Top 10 Stories Of 2020: COVID-19 Outbreaks

Throughout December, Neal Wagner will count down the top 10 stories of 2020 as voted on by The Wrestling Estate staff. Here is No. 5: COVID-19 outbreaks in WWE and AEW.

While many businesses shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, WWE and AEW elected to keep going with their regularly scheduled programming. The companies would have to stop their usual touring schedules and relocate to closed set locations: WWE relocated to the WWE Performance Center, then later to the Amway Center known as “The Thunderdome” while AEW relocated to Daily’s Place in Jacksonville. Sadly, it was only a matter of time before COVID-19 outbreaks would happen in both WWE and AEW.

In April, WWE released a statement that mentioned an employee, not an on-air wrestling talent, had been exposed after production had been completed from the previous tapings. A name was not released, but Kayla Braxton announced that she had tested positive twice later in the month of June.

NXT would have an outbreak in June. It was believed that while all shows at the time were being filmed in the Performance Center, one NXT trainee showed up not feeling well, got tested and then found out they were positive. On social media, Adam Pearce, Jamie Noble and Renee Young all posted statements saying that they tested positive, too.

This all came after AEW owner Tony Khan released a statement just hours before a live episode of Dynamite where he would announce that both QT Marshall and Jon Moxley would have to miss their scheduled appearances that evening. Khan mentioned that the AEW World Champion had been in contact with someone who had tested positive and by his own choice, Moxley elected not to come to the taping. As a result of Moxley sitting out, his scheduled world title defense against Brian Cage was postponed one week. At the time of this outbreak, Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez both claimed to have sources that told them up to 40 people had tested positive and they had names to back it up.

In September, AEW would make an announcement that Lance Archer, who at the time was involved in the world title storyline with Moxley, tested positive. Archer had made the announcement himself earlier in the day revealing that he had gone home from tapings weeks beforehand and came into contact with a family friend who later tested positive. Archer pulled himself from the show and didn’t travel to Jacksonville for Dynamite.

Meltzer reported that a coach at the Performance Center tested positive around October. Due to their duties and being in contact with talent, multiple off-screen trainees had to quarantine for two weeks as a safety precaution. NXT’s Halloween Havoc was not in jeopardy, but a major storyline was scrapped. A mystery person in a Scream mask would assist Johnny Gargano in regaining the NXT North American Championship, but would fail to help his wife Candice LaRae win the NXT Women’s Title. While the angle still happened, the mask never came off so someone else has taken over the costume until Indi Hartwell is able to be revealed.

Could all of these COVID-19 outbreaks have been prevented? Yes. Will there be another one before everything is all said and done? I hope not. Will there still be a wrestling business even if both companies stop running until COVID-19 is over with? I think we all know the answer to that.