In its ongoing quest to get rid of everything fun and good in the world, Covid-19 has claimed yet another victim: WWE. If you’ve been paying attention for the last few months, WWE has been airing pretty normally, just without the presence of a true audience. Instead of fans in the stands, they’ve been using “developmental talent” to fill the void, which I guess just means the dudes who aren’t quite good enough to make it in the ring. One of the developmental wrestlers tested positive for Covid, so now the taping schedule for matches is suspended until they know the results of the test for every single person involved in production.
On top of nobody finding out about the COVID failure until it hit social media, I was told by multiple sources that WWE would not allow anyone in the crowd at the RAW taping Monday to wear masks.
— Bryan Alvarez (@bryanalvarez) June 16, 2020
Turns out that they actually haven’t been testing people this whole time, AND have been banning participants from wearing face masks for fear that it will look bad on TV. You’d think they may be a little more careful after a member of their “on-air talent” literally tested positive for the virus a few months ago, but that would make entirely too much sense. It seems like pretty much every sports league just can’t figure out how to make it work.
This is WWE’s official statement on their no-mask policy at RAW. pic.twitter.com/zGmq6046NY
— Bryan Alvarez (@bryanalvarez) June 16, 2020
All this said, provided that nobody else is infected, things should return to “normal” pretty quickly, and the company has said that they even plan to bring back live tapings in the coming weeks. While it might make some folks happy to have their wrestling back, the pandemic is far from over, and you’ve gotta weigh the pro’s and con’s of potentially getting everyone sick. The last thing we need is another sport cancelled entirely, but it’s looking more and more like we’re screwed. 2020 can’t end soon enough.
