The Orange County Sheriff’s Office issued the following statement to WrestleZone regarding reports that they were called to the WWE Performance Center on multiple occasions in the past several weeks.
WrestleZone initially inquired about the nature of the complaints and was told this was the only information available. It was noted that despite being called and issuing an order for WWE to shut down tapings, no written incident reports were filed and it was not revealed who called in the complaints.
There are no incident reports written from that address by OCSO deputies in March or April, but we know that our deputies responded to that location several times in the last few weeks. Each time, prior to the additions being made to the Executive Order, either the business was closed or deputies advised the business that they were not in compliance with the Executive Order and that they would have to close. On April 11 and 13, there were complaints (we have no information about who the complaints were from) that the business was filming during the pandemic. But by that time, an April 9 memo from the Florida Division of Emergency Management (attached) had already deemed those types of businesses “essential.”
WWE continued to run television tapings at their facilities in Orlando, with many speculating on how they were able to continue to tape shows despite the state’s stay at home ordinance. It was later revealed that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis amended an ordinance and declared WWE as an “essential business”, citing their impact on the local economy.
We previously reported that WWE’s status was updated in the Executive Order on April 9, and Vince McMahon reportedly made the decision to resume running live events without crowds on Friday. During a press conference yesterday, DeSantis was asked about allowing WWE to continue to operate out of Orlando and what led to his office’s decision. He said that the lack of an audience and limited interactions—as well as a lack of content—was reason enough to deem them essential and they were going on a case-by-case basis.
“I think people are starved for content. We’ve never had a period like this in modern American history where there’s no content.”
Read More: Vince McMahon Part Of Large Group That Will Advise President Trump On How To Restart Economy
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis addresses WWE being labeled as an “essential business” during today's COVID-19 update press conference: pic.twitter.com/Nv6n3JK0TO
— WrestleZone (@WRESTLEZONEcom) April 14, 2020
