The March 13 edition of SmackDown on FOX was truly unprecedented as it was the first ever episode of Raw or SmackDown to be held at the WWE Performance Center (PC). NXT additionally aired live from the PC this week. This was also the first WWE event to ever be held with zero fans in attendance. It reminded me of the time when Mick Foley and The Rock had a WWE Championship match in an empty arena on Super Bowl Sunday in 1999 (I believe it was Super Bowl XXXIII). I don’t remember who was playing, because you have to remember I was only two years old.
All that can be said is that WWE did the best they could do given the circumstances that are currently going on in the United States with Covid-19. Fortunately, the best they could do was pretty damn good because I guarantee it took an awful lot of last-minute planning on Triple H’s part.
I would fully assume that WWE will be having every event (SmackDown, Raw, and NXT alike) in this setting at the PC for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, there is also a good chance WrestleMania will be postponed by at least a month given the conditions. It’s very good, however, that WWE’s most experienced broadcaster in Michael Cole was the first one of WWE’s broadcasters to experience this, because he is so trusted by WWE officials.
This was probably not a huge deal for experienced superstars like Jeff Hardy, John Cena, Daniel Bryan, or Roman Reigns. Fortunately, even the younger superstars did not seem to be at a loss for words or what to do because of the different environment, and that is a very good thing. They have been trained extremely well to do what they do no matter the environment.
Triple H did a fantastic job on commentary, and Mojo Rawley hyping up Michael Cole was the funniest thing I’ve seen on SmackDown in months. This will not be the type of environment Rob Gronkowski can expect to experience regularly, but he will likely most likely debut on SmackDown in this environment with an empty arena.