WrestleMania to go ahead, but without fans

Amid growing concerns over the coronavirus pandemic, the WWE officially announced that WrestleMania 36, which was set to take place at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, Florida, will now be moved behind closed doors to the WWE’s training facility in Orlando, Florida.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the WWE stated: “In co-ordination with local partners and government officials, WrestleMania and all related events in Tampa Bay will not take place. However, WrestleMania will still stream live on Sunday, 5 April on WWE Network and be available on pay-per-view.”

“Only essential personnel will be on the closed set at WWE’s training facility in Orlando, Florida to produce WrestleMania,” it further added.

The original venue for the WrestleMania event was expected to hold a record stadium audience of 65 000 fans from around the world.

It will not be the first WWE event to take place behind closed doors. WWE have also held Raw and SmackDown at the Performance Centre this past week amid no live audiences.

Among the matches scheduled are: Brock Lesner v Drew McIntyre, Goldberg v Roman Reigns, The Undertaker v AJ Styles, Edge v Randy Orton, Kevin Owens v Seth Rollins, John Cena v 'The Fiend' Bray Wyatt and Becky Lynch v Shayna Baszler.