12 Biggest "What If" Scenarios In WWE WrestleMania History
11. WrestleMania 36: What If The Pandemic Cancelled The Whole Show?
The global pandemic in 2020 shut down operations across the world, resulting in the business, sporting and entertainment worlds going dark for a period of time as everyone grappled with the situation.
That is, except the world of professional wrestling.
Headquartered in Florida, both AEW and WWE managed to keep churning out content for their weekly programs despite the pandemic. WWE even kept their schedule and aired WrestleMania 36 just three weeks after the shutdown began, albeit with several last-minute changes and accommodations due to COVID.
But there was a very real scenario in which Mania did not take place that year, whether due to government edict or an outbreak at the Performance Center. Had that happened, WWE would have had to entertain questions about whether to continue on in the short term. They could have shut down operations until the country got a handle on infections – which would not happen for several months – or they could have just slowly ramped back up afterward and implemented their booking piecemeal.
No WrestleMania 36 would have meant Goldberg and Brock Lesnar would have still held the two World championships, and there wouldn’t have been a guarantee that either man would have turned up to do the honors later. If WWE ceased operations for any period of time, Becky Lynch’s pregnancy would have complicated what happened with the Raw Women’s Championship.
In reality, WWE would have managed just fine in the aftermath – the company would not have closed operations permanently – as they could have just delayed booking decisions. But they might have had to strip some wrestlers of their titles had they been shut down for a length of time.