WWE Promotes New Event Amid WrestleMania 36 Coronavirus Cancellation Scare

Many pro wrestling fans are being stricken with paranoia, as Tampa Bay officials will be discussing whether WrestleMania 36 will be canceled on April 6 – as well as WrestleMania week festivities – due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic. So far, the death total in the United States has risen to nearly 40, with more than 1,000 people affected, making it a less than 4% fatality rate.

As of now, the City of Tampa is stating that WrestleMania is still expected to occur, the weekend will proceed as scheduled, and to contact WWE with any further questions. Despite this, there are several rumors that the decision will go forward to cancel the event.

Hello, at this time @WrestleMania is still planned to proceed on schedule. Please contact the @WWE with questions about cancellations. The City is currently monitoring the spread of coronavirus and will work with venues as needed.

— City of Tampa (@CityofTampa) March 11, 2020

Along with hours of daily media coverage, the World Health Organization is now declaring coronavirus a pandemic.

Internist and media personality Dr. Drew Pinsky is outraged at the level of fear that the media is infiltrating in the hearts and minds of people based on this virus. He recently spoke with CBS Local‘s DJ Sixsmith about the coronavirus, and doubled down on his February statement that the media is taking this frenzy way too seriously (h/t Real Clear Politics for the transcription).

“A bad flu season is 80,000 dead, we’ve got about 18,000 dead from influenza this year, we have a hundred from corona. Which should you be worried about influenza or Corona? A hundred versus 18,000? It’s not a trick question. And look, everything that’s going on with the New York cleaning the subways and everyone using Clorox wipes and get your flu shot, which should be the other message, that’s good. That’s a good thing, so I have no problem with the behaviors. What I have a problem with is the panic and the fact that businesses are getting destroyed that people’s lives are being upended, not by the virus, but by the panic. The panic must stop. And the press, they really somehow need to be held accountable because they are hurting people,” said Dr. Drew. He adds, “I think there was it was a concerted effort by the press to capture your eyes and in doing so they did it by inducing panic.”

WWE is still moving forward with promoting their WrestleMania weekend festivities.

Celebrate the career of @DaveBautista on Friday, April 3 at @floridaaquarium! All proceeds to benefit local charities.

Get your tickets at: https://t.co/k8RPeLsnYJ pic.twitter.com/KXnZHxlWtU

— WWE WrestleMania (@WrestleMania) March 11, 2020

In fact, the WWE WrestleMania Twitter page just recently promoted the “Bullard 2020 Bash” event, which will be a VIP party celebrating WWE Hall of Famer Batista. The event is scheduled for Friday, April 3 at 7:30pm at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa. The event will also include a Friday Night SmackDown watch party, which indicates the show is also planning to go on as scheduled.

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.