Amway Center may host SummerSlam on Aug. 23
Amway Center may be getting its first live event in more than five months.
WWE is negotiating to bring its SummerSlam pay-per-view event to Orlando on Aug. 23, a city spokeswoman said. Though no fans would be allowed inside, it would bring life to an arena that has been dormant since a Billie Eilish concert March 10. Just days later, the pandemic put an end to most public gatherings of any size.
A WWE spokesman declined to comment on the report.
The wrestling promotion, whose last public live event was March 11 with a shoulder-toshoulder crowd of about 400 fans at the company’s training facility in east Orlando, has continued to stage wrestling shows multiple times per week during the pandemic, largely on a closed set. It was declared an “essential business” by Gov. Ron DeSantis in April.
The WWE Performance
Center and Full Sail University in Winter Park have hosted most WWE events during the pandemic, including WrestleMania and weekly TV episodes of “Raw,” “Smackdown” and “NXT.”
Some shows have been live and others recorded.
For a single taping of several shows on June 15, “a select group of friends and family” were allowed to attend as fans, receiving a temperature check before entering the building. In the same week, several WWE broadcasters, trainees and backstage personnel announced they had tested positive for COVID-19.
Since then, the only people allowed at ringside besides show performers have been other trainees and developmental wrestlers, who cheer and boo from behind clear Plexiglas walls, usually wearing masks.