EXCLUSIVE: WrestleMania 36 Could Be Having Some Major Format Changes

As reported, WWE has officially made a decision regarding the fate of WrestleMania. The show will not be held inside the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. Instead, it will be at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. As of this writing, an announcement has not been made on the fate of NXT, Raw, SmackDown, and the WWE Hall of Fame, but it will be reported as the information comes in.

After speaking with a source close to WWE, the show could be having some major format changes.

The source stated that he does not expect to show to go by the normal seven-hour format, with two hours of the pre-show and five hours of the main card. In addition, he also stated many of the undercard matches could be snubbed from the card, in order to reduce the empty arena show. As shown by the past SmackDown and the “3:16 day” episode of Raw, both the Elimination Chamber and Royal Rumble matches were shown respectively to fill in network time. Since they control the WWE Network programming, WWE would have the liberty of changing the format as they wish.

WWE is still doing their best to hype up the event, despite fans being unable to see it live.

SPEAR vs. SPEAR. It's happening.#WrestleMania @WWERomanReigns @Goldberg pic.twitter.com/I9E5SEkseR

— WWE WrestleMania (@WrestleMania) March 17, 2020

READ MORE: BREAKING: WrestleMania 36 WILL NOT Take Place in Tampa Bay

Across the board, wrestlers are not being informed of these changes beforehand. I spoke to a current top WWE star earlier this week, and he stated, “they don’t tell us anything.” Seth Rollins confirmed this with a recent Instagram video, stating he is also out of the loop when it comes to being informed about any pivotal changes made by the WWE brass.

This is certainly a very unique time not only in the state of professional wrestling, but in the entire world. Although Vince McMahon kept fighting for the event to resume as scheduled, this weekend’s press conferences with President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, et al., has certainly created stricter safeguards, leaving Vince with no other choice but to cancel the original plans for the biggest pro wrestling event of the year.

Follow Chris Featherstone on Twitter @chrisprolific, and the Pancakes and Powerslams Show @cravewrestling. Subscribe to the Pancakes and Powerslams Show via the Crave Wrestling Facebook page.