While the City of Tampa essentially handled the ball to Vince McMahon and WWE with regards to WrestleMania 36 still running in three weeks (barring a meeting next week), the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic is starting to become a reality for several indies who had scheduled events during the biggest wrestling week in the world.
https://twitter.com/wXwGermany/status/1238170467657297923
Early on Thursday afternoon, Germany’s Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw) announced that their April 4th event, 16 Carat Revenge, was being cancelled – and not necessarily because of the virus. US President Donald Trump‘s 30-day travel ban with Europe made it impossible for wXw to send their German crew to the US for the event, part of a weeklong indie bonanza built around WrestleMania 36.
— Prestige Wrestling (@WrestlePrestige) March 12, 2020
The Pacific Northwest has become a hot bed again for the first time since the strong NWA territory of the 1970s, and Oregon’s Prestige Wrestling has been a huge part of that. Prestige was planning to hold an event in Tampa on April 2, but they had the painful duty of announcing its cancellation on Thursday as well, saying it will cause a “major financial deficit for all of the team” in doing so.
We're moving forward with #BigBalls as scheduled!
If there's a limit put on public assembly, we'll cut off ticket sales.
If we're not allowed to open this event to the public, we'll issue refunds & stream on @indiewrestling.
If we're forced to cancel, we'll go fuck ourselves. https://t.co/4stdn8pJUT
— Beyond Wrestling (@beyondwrestling) March 12, 2020
While some promotions are sadly being forced (or deciding) to cancel their shows, some are insisting “the show must go on”. Earlier this week, The Collective – the indie coalition headed by Game Changer Wrestling (GCW) – announced that all of their shows would run regardless of the WWE decision, while on Thursday, Beyond Wrestling also announced that their show on Sunday, Big Balls, would also run as scheduled.
As we continue to get updates on how the coronavirus will affect WWE and other wrestling companies, stay tuned to Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.
