TAMPA, Fla. _ While WrestleMania 36 will go on without fans April 5 at a closed-set location in Orlando, the independent wrestling community slated to hold shows throughout Tampa _ the original host site _ has been dealt a devastating financial blow.
"It's going to be a start all-over-again scenario," said Brett Lauderdale, owner of Game Changer Wrestling. "This is going to have the effect of five years of work being wiped away."
Lauderdale was slated to hold an event called The Collective in the three days leading up to WrestleMania. It included hosting 12 live wrestling shows, stage shows, podcasts tapings and parties _ to be held at The Cuban Club in Ybor City. He had been organizing it for more than a year and had already put more than $100,000 into renting out the venue, contracts with staff and wrestlers, flights and equipment.
Last week, as the spread of the coronavirus prompted professional sports leagues to postpone their seasons, Lauderdale and other independent organizers waited anxiously for the state or city to ban gatherings so they would be able to recoup their money. While the state issued guidelines, they fell short of forcing the shutdown of events.
So when the WWE announced Monday it was closing all public events in Tampa and moving its pay-per-view event across the state, it left independents on the bad side of a lot of contracts.
The non-WWE schedule is year-long, and promoters count on revenue from one event to finance the next. Running their events within the backdrop of WrestleMania is the most lucrative opportunity for indie organizers.
"The revenues and profits are counted on for everything we do; it's a springboard for the rest of our year," Lauderdale said. "In addition to hoping I can get a refund, I have six figures in refunds that have to go out to fans. I know it will change my business dramatically and change my life dramatically. And it would change the lives of a lot of the people who work with me and for me."
The Cuban Club in Ybor was set to host the Collective independent wrestling event next month.
Michael Bochicchio, owner of HighSpots.com, has run what is now called WrestleCon for the past seven years. Just a few weeks ago, he was anticipating thousands of fans flocking to Steinbrenner Field for a roster of 200 guests throughout wrestling, highlighted by Mike Tyson (though known as a boxing champ, Tyson leveled Shawn Michaels in WrestleMania 14 to give Stone Cold Steve Austin the WWE title), Chris Jericho, Kevin Nash and more. His event also included several live shows at The Ritz in Ybor.
Bochicchio had already spent $250,000 in down payments to hold the event, not including $141,202 that Marriott said he owed for a room block that will go unfulfilled because of cancellations. Bochicchio tried to enact a force majeure clause, which allows someone to get out of a contract due to forces outside of his control, to get his money back from Marriott. It didn't work initially.
Then Jericho tweeted early Tuesday: "Hey @wrestlecon, no court in the world would force u to pay this bill AND if we go into city wide lockdowns, they won't have a leg to stand on anyway. In the meantime shame on u @Marriott for taking this stance in such an uncertain time! I have tons of fans who feel the same way."
That fueled a social media storm in the wrestling community, and later in the day, Bochicchio said Marriott honored his claim. Steinbrenner Field will also refund his deposit, but needs time to do so.
Lauderdale's biggest event of the entire year, Joey Janela's Spring Break, was to be held at the Cuban Club. He was expecting 3,000 people. "Just losing that event along is devastating, brutal," he said.
Janela, a member of the popular All Elite Wrestling circuit, tweeted Monday night that this is "nearly an independent wrestling death blow. ... The money gone is astronomical.
"We will not allow the casket to shut and come back stronger than ever!"
To be clear, none of these promoters wanted to run his event during a pandemic. They only had hoped that the state or city did more to force cancellations so it would be easier to get their money back. The best-case scenario for Lauderdale was if WWE rescheduled WrestleMania in Tampa and hopefully the Cuban Club would be available for all three days, though he realized that was unlikely.
"Going back several weeks now, I never once believed this event was going to happen as scheduled," Bochicchio said. "I can't imagine that anybody would want to put 75,000 people at risk in a stadium. So just everybody (had been) waiting for what's next and who is going to flinch first."
Bochicchio said he will will refund all ticket purchases. He is already working toward next year's event for WrestleMania in Los Angeles and understands how important that is to keeping his base loyal.
Lauderdale tweeted out that The Collective event is postponed until a later date. Without WrestleMania as an anchor, holding it in Tampa may not be viable. He is trying to get some of his deposits back, but his equipment rental company is among those holding firm to the original contracts.
He is offering refunds to ticket holders who want them, but also promising that those who keep their tickets will get added special benefits.
"We are not asking to keep your money for nothing," the tweet said. "We are asking you to invest in the future of independent wrestling."
Still, the pandemic will have the final say. The big-ticket WWE events bring fans into host cities, and connecting to those events is the lifeblood of the indie circuit.
And with WWE seemingly committed to holding its pay-per-view events on closed sets absent of fans _ and they could continue to do so for months _ what happened in Tampa for WrestleMania could happen in Baltimore, where the WWE's Money in the Bank event is slated for May 10. After that, pay-per-view events are scheduled for San Jose and Boston over the summer.
