During these pandemic times, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has been a model for adapting. For decades their superstars performed in front of capacity crowds. Daily, they would travel from city to city to entertain their legions of fans. When the pandemic hit, traveling came to a halt.
Like many businesses, they had to adjust their existing model. What they did was take advantage of their performance centre in Florida and perform to an empty arena. Several days before Wrestlemania, they made the difficult decision to host the event without a crowd. The result was a well-produced show. It wasn’t ideal, but it worked. And it continued to work week after week.
They brought in multiple screens, and those screens had actual fans on camera, creating a video wall to bring back a crowd atmosphere. The WWE was given a bunch of lemons and made lemonade with it.
For the first time in three years, the WWE returns to Canadian Tire Centre this weekend and will get to perform in front of an audience. It is called Saturday Nights Main Event. Many top superstars will be in attendance, including Ronda Rousey, yes, former UFC champion Ronda Rousey, Canada’s own Natalya, the Smackdown Women’s Champions Liv Morgan, Drew McIntryre, and WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns.
Recently, I spoke with the Intercontinental Champion, Gunther, who will defend his title against Shinsuke Nakamura this weekend. Thankfully, it was over Zoom, so there were no headlocks. . . Lucky for him. Kidding aside, he’s a great representative for the company. In all walks of life, you come across people who are just interested in the pay cheque, but now and then, you come across someone who is sincerely passionate about what they do.
And with that, please check out my interview with WWE Intercontinental Champion Gunther.
Tickets are available at Ticketmaster. The event starts at 7:30 pm. If you’ve never seen WWE live before, believe me, you definitely want to say you have.
Hope to see you there!
