Backstage Update On WWE & AEW Contingency Plans For COVID Outbreak
Could we soon be back to Daily's Place and the ThunderDome?
With the Omicron variant of COVID-19 continuing to spread across the globe, some have pondered what that could mean for the likes of WWE and AEW.
Speaking on the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer believes that both promotions are pretty confident that Florida will not be issuing any form of state mandates pertaining to COVID-19. As such, that means WWE and AEW would be able to return to housing shows from Florida if necessary - with AEW having Daily's Place in Jacksonville, and WWE having the Performance Center in Orlando and also the possibility of utilising the ThunderDome once again.
As Meltzer said:
"I think they're both going to be pretty confident that Florida will not issue any mandates under any circumstance. Obviously, AEW can go back to Jacksonville and WWE can go back to someplace in Florida. You can always do the Performance Center. The problem is that if you put Raw and SmackDown in front of 300 people again, those numbers will crater. So, it's a bad situation, and AEW's numbers will hurt too. I don't know if they'll crater as well, they did okay numbers in Jacksonville. Obviously, if there's no other choice, then yeah, we can go through that again. The ThunderDome thing, I mean they did better in the ThunderDome than the Performance Center, so I think that in that sense WWE could look at a ThunderDome again and try to take residency in a building, but it's hard because I guess you could do the baseball stadium, because baseball isn't starting for months, so I guess they'll go to the Tampa baseball stadium and set up."
Meltzer also made mention how, despite not being formally cancelled as of yet, he fully expects the December 30 WWE live event from Laval, Quebec to be scrapped due to restrictions and regulations being put into place across Quebec.