When COVID-19 first struck, almost all major sports teams, leagues and organisations around the globe had to shut down for safety. However, professional wrestling surprisngly chose to adapt and carry on during the testing times, with both WWE and AEW going ahead with weekly television episodes whether they be live or pre-taped.
Both promotions have had to adapt in big ways, such as removing audiences, making changes to taping schedules and introducing testing and new health & safety measures.
It could be argued that AEW have handled the situation much better than WWE have. TBS, TNT, and truTV General Manger Brett Weitz has spoken openly on AEW President Tony Khan’s leadership throughout and how he believes he did a great job navigating his promotion through uncharted waters.
Weitz made the following comments to Variety:
“I think where where the rubber really met the road was during when COVID hit and watching Tony really pivot and grow, And he was able to keep those storylines going and put so many great things together, even through a global pandemic, and that tells you everything you need to know about the DNA of that brand and that guy as a producer.”
When discussing the pandemic and how AEW have adapted throughout, Khan said:
“After the first two weeks of the pandemic, as our roster started to thin out, what happened was we were forced to do shows with less than 30% of our wrestling roster available to us. And I’m actually proud of those shows as I am of anything because they kept us going. I wanted to film shows to keep the storylines moving so that we could build a testing plan, I always believed that, as we’ve shown, a safe testing plan could be implemented. I didn’t know how long it was going to take to design and get all the tests we would need and get it all set up. But it came together in about a month.”
During the pandemic, AEW have been running most of their weekly shows from Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida. In recent weeks the company made the decision to allow a limited number of fans into the building for live shows.
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