of SmackDown has been shifted to WWE’s Performance Center training facility in Orlando, Florida from the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. In order to blunt the spread of coronavirus, the company announced Thursday.
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WWE currently airs three weekly live TV shows: Monday’s Raw, Wednesday’s NXT and Friday’s SmackDown. NXT had already organized its show from the performance centre asOrlando’s Full Sail Arena was booked for another event.
The problem however would be that professional wrestling relies more on the participation of the crowd unlike other more traditional sports. The storylines built require the attention of the crowd and their reaction to it. It will be a challenging task for the WWE to manage to air its shows without a live crowd. It looks like the action might shift to in-ring action rather than promos. This also puts WWE’s upcoming WrestleMania 36 event in doubt.
WrestleMania 36 was cheduled to take place on April 5 at the 65000-seater Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida but now could lose out on a lot of money in ticket sales.
