Before the decision was made to not only made to keep WrestleMania around this year, amidst the COVID-19 landscape, but also change venues to the emptied-out WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Chairman Vince McMahon reportedly was still thinking about using the original location, Tampa’s massive Raymond James Stadium.
According to Sports Illustrated, “staying at Raymond James was at one point a consideration,” though naturally the show would have been held with 70 to 80 thousand empty seats.
For “for reasons outside of [Vince’s] control,” the course was altered and everything, including WWE’s regular weekly TV tapings, were shifted to the Performance Center.
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WrestleMania 36 will be the strangest WWE PPV in history, as not only has the roster lineup changed due to the pandemic, but the show itself has now been pre-taped and spread out over two nights.
With 16 matches split up into two parts — April 4 and April 5 — the main marquee matches are reportedly being divvied up as follows:
Part 1, April 4
- Braun Strowman) vs. Bill Goldberg
- Shayna Baszler vs. Becky Lynch
- John Cena vs. “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt – Firefly Funhouse Match
- Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins
Part 2, April 5
- Drew McIntyre vs. Brock Lesnar
- Charlotte Flair vs. Rhea Ripley
- Edge vs. Randy Orton – Last Man Standing Match
- The Undertaker vs. AJ Styles – Boneyard Match
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Will you be watching WrestleMania 36? Both nights? If so, what match are you looking forward to the most?
IGN will have a live-blog running for the event on both nights, so make sure you check the homepage for all the WrestleMania match results and reactions in real-time.
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Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.
Source: IGN.com Vince McMahon Considered Holding WrestleMania 36 in an Empty Stadium