Ryback Says Some WWE Talent Believe WrestleMania Might Be Cancelled Due To Coronavirus Concerns
The coronavirus is a very real threat to both humans and businesses. The WWE is a business and their biggest event of the year is less than a month away with WrestleMania 36.
Many large events have already been cancelled or postponed due to the virus, including Coachella today. Health officials are urging people to avoid large crowds – such as what will take place at WrestleMania. There hasn't yet been public discussion about the event being cancelled but Ryback speculated that there is internal talk that it could be. He talked more about it on "Ryback TV Shooting Blanks Wrestling Report With Raj Giri.
"They're far enough out right now where they need to keep an eye on this, I would dare say, probably until the week before. Then they'll have to make a call eventually," said Ryback. "There was a case in Washington and then all of a sudden there were 11. Then they had someone who tested for it that was supposed to not go out but chose to go out and spread the disease. I knew that was gonna happen and for all of the places to happen, it's gonna happen in the US with the mentality that people have here.
"From a wrestler's standpoint, [WrestleMania] is in Tampa and they're gonna bring people from all over the world to this location. If I'm a wrestler ? and I'm speaking from the talent as I've talked to a couple of people ? the talent believe that WrestleMania is possibly going to get cancelled. This is a business and it will impact a lot of things but you have to protect the wrestlers at all costs.
"With Axxess, there should be no fan interaction. If they chose to do this, wrestlers should only have to show up to WrestleMania and if you do the Hall of Fame, you keep the talent away from the audience. You have to be really protective of the wrestlers from a business perspective if you go through with this. I have a feeling [Vince] is gonna try to go through with it no matter what. He's gonna have to be forced to say 'No' if it does happen."
He added that WWE should cancel anything where you have interaction between fans and wrestlers as you don't want to take any chances. Raj then brought up that many sporting events are being held in empty stadiums/arenas and wondered if WrestleMania in an empty stadium would be a possibility.
"I've never thought about that. It wouldn't be a complete loss. This isn't one of those situations where we can just reschedule WrestleMania for a week or two. This could only get worse, quite possibly," stated Ryback.
"If business starts being affected like this ? you've got the stock market ? it's not good. There's a lot of different levels and it's gonna affect everybody. It would be easy for me to say, 'Oh, I hope it f**ks over Vince' but I don't want it to. It's gonna impact so much more than just that?
"All it takes is one wrestler to get that and that s*** will spread to the entire locker room really quickly. Wrestling in full body suits [laughs]."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Ryback TV Shooting Blanks Wrestling Report With Raj Giri with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.