WWE Wrestlers Testing Positive Should Surprise No One

The WWE was deemed by Florida to be an essential business back in April, you know, like a grocery store or a hospital would be. And, while I'm not here to debate the necessity of having grown men in spandex launch themselves from ropes to dropkick each other, I will say that it was a move that carried significant risk during a pandemic. The WWE hoped to mitigate those risks by holding audience-less matches that looked like this:

Yikes. But the truly yikes-ful thing is that now, two months later, multiple people, including in-ring talent, have tested positive for COVID.

It's as predictable an occurrence as Brock Lesner lazily tossing his opponent for three minutes and calling it a match, yet the question remains as to what in the hell does the WWE do now? They can't in good faith allow business to continue as usual with an undisclosed amount of employees testing positive with the virus. Even if everyone involved is completely asymptomatic, that still doesn't account for any potential family members or other "essential" workers that they could come into contact with. Of course, the operative phrase here is "in good faith," and we know that Vince McMahon's traded in his remaining stores of good faith when he wished upon a monkey's paw for his extra deep chin dimple.

U.S. Air ForceSomewhere inside that thing is a good person.

The WWE had started bringing in an increasing amount of audience members to the stands, including friends, family, and other wrestlers.

However, publications are reporting that will no longer be the case. But here's a bold prediction that isn't so bold: This won't be enough. How do you convince wrestlers like Roman Reigns, who initially sat out due to prior health complications, that it will be safe to come back to again? How do you convince those within your organization that you have a handle of the situation when at your testing sights reports came out saying, "There was a huge gathering this morning at the WWE Performance Center for testing, which was described to us by several as disorganized at the onset of the process."

This doesn't portend well for the future of any sports in 2020, but then again, many of the major sports leagues weren't continuing to operate from the onset of the pandemic. Maybe that'll be enough to delude ourselves into believing Baseball or Football will come back sometime this year, but if the WWE keeps mismanaging itself in this way, then probably not.

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Top Image: WWE