Wrestlemania is the biggest event in professional wrestling, sort of like the sport’s version of the World Cup or the American Super Bowl. It’s been held for 35 years in front of a live audience without fail, but it looks like 2020 will mark a change.

The WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) announced earlier today that the upcoming Wrestlemania 36 will be streamed online without a live audience or any spectators on-site at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida on 5 April 2020.

It was previously slated to take place Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. In a statement to Fox News, the WWE said:

“In coordination with local partners and government officials, WrestleMania and all related events in Tampa Bay will not take place.

However, WrestleMania will still stream live on Sunday, April 5 at 7 pm ET on WWE Network and be available on pay-per-view.

Only essential personnel will be on the closed set at WWE’s training facility in Orlando, Florida to produce WrestleMania.”

As a non-fan, you might think that Wrestlemania events are nothing much but the fact is that more than 82,000 fans from all 50 states in the US and over 60 different countries attended WrestleMania 35 in 2019.

I was a fan of the WWE when I was a little kid, loving the drama that goes on backstage. I even used to sincerely believe that the Undertaker was Kane’s brother and burnt their house down (killing their family), but Kane survived and that’s why he wore that mask and is now on a quest of vengeance.

That was a time before the Internet was as readily available as it is now, and I was an impressionable kid. Still, the backstage drama and dramatic backstories were part of why I liked the WWE back then. Wrestlemania is just when everything is cranked up to 11.

I’m no longer a fan, but I understand why people still watch WWE. Who cares if it’s not ‘real’? It was to me when I was a kid, and it still is to many people around the world. That’s why Wrestlemania 36 is still going on.