Indie Wrestling Show First To Allow Multi-hundred Crowd Since Outbreak
An indie show in Wisconsin has drawn a 300-person crowd, and is expected to draw even more.
Since first going into lockdown, major wrestling promotions have steadfastly refused to allow crowds into wrestling events and tapings, due to local and national ordinances prohibiting large gatherings in arena settings. However, an indie show in Wisconsin has broken new ground by drawing a crowd well into the hundreds, and is expecting to do so again very soon.
Brew City Wrestling in Waukesha, Wisconsin held a June 20 event with a crowd of 300 attendees, who did not wear masks nor practiced social distancing. The event took place at a local Elks Lodge, which has a total capacity of 500. The Waukesha County Health Department, which maintains health-related ordinance for the area where the event was held, currently has no guidelines in place regarding wrestling events. The promoter, Frankie DeFalco, said he offered "face masks, hand sanitizer, [and] rubber gloves"[US] and did temperature checks on all attendees, not allowing in anyone above 100.1 Fahrenheit.
A spokesperson for the department said the county recommended that during the pandemic, organizations that plan a large gathering limit the event to 100 people, participants practice social distancing, and that CDC best practices are followed. None of these recommendations were followed.
The Mayor of Waukesha, Shawn Reilly, decried the event as a "bad idea". He elaborated, "I'm not happy with it. Obviously, if you have crowds of people, if you have 300 people in a large room together, the chance of transmitting COVID is pretty high. I'm worried about three, four weeks from now because those people, if they get COVID and they bring it home, then we have a totally different situation."
An organization or person going by the name Covid Tracers United sent out an email to local officials and media expressing their concern that the event posed a serious health risk. Their spokesperson wrote, "With the recent spike in coronavirus cases in the state of Wisconsin, including the one day record of 738 test results recorded by the Wisconsin State Health Department (during the Fourth of July weekend), it would seem that the Waukesha Elks Lodge, Brew City Wrestling, and Rumpoles are playing a dangerous game with the public health of the citizens of Twin Lakes & Waukesha County."
DeFalco currently plans to hold another event later this month, on July 18.