Plain and simply, World Wrestling Entertainment’s WrestleMania 36 should be postponed. March Madness, MLB’s Opening Day and the final games of the NBA season to name a few have been put on hold or canceled. Unfortunately, Vince McMahon is following the classic showman line of “the show must go on”, but at what cost?

At first WWE took a wait and see approach with the “granddaddy of them all” as WrestleMania is known. It was supposed to take place on Sunday, April 5th at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. RAW and SmackDown have already been produced at the NXT Performance Center in an empty arena. The pressure was mounting on WWE to pull the plug on WrestleMania by city officials.

About two weeks ago they informed the world that WrestleMania 36 was going to take place in a crowd less Performance Center in a two-night television event. Also in even better news it was also announced that it would be hosted by Rob Gronkowski.

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Although I commend WWE for attempting to put on the “the showcase of the immortals”, I fear that this could easily go down as the worst WrestleMania in History. The first and most obvious reason is the missing WWE Universe as they like to call their fans. WrestleMania throughout the years has been made up of special moments that are cemented in wrestling history. These moments are always accompanied by the emotional outbursts of the thousands and thousands in attendance. You only need to see the last few weeks of RAW and SmackDown to see how much it’s missing as part of the show.

In case you need a specific example, WWE RAW recently celebrated 3/16 with an appearance by the Texas Rattlesnake, Stone Cold Steve Austin. Here are two clips of Stone Cold’s appearances one with the crowd a few years back and the other from an empty Performance Center.

It doesn’t have the same ring to it does it?

Another problem is that our situation is changing day by day and it’s something that has brutally affected the matches for WrestleMania 36. With Mania already been taped, we know that several key wrestlers had to step away for various reasons. Roman Reigns for example, did not feel comfortable working as his history battle leukemia makes him a high risk for the virus. This of course affects the highly anticipated Reigns/Goldberg WWE Universal title match, which can no longer happen.

Also rumored to be pulling out of the show according to Bleacher Report are The Miz, Andrade and Dana Brooke. Missing these performers affects three title matches at the last minute. With WrestleMania still happening, WWE had to scramble and put in last-minute replacements. Why is this such a big deal?

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It’s all about the story. Let’s take for example last year’s WrestleMania 35. Fans were invested in Becky Lynch’s rise to the top because it’s a narrative that we had followed for such a long time. The payoff finally came at WrestleMania where she won the main event against Rhonda Rousey and Charlotte Flair. Or what about Kofi Kingston? He was road blocked at every opportunity until finally, he was able to raise the WWE title at WrestleMania against Daniel Bryan.

With so many matches being shuffled around and put together at the last minute, there is a lot of the card that is going to be lacking importance. With no time invested in many of these feuds, who cares about the outcomes? Not to mention that there won’t be anyone to celebrate the performer’s WrestleMania accomplishments. Is an empty area really where you want to showcase Edge, Goldberg, John Cena, and The Undertaker? It’s just not worth it.

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As a wrestling fan will I still be watching this year’s WrestleMania 36? Of course I am, even though I believe it will be a trainwreck. I commend the WWE superstars for still doing their best to give WWE fans something fresh to watch. A great idea could have been to change the name to the classic WWF PPV, WWF In Your House (let’s be honest it’s a perfect fit, everyone is home). Then in the summer when we all get our freedom back, we could celebrate with WrestleMania 36.

Do you think it’s a good move for WWE to move forward with WrestleMania 36? Or should they have waited to include their full card and crowd? Let us know in the comment section below!

WWE’s WrestleMania 36 takes place on Saturday and Sunday, April 4th and 5th. It can be seen via the WWE Network.

Source: Bleacher Report