UPDATE: The Florida Governor’s office has released the official memo that resulted in WWE being classified as an “essential business”. You can read the memo at this link.
The classification is due to a memo State Coordinator Jared Moskowitz released on April 9th, which just happened to be one day before last week’s live WWE SmackDown TV tapings. It’s interesting timing to say the least. The memo states,
“Employees at a professional sports and media production with a national audience — including any athletes, entertainers, production team, executive team, media team and any others necessary to facilitate including services supporting such production — only if the location is closed to the general public.”
ORIGINAL: Believe it or not, WWE has been deemed an “essential business” in the state of Florida. As noted, Florida has a stay-at-home order in place until at least the end of the month.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings was asked about WWE being able to continue running live events at today’s press conference. He shifted the blame to the Florida Governor’s office instead, saying,
“I think initially there was — a review that was done and they were not initially deemed an an essential business. With some conversation with the governor’s office regarding the governor’s order, they were deemed an essential business. And so therefore, they were allowed to remain open.”
When he was asked about the WWE employee who tested positive for COVID-19, Demings said, “In terms of the specifics associated with the wrestler or personality who tested positive, I don’t know any of the details of that obviously, because of HIPPA laws, et cetera. I don’t know that. But you know, that’s like a little family, a small family of professional athletes that wrestle. And if one of my family members tested positive in my house, that would be concerning to me. We would have to make provisions in my house to make sure that the rest of us not get infected. And so I would assume that from a business perspective, the WWE is doing that type of analysis of its own family.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Something seems extremely fishy here …. submit your thoughts in the comments section below!
Footage of @OCFLMayor's statement on WWE running live TV tapings within the county right now: pic.twitter.com/6HVJr2TxcO
— Harry (@harryaaron) April 13, 2020
