Live wrestling is making a comeback but it is still safe to take those steps?
Ring Of Honor and Major League Wrestling are hinting at resuming a live wrestling schedule without fans later this month. Both companies temporarily canceled their events and opted not to enter into a bubble to record their shows.
Choosing instead to move to a series of greatest hits episodes and in the case of MLW, releasing previously unseen matches from their short-lived first run. The move to releasing live wrestling again even without fans seems like a forgone conclusion.
The companies that were able to keep working and producing content during the pandemic have done nothing but garner themselves more and more attention. For example, Impact Wrestling has had more excitement surrounding it since its inception in the last five months. They saw an opportunity and capitalized on it. It’s the American dream and a promoter nirvana.
Take a moment and think about this. Would you care who the Impact World Champion was in August of 2020 if this was a normal year? What about the TNA Champion MOOSE? Would you care that he was calling out and facing former TNA originals? If your being honest with yourself, probably not. I could be wrong you could be a loyalist and watch every week and buy every PPV and have done that since they were branded TNA/NWA, but I don’t think so.
You care because they were there and they made you care, and that’s great. But it doesn’t change the fact that the in-ring performers and production staff are still putting themselves at risk constantly for a television show during a global pandemic. Maybe I’m being overly sensitive but I am still having trouble justifying professional wrestling being an essential service at this time. Especially when the single exception is Ring Of Honor who will film in Maryland while the other companies are filming in Florida. The American epicenter of this virus.
MLW changes course on live wrestling
I am a wrestling fan, but first and foremost I am a fan of keeping people safe and healthy so we can watch these incredible athletes work for years to come. I believe it is socially irresponsible to put people at risk in a time where we still don’t know much about this virus. And I am not alone.
Court Bauer, the owner, and promoter of Major League Wrestling, when speaking to Kenny Herzog for Entrepreneur Magazine about the possibility of MLW following the lead of companies like WWE, AEW, and Impact and running shows in empty arenas said the following.
"I’ll say this succinctly: That my competitors are putting on events in empty arenas and exposing their talent, crews, staffs and families to the potential [of] contracting the coronavirus I think is, frankly, grotesque."
Which begs the question, what changed?
At a time when the total cases in the US continue to climb and countries where the virus was previously thought to be eradicated beginning to experience the second wave, it brings Court’s previous statement into question. Why is it grotesque for your competitors to run shows during a pandemic and put their staff at risk but its not for you?
I’m not arguing that people shouldn’t be paid or that people shouldn’t work or want to work. But there has got to be a way to keep your signed talent employed and safe. If there is not a way to keep your employees safe 100% of the time and ensure that no one will get sick there’s no reason to run shows except for greed.
You can’t say that “running shows is grotesque” while building a soundstage so that you can run shows. The world doesn’t work that way. It’s either grotesque or it’s not.
You have to make up your mind. And if your opinion has changed, you owe it to your fans and supporters to explain what you’ve seen or what evidence has been provided to show that makes you believe that you will no longer put people in danger.
If no such evidence exists? If you’ve made the decision that your bottom line can no longer handle having people sitting at home and you need to work in order to keep the promotion going? You need to be honest about that too.
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