UPDATE x 2: Earlier today, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, and Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont all agreed to place travel restrictions on people flying in from states that have high current COVID-19 outbreaks. They will need to be quarantined for at least two weeks before they are allowed to travel. Also, police will be pulling over cars with out of state license plates.
Of course, both WWE and AEW are currently taping their TV in Florida. As reported earlier, Florida cases for the coronavirus shot up today to 5,500 people, shattering the previous one-day record of cases, and it’s about triple the level it was two weeks ago. The state is a “hotbed” right now. This would mean that when this goes into effect tomorrow, anyone who fly’s from Florida into those three states would have to be quarantined for 14 days after their arrival. Many WWE and AEW talents live in the Northeast and WWE has its entire executive branch living in those three states. Triple H, Vince McMahon, and others all live in Connecticut.
UPDATE: We reported several weeks ago here on eWn that numerous WWE talents expressed concern about the lack of communication from WWE as it pertained to the COVID-19 pandemic and the testing being done. For quite some time, WWE had only been doing temperature checks. That changed last week when they finally began doing nose swab tests instead. But with those tests, WWE decided to allow “family and friends” of the WWE talent and staff into the arena. As you’d expect, that didn’t go over well at all. For what it’s worth, AEW has been doing the actual COVID-19 tests (nose swabs) for months now.
With the reports today, many talent are extremely angry as you’d expect. Florida is currently a hotspot for COVID-19 and many of the WWE Superstars & staff could bring the COVID-19 virus home with them to their family members, including children. According to the Associated Press, Florida cases for the coronavirus shot up today to 5,500 people, shattering the previous one-day record of cases, and it’s about triple the level it was two weeks ago.
Also, 132 Orlando Airport employees have tested positive for COVID-10. Many WWE employees and wrestlers use the Orlando airport to fly in and out if they don’t live in the state.
As of now, WWE is scheduled to hold their TV tapings on Friday and Saturday but we’ll have to wait and see if that changes.
WWE has not yet responded to multiple requests for comment.
ORIGINAL:As we reported earlier today here on eWn, several WWE talents have tested positive for COVID-19. The talent includes in-ring Superstars, production staff, and others.
WWE began emailing talents and staff on Monday and advised them that there had been a new COVID-19 positive test result. They encouraged their talent to continue getting tested for COVID-19. The talents were not all contacted at the same time. Following the original email, multiple positive tests have come out following a new round of tests.
According to Pwinsider.com, one source believes the number of positive tests is in the “two dozen range”. Those numbers are not confirmed as of this writing but we know that numerous WWE employees have tested positive this week.
As far as the TV tapings on Friday and Saturday are concerned, they are said to be up in the air at this point. Anyone working the tapings, if they go through with them, will be required to take a nose swab. Also, Friday’s SmackDown will likely need to be re-written. WWE will also not be allowing anymore “friends and family” at their TV tapings.
Stay tuned for more on this developing story …..
