The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has completely put a halt to WWE’s traditional business model. While weekly shows are still airing, they’re all being broadcast from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando in front of an empty house. Furthermore, WWE’s live events — while not the moneymaker for the company that they’ve been in the past — have been practically completely wiped from the calendar. This is impacting the product more than monetarily, as house shows are where WWE Superstars would be able to work out their matches in front of a live audience before taking it to the bright lights of Raw or Smackdown.
Taking a look at WWE’s live events calendar, it’s unclear just what live events are still scheduled. But one trip that won’t be happening is WWE’s tour of Australia and New Zealand, slated for August 6-8. The Raw-branded trek was set to include Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch, Drew McIntyre and others (including Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson — whoops). Promoter TEG DAINTY shared the following message via social media:
To the WWE Universe of Australia and New Zealand,
We thank you for your continued patience and understanding as we work with WWE to secure our new return dates. Full statement: https://t.co/6vfoIFKROx#WWEAustralia #WWENZ pic.twitter.com/y0ri58lbHU
— TEG DAINTY (@TEGDAINTY) April 28, 2020
To the WWE Universe of Australia and New Zealand,
We thank you for your continued patience and understanding as we work with WWE to secure our new return dates.
The superstars of Monday Night RAW can’t wait to get back and put on one hell of a show for you in Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland.
In the meantime, let’s keep safe, look after each other and we’ll be back with new details very soon.
TEG Dainty
Additionally, WWE’s upcoming European tour, originally slated for May, has been pushed back to October, yet somehow, WWE’s upcoming Japanese tour in July is still on sale, further illustrating the instability and uncertainty surrounding COVID’s continued impact.
As for domestic touring, Ticketmaster doesn’t have any live events listed until mid-July, with Extreme Rules slated for July 19 at the SAP Center in San Jose, California, but it feels less and less likely we will see WWE in any arena, domestic or international, for the foreseeable future. Let that be motivation for all of us to stay home as much as possible: The sooner we flatten the curve and beat COVID, the sooner we can go back to booing Baron Corbin in person.
