3) “Without the benefit of hindsight, do you think you will judge this WrestleMania harsher or go easier on it, considering the circumstances? Is this doomed to be the first Mania ever, or will you give it lots of leeway?”
MANGO: I’ll be a mixture. There’s no way I’ll be able to look at this and compare it to any other event fairly. I know that. I have to give them the benefit of the doubt that if there was a big set and a roaring crowd, it would upgrade this. But some of the matches are still lackluster and the builds were bad. This pandemic doesn’t excuse WWE’s lack of poor creativity prior to this situation. That is where I’ll rip on them. Not on the arena. It’ll be easier to make a case that this is better than expected, but it’s also hard to imagine it’s going to be great.
PUGLIESEE: Fans are going to tear it apart. They will lament the lack of entrances, the lack of pomp and circumstance. I try to go into all PPV’s thinking I’m going to enjoy this and usually do.
BALAZ: See, I’m a fan of Japanese puroresu, and those crowds are notoriously quiet/polite and smaller companies do sometimes have sparse turnouts. So it’s not going to effect my perception of the product as long as commentary doesn’t dwell on it and the matches are still enjoyable. If we get a plodding Corbin match, or 26 headlocks…yeah then that’s going to make people rethink if Mania 9 is the worst, or this.
MITCHELL: I don’t think I’ll be harsher or easier on Mania. I’ve said in my own articles that (and no offense to anyone who has ever been in a televised live audience) live audiences don’t actually matter to what I’m paying attention to: the action. If Taker VS Styles, Becky VS Shayna, etc, etc are all really good matches with plenty of action and story, I’m going to like them no matter what. After all, I’ve been 205 Live since day one and they have had some DEAD crowds.
ABSLER: I think I will judge less harshly because the energy from the live audience won’t be there. However, I will still be judging given that this is Wrestlemania, and these guys are professionals. I believe crowd or not, they need to be able to deliver a Wrestlemania caliber show.
EWING: I would judge WrestleMania 36 as I would any other past Mania. Granted it’s going to be weird without a crowd, but you have to take it all in and judge the performances. You can still identity whether a match is good or it sucks by the performance of the WWE Superstars. I feel as long as they treat this show with the same dignity and pride as if they were wrestling in front 70,000+ fans, then I feel this will be a show that can be critiqued like any other in the past.
SCAFIDE: I want WrestleMania to be amazing this year. It’s a shame that there is a dedicated WrestleMania planning team that starts the day after the prior Mania to plan everything and now they have to redesign an entire show. But I’m sticking to my belief that it should have been postponed. I will judge harsher than in prior years just because it was a decision they could have avoided by postponing it and they decided to keep it going instead. It better be the best show in years, unfortunately, it’ll be the worst one yet.
CASSADA: As I said earlier, I would’ve preferred if Wrestlemania is postponed. But given the circumstances, I’m not going to be too critical of the show. The company and the wrestlers are putting in a lot of work to continue with the show and entertain fans during this difficult time.
HIRSCH: I will probably go easier on it given the circumstances.
