Top Turnbuckle – Sporting world in shutdown – But not WWE

By Charlie Scott

Due to the worldwide pandemic that is the Coronavirus, the entire sporting world has gone into shutdown. With sporting authorities ruling that sports such as the English Premier League, NBA and Formula One should all be suspended until further notice. But there is one sporting organisation that is still running, the WWE.

With the announcement coming last week that the Covid-19 virus has now become a global pandemic, sporting organisations were quick to act in suspending their leagues until further notice so that they can assess how major the virus is a month down the line.

But WWE have still yet to do so, instead, they have gone down the route of holding all their shows at the WWE Performance Centre in Orlando, Florida. NXT was the first show to emanate from the PC last Wednesday after Full Sail University was shut down due to a case of Coronavirus on campus.

You love to see it.#WWENXT @WWEPC pic.twitter.com/rWHd4VcjAI

— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) March 12, 2020

NXT did, however, run the show with a full crowd inside the PC, but this was all before the pandemic had really gotten out of control. Fast forward two days to Friday Night Smackdown and the situation had escalated even more. Therefore, WWE were forced to move Smackdown to the Performance Centre as well, this time with no crowd in attendance.

The show itself continued as normal, with superstars giving promos to the hard cam like there was a live audience in attendance. But it actually made for some interesting instances, with Triple H joining Michael Cole on commentary it led to a different dynamic to the entire show, despite there being no live audience.

Over the weekend WWE confirmed that Monday Night Raw would also go ahead without a live audience, with the greatest wrestler of all-time Stone-Cold Steve Austin set to return on the show.

But the main talking point that WWE are still yet to confirm is if Wrestlemania will still go ahead or not. With the show just three weeks away and the pandemic showing no signs of dying down there is still no word from WWE if the show will be called off.

With the show set to be at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, the show could see an estimated 75,000 people in attendance. There surely is no way that the event will continue to go ahead as planned, with most countries banning any events with more than 500 people in attendance.

There are rumours circulating that the state of Florida is giving WWE to the end of the week to make a decision on cancelling the show and if they do not decide to do so then the state will cancel the event for them.

Which woman walks away from #WrestleMania with the #Raw #WomensTitle around their waist?

5 April is coming up FAST, don’t forget to watch with #WWEonBT! pic.twitter.com/tbDscJklVV

— WWE UK (@WWEUK) March 11, 2020

With Wrestlemania week meaning there will be hundreds of wrestling shows in the Tampa area, with hundreds of thousands of people set to be in the area, there really is no way that WWE can go ahead with the event and they will surely make the decision by the end of the week to cancel the event. With WWE more likely to postpone the show and move it to a later event rather than having it behind closed doors, it is certainly an uncertain time for everyone involved with the sport.

However, WWE need to act soon so they do not risk the health of thousands of fans who could be at risk through attending the event.

For further WWE news why not check out last weeks edition to Top Turnbuckle Weekly`

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