Welcome to the Grapevine! This section of Smark Henry is where we round up all the founded and unfounded rumors abound the pro wrestling scene that you may have missed over the week. Remember to take everything with a grain of salt!
WWE confirms a case of COVID-19:
- There was a positive case of COVID-19 within WWE. The person who tested positive was simply identified as an "onscreen talent not on the roster" who caught the virus after the March 26 tapings, when they had dinner with friends who worked as healthcare frontliners. That person was kept off the tapings, had no contact with anyone from the company, and, more importantly, had now recovered.
In other news, Carmella tweeted about rumors surrounding her, in which she denied she tested positive for COVID-19. (Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet)
We say: You all already know that it's a terrible idea to keep going now, so we'll just say that we're glad that whoever it is made a full recovery.
- WWE is still taping in order to prevent FOX and NBC Universal (USA Network's parent company) from canceling their TV deals. Their deals with those networks only allow for a certain number of taped episodes per year, which they've already used up, resulting in a fear that they might have legal grounds to cancel the contracts. The TV deal is WWE's only major revenue source at the moment due to live events being canceled or postponed; the networks are also losing revenue, which may lead to cuts. However, WWE also has leverage as the networks still need WWE programming thanks to other sports suspending their operations. All of this results in great risk to the WWE roster and crew, not to mention issues with the Florida state government issuing a lockdown. (Source: F4WOnline)
We say: When people say capitalism is putting people's lives in danger, this is exactly what they mean (aside from other everyday examples). The wrestlers' intentions of wanting to entertain the quarantined masses might be noble, but at some point, wouldn't people in the locker room think of this as dumb? Would it really have to take a mass infection in the roster to stop them?
Let us know what you think of today's news in the comments!
Photo from WWE
