what a wild Mania this will be

[maskedllama]

I'm hearing rumors that The Empty Arena WrestleMania will be a two-day event? Both Saturday and Sunday? The idea of An Empty Arena WrestleMania was wild enough but if this is true, this is going to be the most surreal weekend. What do you all think of a potential Empty Arena WrestleMania?

[MonkeyLord13]

I believe that was confirmed on social media. And Gronk will be hosting both nights. Probably going to be a big weekend for Mojo! (lol)

[Steve Resk]

It is going to be surreal. Its wild that Drew McIntyre could win the title with no pop.
I also heard lesnar might not participate, although I'm not sure how true that is.
 

[The Kisser]

Yep it will be 1 for the ages and heck this cause of the 2 nights thingy as essentially WM was a 4 nights thing already if ya count the RAW/SD! before and after it mixed w/ the Takeover Events as I think the WWE should just make WM a 4 night thing from Friday til After RAW as they could make that weekend as in the Usual Friday SD! and after WM RAWs a Supershows kinda thing where ya get RAW and SD! mixed w/ NXT Stars for them 4 nights instead of doing how they usually do it w/ SD!/Takeover/WM/RAW just make them all Supershows. As far as the Hall Of Fame if they don;t wanna do 4 Nights just do Sat/Sun/Monday as the 3 Night WM Thing and the previous Friday FOX could Air the complete non-edited Hall Of Fame Ceremony commercial Free til it's over then your local News/Whatevs as they Air Nascar, NFL & MLB Games for like 3-5 hours at least weekly why not give the WWE that notion as well. as heck the HOF Ceremony could be started at 6pm.ct-10pm.ct or whatevs area you live LIVE!
As far as WM 36 being an an Empty Area it will not be "EMPTY" as the ppl for that nights card will be there just no Outside Fans but w/ Gronk now working for the WWE I see Gronk, Mojo, and Riddick all being the CARDS Crowd as this will be the 1st WM where Paul will be running things hands on while Vinny Mac stays home to watch cause Paul will tell him to stay home cause of the Virus and how much Vince hates being around Sick ppl.

[MonkeyLord13]

I would love for that to be the case, but Vince has been known to call in to remotely direct shows he's not present for. Late last year there was a Smackdown that was loudly announced as a "Vince won't be here" show, leading us all to expect that other staff would have complete control over the show that night. But reports came out day-of the event that Vince immediately started micromanaging the event from afar. WM is his baby and no matter what happens with the WWE and the XFL, I do not see him letting go of that show until he absolutely must.

I also agree that it would make sense to make the weekend (and bookcasing Friday and Monday) a supershow. It would help make the whole thing one ongoing narrative, would help cut back on all of the times when Takeover has overshadowed main roster matches, would let him bolster attendance at the less attended events by promising that the other brands would be represented, and make it easier to not have an 8 hour WM on Sunday.

[dilbert505]

And we're already getting reports of people not being there. Dana Brooke and Rey Mysterio are both in self-isolation, and will miss the show. Dana's been pulled from the Smackdown women's title match, and Rey was apparently going to be in a 4-way match with Andrade, Humberto Carrillo, and Angel Garza for the US title. Instead we're getting Andrade & Angel Garza vs. the Street Profits for the Raw tag titles.

[dilbert505]

Speaking of people not being there...

That's the Smackdown Title match kiboshed. Roman Reigns is off the card at his request, as he is immunocompromised and unwilling to take the risk (and wisely so.) There will apparently be a replacement to feed to Goldberg, and it will probably suck.

[Hogtrail]

Speaking of people not being there...

That's the Smackdown Title match kiboshed. Roman Reigns is off the card at his request, as he is immunocompromised and unwilling to take the risk (and wisely so.) There will apparently be a replacement to feed to Goldberg, and it will probably suck.

I heard a rumor that...

(POTENTIAL SPOILER)

....

(POTENTIAL SPOILER)

....

(PLEASE GOD LET THIS NOT BE TRUE)

There is a rumor that Rob Gronkowski will be the replacement.

And that he will win the championship.

[dilbert505]

That... is much worse than the speculation I heard that it would be Braun Strowman.

Of course, given my druthers, I'd have the Usos beat the New Day to get into the Tag Title match against Miz & Morrison, which would free up Kofi Kingston for another Wrestlemania moment. But we all know that's not happening.

[MonkeyLord13]

It'd be kind of neat for there to be a Rock/Paper/Scissors between Brock/Goldberg/Kofi, where after Goldberg has beaten Brock, and Brock has beaten Kofi, now Kofi can come in and beat Brock.

And frankly, Kofi deserves better than the way his title reign ended. The fans will rally behind him if you let them.

Does Gronk have any wrestling training?

[Hogtrail]

Speaking of people not being there...

That's the Smackdown Title match kiboshed. Roman Reigns is off the card at his request, as he is immunocompromised and unwilling to take the risk (and wisely so.) There will apparently be a replacement to feed to Goldberg, and it will probably suck.

I heard a rumor that...

(POTENTIAL SPOILER)

....

(POTENTIAL SPOILER)

....

(PLEASE GOD LET THIS NOT BE TRUE)

There is a rumor that Rob Gronkowski will be the replacement.

And that he will win the championship.

Ok, so I think this was a joke when I saw it.

God I hope so.

[Queensryche]

So it turns out there's a bit of a story as to Roman Reigns pulling out.

Miz showed up feeling ill at one of the SmackDown tapings. It hasn't been said whether he was showing symptoms of COVID-19, but regardless, The Usos got very upset that Miz showed up feeling ill when it's been repeatedly said "If you're not feeling well, stay home and call out of work." Roman was unaware of this initially, but then found out his cousins were upset. He then asked them what happened, got the full story from them, and at that point requested he be removed from the card.

[BigPimpin]

I heard a rumor that Andrade is out now too due to injury (not COVID-19 related).  Allegedly replaced in the match by Austin Theory.

At this rate we're going to have to put an asterisk next to this Mania while we call it one of the worst Mania's in history.  Opinions on the full card were probably mixed to start with, and now we're talking about a bunch of the card being compromised due to illness and injury.  I'll still be watching because it still comes with my $9.99, but my expectations for this show are in the basement even if it's split over two nights (which is a positive IMO).

[MonkeyLord13]

I heard, though have not yet confirmed, that the Network is allowing free access to a lot of their content right now to try and keep numbers up during this Coronavirus shutdown, and I thought I'd heard that it would include the upcoming Mania. I'll be investigating when the weekend gets a bit closer, by all means feel free to check for yourselves in the meantime.

But I'm not sure if I'm ready to write it off as worst mania ever just yet. While it will certainly be the most different mania ever, it sounds like with some of the matches (such as Cena vs. Wyatt and AJ vs. Taker), they're going to be more movie/TV style filming techniques that might allow for better matches than would be potential in a live environment. WhatCulture WWE postulated that especially for AJ v. Taker, it could be a real boon because if, for example, Taker is sloppy with a chokeslam, they can simply refilm it rather than having to let a blown spot stand as canon in the match.

Definitely going to be a very different event, but I remain optimistic about it pulling off an entertaining, high quality show, even if it's a magnitude quieter than most.

[The Hurricane]

I heard, though have not yet confirmed, that the Network is allowing free access to a lot of their content right now to try and keep numbers up during this Coronavirus shutdown, and I thought I'd heard that it would include the upcoming Mania. I'll be investigating when the weekend gets a bit closer, by all means feel free to check for yourselves in the meantime.

But I'm not sure if I'm ready to write it off as worst mania ever just yet. While it will certainly be the most different mania ever, it sounds like with some of the matches (such as Cena vs. Wyatt and AJ vs. Taker), they're going to be more movie/TV style filming techniques that might allow for better matches than would be potential in a live environment. WhatCulture WWE postulated that especially for AJ v. Taker, it could be a real boon because if, for example, Taker is sloppy with a chokeslam, they can simply refilm it rather than having to let a blown spot stand as canon in the match.

Definitely going to be a very different event, but I remain optimistic about it pulling off an entertaining, high quality show, even if it's a magnitude quieter than most.

You can access the WWE Network for free right now. I just signed into my account that I deactivated and clicked to watch an old nXt and it started up.