How Kevin Owens Changed WWE’s Coronavirus Policy

He has some pull. The Coronavirus has changed the way the wrestling world works and there is a good reason to believe that we won’t be seeing things back to normal for a long time to come. WWE is doing what they can to keep things moving as close to usual as possible, though it hasn’t been easy. However, one wrestler insisted upon a change and it wound up taking place.

One of the bigger issues for WWE has been having an audience in place at their television shows. The problem was slightly addressed by having members of the NXT roster standing around the building and acting as a makeshift audience. For the first several weeks that they were there though, they did not wear any face coverings of any kind, despite widespread recommendations to do so. One high level wrestler was not pleased and has done something about it.

The French wrestling podcast Les Anti-Pods de la Lutte (with translation by Post Wrestling) reported that Kevin Owens returned to a WWE television taping and threatened to walk out over the lack of masks and social distancing. Vince McMahon asked what Owens wanted done and Owens agreed to a system involving a $500 fine for not wearing a mask on the first offense and a $1000 fine on the second offense. As a result, Owens agreed to stay. Owens also confirmed that the fine system was due to his influence in an interview with Sports Illustrated.

WWE will want Owens around. Check out what he can do when he’s there:

Opinion: That’s a very good thing as it’s not like wearing a mask is a big deal in the first place. If it is something that can help stop the spread of the virus around a small, confined area like the Performance Center then so be it. What difference does it possibly make for WWE to have their developmental wrestlers seen in masks behind the ring? If that’s going to turn your fans off, then you have bigger problems than you realize.

Do you like the fine system? Do you care if the wrestlers are wearing masks outside the ring? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his- Amazon author page with 30 wrestling books. Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for “GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES” to sign up. Thank you for reading!