WrestleMania 36 was already set to be a unique event, taking place over two nights, in the Performance Center, in front of no audience, and hosted by Gronk for the first time. Per a new report from PWInsider, WWE’s biggest show of the year will have another production element that sets it apart from Manias past: it will be filmed in advance rather than broadcast live.
A report earlier this week revealed that WWE was planning to tape the rest of the episodes of Raw and Smackdown leading to WrestleMania in advance, but details about Mania itself weren’t clear. Now, according to Mike Johnson, “WWE intends to tape content all the way through Wrestlemania over the next several days.”
The plan right now is for WWE to tape the next two episodes of Smackdown today, “content in some form for future WWE NXT episodes” tomorrow, the next two Raws on Monday and Tuesday, and both nights of WrestleMania on Wednesday and Thursday.
Ideally, this plan should give WWE time to figure out how to remove as much awkwardness from a no-fans WrestleMania in a small venue as they can, prevent last-minute card changes (or having to call off the show entirely) if wrestlers and others who work for WWE are diagnosed with COVID-19, and finally give all of WWE’s workers the ability to practice social distancing.
