WrestleMania 36 will do something it’s never done before. It was recently announced that WWE‘s biggest event of the year has been moved to the WWE Performance Center located in Orlando, Florida, and there will be no live audience. However, WWE announced on Wednesday the show will be a two-night event, streaming on the WWE Network on Saturday, April 4 and Sunday, April 5 at 7 p.m. It was also announced WrestleMania will be hosted by former New England Patriots player Rob Gronkowski, who will be on Friday Night Smackdown this week.
Along with having WrestleMania 36 at the Performance Center, the show will take place in multiple locations. The locations have not been disclosed, but all of them will be closed to the public. Originally, WrestleMania 36 was set to take place at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, but it had to be moved due to the coronavirus concerns. As for the show itself, the matches will feature some of the company’s top stars.
Videos by PopCulture.com
“Titles and legacies are on the line as WrestleMania 36 features a loaded slate of matches,” the press release read. “Royal Rumble Match winner Drew McIntyre challenges WWE Champion Brock Lesnar, Universal Champion Goldberg defends his title against Roman Reigns, and Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch looks to fight off the rise of Shayna Baszler. Also, 16-time World Champion John Cena returns to battle ‘The Fiend’ Bray Wyatt, AJ Styles hopes to put the ‘final nail in the coffin’ of The Undertaker’s career and much more.”
While many sporting leagues and events across the country have postponed or canceled events, WWE is committed to entertaining fans even with no live audience. Recently, WWE held Friday Night SmackDown and Monday Night Raw at the Performance Center with no audience and the reviews weren’t glowing.
“In one of the most surreal pro wrestling events in history, WWE attempted to continue building toward WrestleMania 36 during a global coronavirus pandemic by hosting SmackDown from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando — without a crowd in attendance” Brent Brookhouse of CBS Sports wrote. “While the promotion and performers gave their best effort to put on a show, the uphill battle of an event with no crowd energy overwhelmed in the end.”
This won’t be the first time WrestleMania has been hosted in different locations. In 1986, WrestleMania 2 was held in New York, Rosemont, Illinois and Los Angeles, California. It also took place on a Monday instead of a Sunday.
