Wrestling Roundup: March 17, 2020

The Wrestling Roundup is here to bring you all the news and rumors you need to know in one place.

Wrestlemania 36 Moves To Performance Center

The biggest event of the wrestling calendar has finally made adjustments due to COVID-19. WWE announced on their social media accounts that this year’s Wrestlemania will move to the Performance Center and only have essential personnel in attendance. This means that for the first time ever, Wrestlemania will go on without fans.

WrestleMania Update:
https://t.co/DLbgSVYWZM

— WWE (@WWE) March 16, 2020

While it is a huge change, it has been done for the safety of the fans. It was inevitable that Wrestlemania would change, but having it run without fans is an unexpected move. This will be a Wrestlemania talked about for years to come, and how the match card is affected is still up in the air.

NXT TakeOver & WWE Hall of Fame Not Taking Place

WWE also commented on their previously scheduled NXT TakeOver:Tampa & WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony. According to WWE (h/t WrestlingInc) these events will now not be taking place. These represent just the latest changes to the wrestling calendar due to COVID-19.

This means we’ll have no in-person celebration to celebrate the induction of Japanese legend Jyushin Thunder Liger. His induction into the WWE Hall of Fame was announced early on Monday morning.

BREAKING: @Liger_NJPW is the latest inductee in the @WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2020, as first reported by Tokyo Sports! #WWEHOF https://t.co/GuFzfPJbFU pic.twitter.com/HmNtPwsRWY

— WWE (@WWE) March 16, 2020

WWE Raw Recap

With Wrestlemania now guaranteed to still be in just under three weeks, the build to matches on the show of shows is on. How would WWE produce Raw from an empty Performance Center? Here’s a breakdown of the action from Monday night:

Undertaker versus A.J. Styles is now official. Both men showed up to sign the contract, but only Undertaker made it to the ring (in record time in comparison to normal). Styles instead sent Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows to drop off the contract and that went as well for them as you would expect.

CONTRACT SIGNED.#Undertaker awaits @AJStylesOrg at #WrestleMania!#RAW pic.twitter.com/TsLcwgSGFO

— WWE (@WWE) March 17, 2020

If you had shown me this gif two weeks ago, I would have been so unbelievably confused.

https://twitter.com/tde_wrestling/status/1239733211804176384

Edge versus Randy Orton is officially a Last Man Standing match at Wrestlemania. Even without a crowd to play to, Edge sold the hell out of this matchup. This is one of the feuds that really would have been great for fans to see live to add to the moment. Sadly, they and all others won’t get that chance this year.

https://twitter.com/Mckenzieas93/status/1239707693922861061

A third Wrestlemania match was made official: Kevin Owens will battle Seth Rollins at Performance Center Wrestlemania. These two have been battling for a while now, so a blow-off at Wrestlemania was always in the cards. Another great promo as well from Kevin Owens.

He's made his decision.@FightOwensFight wants to face @WWERollins where his @WWE career got started… in the @WWEPC at #WrestleMania! #Raw pic.twitter.com/onXhDO4Hox

— WWE (@WWE) March 17, 2020

Stone Cold Steve Austin appeared for 3:16 day. He hit a stunner on Byron Saxton and drank a lot of beers. It was a nice little thing for us during a weird time.

Happy #316Day!@steveaustinBSR invited @ByronSaxton into the ring for a celebration on #RAW…as well as a STUNNER! pic.twitter.com/ioiv6d36BP

— WWE (@WWE) March 17, 2020

Rey Mysterio defeated Andrade while Asuka was on commentary. It was the only real match on the show, since a large chunk of the show was a replay of the Men’s Royal Rumble match. The best part of the match was undoubtedly Asuka’s commentary, and now folks want her and Triple H to be the Wrestlemania commentary duo.

One for the Road:

CM Punk has some good commentary, as always.

Well that’s one way to make sure Roman finally gets not booed and nobody chants for meeeeeeee.

— player/coach (@CMPunk) March 16, 2020